Colombia III – Eje Cafetero and the way south

After leaving Australia, Sal pretty much went cold turkey on coffee and I think I could count the drinking occasions of the past 6 months on my hands. So we were really excited to visit the Eje Cafetero (coffee growing region) of Colombia. Getting there meant another 8 hours on buses going over switchback mountain passes full of traffic jams because trucks get stuck just trying to go around the turns. We’re also starting to see a trend in bus driver movie tastes, we’ve seen far more violent action movies with aging Sylvester Stalone and Arnold Schwarznegger than I care to remember, however, at last we arrived in Salento.

Calle Real - Salento

After many emails over the previous weeks, we also finally caught up with Mike & Ana who had been trailing us for a couple of months since we parted ways in Guatemala. So back in a party of four, we set off to learn about how they grow Colombia’s pride export product with a tour of a local coffee finca run by the owner himself, Don Elías.

Bean peeling machine

Freshly picked bean (the red one) and the peeled beans

Beans being dried in the sun

Shelling the dried beans

The roasting process

Grinding

Drink coffee, do more stupid things faster

Then as the rain set in for the afternoon, we were introduced to one of Colombia’s national sports, Tejo and another bar game, Sapo. Tejo, described to us simply as a mix of beer and gunpowder, is an awesome game where a metal ring is placed on a clay slope with a piece of gun powder placed on top. The players then toss a heavy puck with the aim to land it inside the ring to win, or on the ring to explode the gun powder. A recipe for hours of fun!

Hole in one...but still no explosion :(

Success at last... it took us long enough!

Playing Sapo...you have to toss coin-like tokens aiming for the toads mouth. Points are awarded depending on the holes you hit.

While Sal was out sick for a day, Mike, Ana and I went to the main plaza where the famous “Willies” were waiting to take us to the famous Valle del Cócora. The Willy is an iconic 4WD quite popular in rural and touristy areas, where they load their backs with coffee sacks until they perform an actual wheelie. Whether the name comes from this stunt remains a mystery.

Just when we were about to jump on one of them, another familiar face showed up. It was Adrián, who we had met around 5 months ago in the same place in Guatemala that we met Mike and Ana, such an amazing coincidence!

A few kilometers down from Salento, you arrive to the Parque Nacional Natural de Los Nevados, where Valle del Cócora is located. The park is huge and home to some of the highest peaks in Colombia, but the main reason for the visit were the wax palms.

These palm trees are huuuge, the tallest palm trees in the world, reaching up to 75 meters. The wax obtained from them is used for soap and candles, but those in the valley are strictly protected as they are part of the natural patrimony.

The 5hr hike didn’t look promising when the dark clouds released and it started to pour down. We all envied Sal, who had stayed in the hostel watching movies and drinking hot agua de panela! However, once we reached the highest point of the hike and the mist embraced the wax palms, our faces lit up. Also, it’s quite uncommon to have blue skies in the valley, so all was part of the experience. Gumboots saved the day and we really enjoyed the hot showers when we arrived back home!

Continuing south towards the Ecuadorian border we made two overnight stops to break the long bus journeys. In the first, Popayán, we only had time to visit the center of this nice white colonial town, with an interesting old bridge and great local snacks to try.

Puente del humilladeros

Tasty local snacks: salpicón, empanadas de pipian

The second stop, Ipiales, is the home of the Santuario Las Lajas, a crazy gothic basilica church a few kilometers from town, which looks like it could be in the middle of Europe. Apparently the inspiration for the church came in 1754, from a deaf mute girl who was sheltering from a storm between the rocks in the canyon. Suddenly, she cried to her mum that “La Mestiza” was calling her while pointing at a lightning illuminated aparition of the virgin mary on the rock face. Anyway, now the walls surrounding the church are covered with plaques giving thanks for local miracles.

Memorial plaques in thanks for miracles line the walls of the stairs to the Sanctuary

We spent a full month in Colombia and we still left out plenty of highlights for our next visit! It’s been one of our favourite countries so far and we can only recommend to visit its great landscapes and charming people. Don’t let the media scare you off!

Next up we cross into Ecuador and move into the southern hemisphere!

Colombia II – Bogotá and surroundings

Welcome to our second post about Colombia, officially, the happiest country in the world! …but also the biggest we have visited so far (more than Portugal, Spain and France put together!). This meant looong distances and overnight buses, the first of which took us to Barichara, “el pueblecito más lindo de Colombia” according to everyone.

According to us, one of the most alcoholic too, as they ferment almost everything: rice (millo), corn (chicha) – both have an interesting beer taste, creamy texture – and where they also mix goat’s milk with aguardiente (sabajón). Ok, other than sampling alcoholic drinks we also fell in love with the relaxed atmosphere, beautiful streets and hiked El Camino Real, a stone path connecting Barichara with Guane with magnificient views of the Valle del Río Juárez.

Valle del Río Juárez

To make Sabajón you’ll need: goat’s milk, sugar, brandy, eggs and cinnamon

Barichara is also very famous for its “hormigas culonas” (yes, fat-bottomed ants). They love them so much that they have dedicated sculptures and poems around the town. You can also buy them or, lucky us, sample them in the hostel where we stayed.

They sell nicely toasted fat-bottomed ants :)

Mmmmm… crunchy!

From a cosy town we moved to a vibrant city, Bogotá, where Nico and Diana Carolina were waiting for us (thanks guys & María Eugenia again!). With over 7 million people, Bogotá is one of the biggest cities we’ve ever been to. Safety is a concern but everyone finds ways to reduce risks. For example, no one would stop to give me directions (I think the beard scared the old ladies)…so Sal was in charge for directions this time. Also, taxis are rarely waved in the street but booked through smart phone apps. When jumping into the cab you have to make sure that the number plate matches the one from the booking and that you give your secret pin to the driver (safety works both ways).

Cathedral in Plaza Bolívar – La Candelaria

In Bogotá we really enjoyed the old colonial town called La Candelaria, filled with poems from Colombia’s best writer Gabriel García Márquez (100 Years of Solitude, Love in the time of cholera among others); Monserrate, a peak overlooking the vast city extension reached by cable cars and the Museo del Oro… shame on Spain and all the other countries that stole local patrimony from colonies!

It’s impossible to fit the entire city in one shot

Beautifully hand crafted gold ornaments from the pre-colonial town – Museo del Oro, Bogotá

Another highlight was Colombian food, where to start? I think we recovered all the weight we had lost in the previous 6 months in 1 week. The typical morning snack consists of a cocoa drink where you dip cheese…

Soups are hearty and fulfilling, like ajiaco, and chunchullo is the best crackling snack… just don’t think about the fact you’re eating deep fried intestines…

Ajiaco soup and refajo to drink (beer+colombiana soft drink)

Chunchullo

The national dish is Bandeja paisa (originally from Medellín area), a massive platter with avocado, banana, potatoes, corn, beans, rice, fried egg, chorizo and pork crackling, which made us laugh at the eating challenges from back home.

A great place to try all these dishes is Andrés Carnes de Res, a very popular restaurant divided into the 7 dantes levels of hell and heaven and continuously animated with live music and performances, so much fun!

Nico and Diana Carolina organised an awesome evening!

While in Bogotá we visited the neighbouring town of Zipaquirá (Sipa for the locals), home to the biggest underground salt cathedral – to be contrasted with our Polish friends -, a humongous salt mine where miners started by building a little chapel to ask for protection, but now homes a truly astonishing combination of arquitecture, light and salt, tonnes of salt.

Where’s Sally?

Finally, Nico & Diana Carolina took us for a weekend to Guasca, where Nico’s family has a dairy farm. We were the only travellers there and we couldn’t be happier to become farmhands for a weekend. Our duties consisted of potato picking to prepare tortilla española, dog hairdressing, cow feeding and milking.

Despite the potential indigestion, I fulfilled my long awaited desire to try freshly milked milk.

I could have drunk the entire day’s production

We spent the rest of the weekend remembering good old times, playing cards and putting up with Nico’s horrible imitation of the Spanish accent (vamozzzz tio, joderrr que pasha?). And when we couldn’t ask for more, we indulged ourselves into Nico’s signature dish, Lomo al trapo. Recipe in the photo captions below.

Lay an eye fillet on a kitchen cloth you don’t mind burning and a bed of thick salt. Cover it with more salt

Wrap it in the cloth and inject beer or red wine, at your taste

Toss it into the flames. 15min on one side, 5min on the other (adjust depending on the size of the eye fillet)

Crack the salt crust, carve and enjoy!

To sum up, the last 10 days in Bogotá recharged our batteries and let us enjoy the company of great friends who are like family. We sadly had to depart but were feeling excited as the next long bus would take us to the famous Eje Cafetero and for a catch up with more friends.

Until then, big hugs, Sal & Xavi.

Colombia I – North Coast

Arriving to Colombia by boat was the by far the best  border crossing experience of the trip! Perhaps this was because the boat captain took care of all the immigration procedures for us, but seeing the sunrise as we entered into Cartagena port after 32hrs of open ocean crossing was pretty spectacular too!

We entered Colombia as their current government negotiated peace with the guerrilla (FARC) in La Habana. Many Colombians were not happy about the concessions, but what really surprised us was how committed to delivering reconciliating messages the media and big companies were.

Cartagena de Indias is a coastal city, that mixes historical fortresses and a Unesco heritage colonial old town with new city and highrises. It has had a turbulent history full of invasions, occupation & destruction by pirates (Henry Drake) and then reoccupation by the Spanish, before becoming independent again in 1821. Interestingly, around town you can find monuments celebrating freedom from the Spanish,  but also others which thank them for protecting the city and its people against the English invaders.

We stayed in the Getsemani neighbourhood which had a funky vibe, with cool graffitis and great little squares to eat street food and watch the world go by.

We also visited the Castillo San Felipe de Barajas which was built after the pirates invasions to protect the city. Apart from the cannons and fortifications you would expect, it also had some really cool tunnels!

Having never had issues with claustrophobia, exploring caves, tunnels and small dark spaces has become a favorite trip activity. With a trusty phone flashlight, we kept walking down down down in otherwise complete darkness up to the point where the tunnel was flooded and the water level was too high to continue.

Later an official told us there should have been a barricade up to stop entry to the lower part, because they still have no idea where the tunnel leads, but think it might be an exit out to sea.

The old colonial town was a bit fancier and more upmarket than we were expecting, with loads of boutique stores and expensive restaurants. However, the Spanish colonial arquitecture is beautifully kept and the plazas with street vendors,  stray dogs and cool cast iron structures still kept its charm.

After a couple of days in Cartagena, we moved further north along the coast to Taganga, a small fisherman village we used as a base.

Finally the time had arrived to catch up with Nico & Diana Carolina who were staying nearby in El Rodadero, a beach town popular with vacationing Colombians. We had a great day catching up on all the news by the beach, and then topped it off the Colombian way, eating an asado with their friends, starting my Colombian weight gain mission!

After 5 weeks away from diving, we were feeling the urge again so we donned gear to check out the underwater world around Taganga. While there wasn’t the same level of coral as Belize or Utila, we found loads more fishlife and interesting critters. Definitely a place worth a few dives!

At this stage we were still travelling with Pete & Lina and after leaving our big bags in the hostel, we all set off for a few days walking and camping in Tairona National Park. It sits a bit further east along the northern coast of Colombia and is full of walking trails, beautiful beaches and my favourite..coconut palms!

It’s also very close to the Ciudad Perdida (the famous Lost City of the Tairona) but we decided to leave this one for another trip to Colombia and instead move on to the interior of the country. More about the interior in the next post.

Hugs,
Xavi & Sal