La Zona Cafetera - Colombian Cafe!

We have spent a few relaxing days in the beautiful Zona Cafetera in the middle of Colombia - in a town called Armenia, the next neighboring town is Montenegro.... I am still not sure who copied what where and when - any suggestions???

It is incredibly green here and kilometer after kilometer of green fields with mostly coffee and lots and lots of Banana and Yukka and Corn. It feel like a gigantic oasis after all the months of dry and barren landscapes in the Altiplano. Full of birdsong and warmth. Lovely!

We stayed in a little Coffee finca called La Manuela with a handful of crazy dogs, some parrots and lots of coffee plants and beautiful flowers. It was very peaceful and there was absolutely nothing to do after the 7 pm dinner. I think we finally caught up on some sleep deficit!

Today we visited a working coffee finca - El Recuco. We had a great laugh all day. The chaps working there and showing touristas around were obviously a bit bored and very pleased to have company and paying audience! They made us wear all the typical costumes and sing the national hymn while raising the Colombian flag, then we had to reenact how the coffee got from Ethiopia to Europe and then to the Americas (which involved praying to Mecca and confessing sins to a Brazil priest) - I shall never forget!!

Afterwards we got kitted out in the protective coffee collectors clothing and tried to fill our little buckets with the red fruits. What hard work!! Very spikey those plants and no fun at all in the heat! And then the endless process of depulping the seeds (Craig was using the more advanced bike technology while I was doing the old manual job being supervised by Carlos), washing them, drying them, sqashing them again and then roasting them, grinding them... I will never ever complain about the price of coffee again in my life! It is such a long and tedious process!!! And the smell is divine! I wish we had a safe suitcase and a porter so we could carry lots of the black gold back home...

We are now on the way to Bogota for a few days of nightlife before we fly up North to Cartagena. i cannot wait! Tonight will be our last night on the bus (EVER I hope!) and I shall get a few beers to celebrate and make sure we sleep! Hasta la proxima!

24 days to go...