Zona Cafetera (Villa Martha) and Medellin

Early morning on the 17th of April we arrived at Pereira bus station. We were picked up by Rafael, Martha´s husband. First impression was that he was not a morning person. Probabaly did´t have enough coffee by the time he picked us up (8AM).....

Upon arrival we immediately likes the place. Tranquil, a very nice room, swimming pool and an impressive colinal house surrounded by hammocks. Martha was a lovely warm person, who served fantastic free coffee. Even Yvonne enjoyed it without milk and sugar. The colombians don´t use sugar anyway. They use panela. A very pure and natural form of sugar, without all the preservatives. It looks a bit like chocolate.

We chilled out by the pool, had a fantastic typical colombian lunch: Rice, beans, fried egg, fried banana, sausage, bacon and mango juice. That will keep you going for a while!

After lunch we just hanged around in our hammocks (hangmatten for the Dutch), reading our books. We were on 1,500 meters altitude now and it was a lot warmer (around 30 degrees) than in Bogota.

In the late afternoon Rafael (Rafa for friends), showed us the proces of how you make coffee. Fantastic!! We hand picked our own coffee beans ourselves. Afterwards they were washed, pealed and roasted. Final stage is sealing it in a aluminium bag. You can´t have coffee fresher than this! Rafa explained to us that the combination of soil, climate and altitude gives Colombian coffee it´s special flavour.

After a great diner, some card games in the night, the best sleep ever and a filling breakfast we took a cab to Pereira bus station. Villa Martha, what a fantastic place to recharge your batteries!

Next destination: Medellin!

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