Blogs from Quindío, Colombia, South America - page 9

We spent 3 days in Salento, a beautiful little town in the middle of the coffee region. It looked like the sterotypical Colombian town, complete with Juan Valdez look-a-likes wearing ponchos and cowboy hats riding horses down the streets. Unfortunately with Colombian stereotypes comes violence, and we saw our first example in this tiny, quiet town (not directed toward us). Our first night in town we went to the town square for a few drinks at the only place that was open with a group of people from the hostel. There was a drunk man sitting on the steps in front of the bar, and a man inside the bar starting whipping him in the face with a horse whip! The military police came and hauled off the guy who had been whipped. It was really ... read more

Unser altes Jahr endete mit einer wunderbaren Strandparty,das neue Jahr begann damit und der erste Tag mit einem gluecklichen Kater :-) Danach ging es fuer 2 Tage nach Bogota um unser letztes Weihnachtspaket abzuhoelen... vielen Dank Martina, der Schokonikolaus war so ziemlich der beste den ich je hatte. An unserem letzten Abend haben wir noch zufaellig Francisco getroffen, unseren Freund aus Bolivien...das war eine schoene Ueberraschung, auch wenn wir ihn fast nicht wieder erkannt hatten, da sein Baerenbart verschwunden war und er urploetzlich wie ein junger Portugiese aussah. Am naechsten Morgen haben wir es endlich geschafft und sind in die Zona Cafetera gefahren...eine ungemuetliche Busfahrt, da wir uns mittlerweile wieder ans Fliegen gewoehnt hatten.Wir haben Unterkunft in einem super schoenen Hostel gefunden...mitten im Gruenen, inklusive toller Katze :-) Zufaellig wollte... read more

After a big night Chris and I slept in for a bit trying to get to coffee country today will be a tall task, we checked out and took the bus to Armenia, we wer surprised to find out it will take 6 hours to get there, Luis my friend said only 4 hours, liar! it was a small bus and our seat is next to the toilet and it stunk. The roads are windy and the kids in the bus are throwing up. Occasional wafts of smelly toilet and a/c that barely worked was too much for a 6 hour trip. We had a break halfway and had lunch, i had a delicious fried mojarra fish and guanabana juice, very filling and quite tasty. Arrived in Armenia on a dark rainy eve, we noticed horses ... read more

Despite traveling to 3 different areas, I had yet to take a long-distance busride in Colombia. Well, that all changed when Adam and I started our journey into Colombian coffee country! Naturally, Adam and I were running late for the bus to Armenia that we had planned to take. As we jog into the terminal, we are greated by literally every single bus company shouting at us in the hopes that we would make our travels plans with their company. It was truly a crazy scene! The next 7 hours were spent going up, down, left and right through the mountains. As the crow flys, Armenia is not that far. Only problem is that the crow can fly directly over the mountain whereas our bus (unfortunately) cannot. After another bus from Armenia, Adam and I finally ... read more

Our journey in to the coffee region was a long one, but well worth the trip. We were on the overnight from Bogota, this time we had a blanket that Deb had bought to keep us warm and it definitely did the job. The bus went over a mountain range of the Andes so it was very much a slow paced bus. Up an then down, and the rising sun on the way down also brought the towns of the coffee region below in to view, in Armenia we caught the colectivo bus to Salento. Salento is a much smaller town than the other coffee towns of Armenia and Manizales so we decided on Salento. It is a nice attractive town, very small but set in lush green and there is a lookout at the top ... read more