Delectable coffee, lots of cows & an attempted robbery in Salento, Columbia

We'd heard lots of great things about Salento, a small village in the hills of the 'Triangula de Cafe' region. Coffee is Columbia's second largest export (after Cocaine) and as we discovered on this trip, all the best coffee is exported overseas with only the 'inferior coffee' being consumed by the locals. Doesn't seem very fair to us, as the good coffee is absolutely delicious in this region.







We booked onto a full day coffee tour at Sachamama's, Pedro's home. We had a 2 hr trek to get there, where we waded knee deep through streams and up and down hills. Pedro moved his family from the nearby bustling and dirty city of Armenia to an isolated and stunning spot looking over the valleys of Salento. When he bought the land he then built his home and has spent the last 5 years working on reforestation and growing coffee beans. We spent the day learning about the coffee growing and refining process, drinking the freshest coffee and watching tropical birds - toucans, woodpeckers and hummingbirds flit about in his backyard. I even had an avocado fall out of the tree and almost hit me on the head. A truly amazing place.










Fresh coffee beans plucked straight from the tree


Coffee beans out to dry


De-husking and roasting the beans, ahhh the aroma



The following day was eventful to say the least. We trekked through the Valle de Cocora, a beautiful area in the hills where the clouds float in the valleys and the massive wax palms (the tallest palm trees in the world) are silouetted on the hilltops.









We spent the late afternoon in yet another pool hall, only to find ourselves in a bar at midnight. Tom's bag was stolen just before closing by a very intoxicated local thief. Lucky for us, the bar staff were on our side and located the cousin of the thief. The cousin was shaky and scared because the offender was allegedly dangerous, however not to fear as the friends responded by they lifting their shirts to reveal massive machetes tucked down their trousers! We freaked a little and marched to the Police Station as it seemed the better option than getting involved in a knife fight at 1am! The Police were totally unhelpful until Claire explained that we were going to the offender's house with or without their assistance and that it wouldn't look good for them if we got shot. It was remarkable how quickly they reacted when threatened with this prospect. Upon raiding the thief's house, not only did the Police find Tom's bag with all of the items hidden in cupboards and drawers, but they also found stacks of other stolen goods. Needless to say the offender spent the night locked up behind bars.








The Police raid!

Lake break - Guatape, Columbia

For a little break from the city madness, we headed to a small town that's surrounded by lakes, just a few hours from Medellin. It's a popular weekend getaway for the locals and as it was a public holiday long weekend the place was doubly packed and we were unable to pre-book accommodation. From experience, this usually means that you're in for some interesting times! We were taken hostage by a lady upon arriving in Guatape and showed to her rooms, we accepted as we had little option besides staying in a tent on a hill in the pouring rain (well it is the Columbian wet season!). Initially it looked like a tranquil spot across from the lake until we realised that we were virtually on top of a nightclub!









Guatape is a beautiful and colourful little village, with little characters and patterns moulded and attached to the fronts of the houses.









As it was raining we spent most of the evening at a pool hall - these are very old-school macho hangouts, where women are stared at and drooled over. There are even open urinals next to the pool tables! We were approached by many drunk toothless old men who spoke to us in dribbly Spanish - we had absolutely no idea what they were saying other than welcoming us to their country. One of them would not stop hugging Claire for most of the evening, and we weren't sure if he was going to let her go! That night we had most probably one of the worst night sleeps on record - the music from the nightclub did not stop pounding until 4am, we had one hr of sleep before someone decided to start hammering in the room upstairs. South Americans certainly have bizarre sleep patterns.




The boys making the most of the 'facilties' as Claire takes a killer shot


Claire and Paul making friends with the locals

Formerly known as 'the most murderous city in the world', Medellin, Columbia

We were meeting our great pals Claire and Paul in Medellin in mid/late Oct so we spent a few days in Cali for a bit of heat (Cali is at a lower altitude than many other places in the SW of Columbia) and a bit of salsa time. There wasn't much else to do in Cali other than party, so everyone in the hostel was nocturnal, only appearing from their rooms as the sun was going down to begin once another night of hitting the rum and aguadiente (a strong white spirit similar in taste to Sambuca- not our fave tipple!). It was fun for a couple of days and gave us a taste of the Latin America that we'd been searching for - as travelling through Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador we'd heard a lot of pipe and flute music and spent a lot of time rugged up in some rather cold bars and restaurants.


We have so much luggage, however this did not deter us from cramming all 4 backpacks into the tiniest of taxis!

Arriving in Medellin early in the morning, we were not greeted with the 'eternal spring weather' that the city is renowned for, instead it was hammering down with rain! Perfect excuse for a 'recovery overnight bus ride' daytime snooze. We met up with Claire and Paul the next day and with beautiful weather we spent the day drinking beers in the park and catching up. Rather bizarrely, Claire & Paul are doing the reverse of our trip, commencing in N America and heading South on their way to living back in Oz!!


Trying the 'Tinto' coffee that the locals serve out of thermos' - definitely not the best coffee we've had and so so sweet

We headed out to the slums of Medellin taking a cable car all the way up there - definitely one of the swishest ways to travel to the slums. We wandered through the weaving alleyways and were greeted by chidren and adults waving and coming out of their shacks to chat to us.














Birthday time for Tom - Happy 34th!

And we couldn't come to Medellin without taking in a Pablo Escobar tour, the notorious drug trafficker who at the peak of his career in the 1980'S was traffiking 15 tonnes of cocaine a day into the USA - worth more than 1/2 billion dollars. Despite Escobar's business dealings, he supported the poor and was deemed a hero by many of the Columbian people at the start of his career - building schools, hospitals and churches. It is even alleged that he offered to pay of Columbian's debt to the USA. However, as the year's passed and the power went to his head, it is believed that he paid his hitmen a reward for killing policemen and was involved in many killings as a result of a war with the Cali drug cartel. As a result, Medellin was named the most murderous city in the world in the 1980's.


Many people believe that Pablo is still alive


Pablo's family home where he also held wild parties in the 1980's. It was confiscated by the Columbian government and now remains empty.


Pablo's grave

Police mania in Popayan

From Otavalo we headed to the border with Columbia and planned to go straight through to Popayan - a journey which on paper looked like a breeze, however in reality turned out to be rather painful. We were bombarded by money changers and taxi drivers at the border, and of course we were ripped off, despite trying our best to be cautious. Our taxi driver (if you can call him that in his clapped out car blasting riggaton music!) tried persuading us that our bags would be safe locked up in his cab while we went through customs - we of course insisted that we needed to take them with us as we wanted to see them again!



The bus ride from the Columbian border to the city of Pasto was stunning, we weaved through the mountains with the most beautiful valley views, that extended for miles. Unfortunately for Tom he was feeling rather ill (too much dodgy pork in Otavalo!) so we decided to stay in Pasto for a night rather than make the trip all the way to Popayan. And we were glad that we did, as Tom spent the night on a toilet with no seat, (yep the Columbian's don't seem to be too keen on toilet seats!) and the journey to Popayan the next day took a horrendous 7.5hrs along the windiest, bumpiest unsealed roads. We were surprised by the number of Police and Military, (complete with enormous machine guns) that controlled the hills. At one stage we were all bag searched, some guys even had to take off their shoes to be inspected for drugs. Despite cocaine being Columbia's biggest export, it is highly illegal and there are harsh penalties for carrying any on your person.







We stayed in a hostel on Popayan's main plaza, which had stunning views and was located next to the cathedral, so we started each morning drinking tea and listening to the church choir (very zen!). The city has a colonial style and is beautifully lit up at night with different coloured lights, however what was rather disconcerting or concerting?! were the number of armed police on every corner of the city. Today it is still recommended that you do not travel south of Popayan overnight for fear of robberies, kidnappings etc. Whilst most of Columbia is safe to travel through, you certainly do get the feeling that the situation is not completely stable and that rebels/guerillas/paramilitaries could encroach on the cities at any time.







One of the highlights during our stay in Popayan was a trip to the thermal springs just outside of the city. We took a couple of motor taxis along crazily bumpy, bone shaking, teeth chattering roads and were told that we'd have the springs to ourselves. Well, we were in for a surprise as the place was over-run with school kids. We caused a bit of a stir as the kids literally surrounded us from all angles firing questions in a mixture of Spanish and English. This was a great introduction to the warmth and friendliness of the Columbian people that we'd heard so much about.