Eje Cafetero - Colombia's coffee heart

Colombia - THE coffee producing country, the country with very big and beautiful coffee regions, what else did I have to do then visit the most famous one? I had the wonderful luck of my best friend from Iceland, Laufey, being in the country as an end of her South America trip.

After researching all the internet for different tips, listening to friends who've been to Colombia I picked out the best spots for us and the time we had to discover this w
onderful part of Colombia.

For our trip we only checked Armenia, Salento and Valle de Cocora. Here a small disclaimer there is a lot more to see like people have recommended me the "Parque del Café" which is a Theme park with rollercoasters and different information about the production and preparation of coffee. There are a lot of cute villages where you could stay for a few nights in a real "finca" (=farm) in Villages like Finlandia, Quimbaya or Montenegro. If you do some research there is a lot of blogposts on that topic.

Here a map for you to check out the different spots we visited (click to make it bigger)

Back to my/our trip so because Laufey was already in Cali we said we'll meet in Armenia as it was the most central for where we planned to go as well. On the list were visiting were a typical Coffee finca and visiting the wonderful  Valle de Cocora that is part of the Los Nevados National Natural Park since 1985. Honestly since Chile I really learned that planning everything in detail how it people really do normally in my culture, is really not necessary for most travels in Colombia. When planning to go to Armenia I took a night bus from Bogotá at around 21:00. I heard different opinions on how long the bus might take - from 6-9 hours they told me everything. In the end it sadly took me less time. I am saying sadly because I knew that the earliest Laufey could be at the terminal would have been 8/9 am. On the other hand it was very good that the bus took less time as the airco was really strong and I was not really prepared for this as the climate in the coffee area is pretty warm (more or less humid and between 20-27°C). Anyhow after arriving at 4am in Armenia I tired to rest a little bit in the only café in the whole terminal that was open, sipping on one small coffee for about two hours and getting a cup of "avena" (=porridge milk but with oat flour).

Finally around 9am I met with Laufey and we got into a taxi to the center of Armenia. While in the taxi the taxi driver actually helped us to find a hotel. He asked if we had a place to stay and we said no, then he said well I can bring you to one that is in a safe and good location and pretty cheap. Once we arrived there we got a double bed room for 50.000COP (~ 15,50€) for the room with breakfast for both of us. Next to the nice room and offer they also offered us different trip we could take from Armenia. One offer was about the "Parque del Café" the other one was to the coffee farm "RECUCA" which lies close to a small village called Barcelona [https://www.facebook.com/recucaoficial/]. Recuca is a coffee farm that is made for people to get to know more about the region, history and more infos about how coffee is produced. Because if our shortage of time (about 4-5days for all our plans) we decided to take the tour in the coffee farm as we could take it easily after having a breakfast in the city.

Finally back together eating yayyy

First we arrived really well and put our stuff into the room we left for a typical Colombian breakfast in a small bakery close to our hotel. After that we came back, got ready and left to take the bus to Recuca. Back at the terminal we entered one of those middle big busses that cover around 16 people. Once the driver told us we were at the place to get off to walk the rest to Recuca we got off and were blessed by blue sky and a street  that was covered at the sides with big banana plants. the around 2.5km to the farm we walked as we really felt like enjoying the weather, views and the silence. After more than half a year being able to share all the stories personally was really amazing and we could connect on a different level in the nature.

when you have a lot to talk about 2.5km walking are nothing

 

Enjoying my coffee with a view

feeling more Colombian than ever

Once you arrive at Recuca you will be welcomed by people in the traditional clothes offering you a first cup of "tinto" which is black coffee sweetened with panela. Until the next "recorrido" (=tour) was starting we could enjoy the view of the back terrace and drink the delicious surprisingly soft coffee. The three hour tour started with some explanation about the traditional dresses of men and women. As people from Quindio (the state in which Armenia lies) are also considered to be "Paisas" they have a very flirtatious way of telling stories. Please don't get me wrong - it has not a lot to do with flirting in the western kind of way but more "flirtatious" with everyone, men and women, young and old. Further the guys that told us the stories about how back in the day coffee was collected and how life on the farm was like was also super funny and including the whole group. Just listening and watching of course are way too boring for those "Paisas" so next on the plan was getting active, putting ourselves in those blouses and skirts and learning some typical dances as well as taking many different pictures around the very traditional looking area of the Finca. All tour guides were happy to help us out to take pictures together in the nice and classic looking scenery.

Getting in touch with the traditional clothing was amazing but of course that wasn’t what we were there for - finally we got to taste freshly made coffee. In addition they also explained us how to make colombian 1st class coffee the best way. It actually reminded me a lot about how we make coffee in many parts of Germany. In the farm they used a cloth as a filter, but the commonly used paper filters are also fine. Then one has to pour 100°C in a circling motion over the coffee, waiting until the water is running down. Then you can repeat pouring down water on the coffee in the same motion again. This is important because if you just pour the hot water 90° down it will burn the coffee. Black first class coffee from Colombia can be drunk comfortably without milk or sugar *normally Latte Macchiato full of sugar drinking person speaking*.

this is the typical way to pick coffee beans. To my side you
can see the only other German of the group, from Stuttgart

Rito del Café 

In the end we also had the opportunity to shop some local coffee from the farm itself, of course I also picked out some presents for family ;)

To round up the whole Eje Cafetero experience we ended the tour with a typical late lunch “Bandeja Paisa”: Rice, minced meat, chorizo, platano, arepa, egg and as a drink “agua panela” with lime. A delicacy I definitely will miss once I’m back in Germany.

Chorizo, rice, arepa, minced meat and platano. Yum!

Before all the group went to eat I took a quick solo pic of the restaurant area. Love the colours

Thanks girl for visiting the country of my heart. I hope you liked it <3

After some pictures with the beautiful view we made our way back to Armenia to get a snack in town and visit the service and look at the beautiful light decoration of the town.

Love the view of Colombian mountains

Using the light for some amazing sun shots

Stay tuned for my next blogpost about the other part of our trip to the Valle de Cocora, THE National park of wax palm trees.

Muchos Besos,

Leonie