I’ve now been here just over 3 months and I’ve taken the time to
do some exploring. There is, of course,
a lot more to do but that can be for a later time.
At the end of January a friend came to visit and though I was
working we made the most of my weekends.
We flew to Pereira to go and visit the Eje Cafetero (coffee region or Coffee Triangle).
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| views arriving in Pereira |
Based on recommendations from other friends
who’d been in town we went to Salento.
This is a cute, colourful (if touristy/backpacker-ish) town.
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| Salento houses |
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| Salento houses |
We stayed at a lovely hotel with a fantastic view over the area.
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| view from hotel |
From here we visited the Ocaso coffee finca where we learnt about
how coffee is made, and of course sampled some coffee!
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| Ocaso coffee finca |
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| coffee beans - the red are less frequent |
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| coffee grinder |
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| ground coffee |
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| the role of women at the finca |
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| different ways of making coffee |
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| tasting the coffee |
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| tasting the coffee |
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| views from the finca |
Salento is a nice town to wander around, relax over coffee and
enjoy the country-side.
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| busy Salento |
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| kids getting pushed around the square |
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| Salento restaurant |
The Cocora Valley national park is in the area, however we didn’t have time to visit it but we did see
some of the famed Wax Palms of the region.
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| wax palm |
On the way back to Pereira we drove via Filandia and Quimbaya,
similar little towns like Salento.
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| Filandia church |
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| Filandia street |
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| Filandia houses |
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| Quimbaya |
In Bogotá we took advantage of a ‘no car’ day (ie no traffic, fortunately
taxis were allowed to drive) to go to Monserrate. This is a church at the top of one of the
mountains surrounding Bogotá. To get to
the top you can take a cable car or funicular (or walk but I wasn’t going to do
that!). The trick is to get a clear day
for the views over Bogotá but our day was a bit foggy so we had a limited
view.
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| Monserrate church |
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| Funicular tunnel |
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| city view |
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| city view by night |
We also went downtown one afternoon, to the Plaza Bolivar which is the site of ‘El Catedral and government buildings (the Town Hall, the Capitolio Nacional).
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| Plaza Bolivar with El Cathedral (and many pigeons!) |
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| El Capitolio Nacional |
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| Mayor's office (Town Hall) |
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| street leading off Plaza Bolivar |
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| street poet |
This is also the La Candelaria
area with some of the oldest cafés (where we had the popular hot chocolate with
cheese at La Puerta Falsa)
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| hot chocolate and cheese |
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| hot chocolate and cheese |
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| local delicacies |
and some interesting, winding roads, with ‘alternative’ wares. (Think Soho in London, red light district in
Amsterdam).
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| La Candelaria street |
For the second weekend we hired a car and drove to Villa de
Leyva. This is about 3 hours from Bogotá,
driving through the agricultural region of Boyacá.
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| the road to Villa de Leyva |
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| the road to Villa de Leyva |
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| arriving at Villa de Leyva |
Villa de Leyva is a Colonial town which has
retained a lot of its old heritage (from cobbled streets to houses and
churches).
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| Plaza Mayor |
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| Villa de Leyva streets |
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| Villa de Leyva streets |
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| Church altar |
In the town we came across a chocolate museum. Naturally we had to sample!
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| Chocolate Museum |
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| again hot chocolate with cheese! |
We also saw people selling their wares on the streets.
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| This lady was selling pepper - no idea how it compares to Kampot pepper! |
This region also had vineyards and we visited the Marques de Villa
de Leyva vineyard (which was inexplicably called Aim Karim – though we later
found out the vines had come from Israel so this might be why).
The tour was followed by a tasting. They only offered one wine which unfortunately wasn’t really drinkable.
We did buy a white from them and enjoyed that instead.
My next ‘exploration tour’ will be to Cartagena, with a friend who’s
here over Easter. Plus I’ve yet to visit
the Botero museum, the gold museum and the emerald district in Bogotá. Many more places to see, exciting times!
