Cali in Colombia is still known for its cocaine cartels and understandably has a bit of a sketchy reputation. Since problems still occur between the border with Ecuador so we decided to fly across instead of another day on a bus. When we landed at almost 1am with no money, no ATMs and our lift was a no-show we didn’t feel too relaxed in the last of our South American countries. People however were very friendly and we were soon safely transported to our hostel. The weather here was hot and sticky and after a night of disturbed aircon-less sleep we caught a bus and headed off to Armenia - the centre of the zona Cafeteria, Colombia’s coffee growing region. Seeing a few people smoking crack-pipes along the way was a little disconcerting, though the gorgeous countryside and our final resort of Salento eradicated all of our negative views of this country. A small village set high up amongst the coffee fincas (farms) it was a delightful place to chill for a few nights. Our B&B was wonderful, run by a lovely lady and her dog, with great breakfasts and cozy patchwork quilts, a very welcome break from skanky hostels.
We took a brilliant tour with Jesus and his daughter Sarah, acting as translator, around their family finca and coffee processing factory. They showed us the whole process from bean to cup and we drank so much espresso we were wired for the rest of the day. The following day, propelled by more superb coffee we rode Willy’s JEEPs out to the Cocora valley to walk amongst the amazing wax palms. At up 60m high, Colombia’s national tree was quite a sight. For some scale, look for Mark standing at the foot of one.
From Salento we headed onto Bogota, our last destination in South America. We both really loved the old quarter which is packed full of galleries, museums and restaurants. We paid visits to Andy Warhol and Fernando Botero exhibits and the national police museum which had a special section dedicated to the downfall of Pablo Escobar’s Medellin cartel. For our last meal we finally managed to track down Colombia’s signature dish. Covering all food groups and containing three different meat varieties it’s a real gutbuster.
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