June 20, 2014
From Bogota we made our way to the coffee district of Colombia, specifically Manizales. Here we delighted in delicious free coffee all day, which might have been a strong catalyst to us finding the motivation to give Dolores a new floor. We tore out the carpet and put in some classic linoleum wood flooring. A much needed change in the humid climate.
We stayed on a fully operating coffee farm so we took a tour of the process from - berry to bean to buzz.
Since the World Cup was still going on, everyone was trying to find a place to watch the came, ourselves included. The owner of the place we were staying offered his grand viewing screen – huge projector under a nice palapa. We drank entirely too much of his nice agardiente (the local liquor) and cheered the Colombians to another exciting win!
The warm sun, cool nights, good company, free coffee and hammocks held us for too long before we made our escape to seek out hot springs. After a day soaking in the Termales de Santa Rosa we made our way to Valle de Corora.
Valle de Corora unexpectedly stole our hearts with its crazy tall high elevation wax palm trees. We crossed paths with our German friends and were excited to explore the area with them. A hike through these lofty giants also promised a humming bird viewing area – but after our birding adventure, which you might remember from
here, we felt pretty fulfilled in the birding department. However we were impressed with the variety and number of humming birds we saw while we enjoyed our hot chocolate. The views of the trees continued to impress. We made it back just in time to watch the Colombia game – and another win!
A stop in Buga in search of good beer resulted in an over night in a parking lot.
A stop in Silvia at the colorful market to stock up on our way to National Natrual Park Purace, was a delight with many of the people in traditional dress. I loved their top hats and colorful panchos. Purace was windy, rainy and cold and after attempting to hike to the volcan we set our sights on Popoyan.
In Popoyan we received word that the FARC would be closing the roads for the weekend. So we put our plans to cross the boarder into Ecuador on hold and explored the city. We toured a former presidential palace, with interesting historical artifacts like letters to and from Bolivar and pictures of President Roosevelt (that the guide made sure to point out to us). Here we also watched what would be the final game for Colombia. We shed a small tear and expected riots in the city. To our surprise the reaction of the city was pure excitement and pride that their team had done so well. Hats off to your sportsmanship Colombia!