Coffee Coffee, Buzz Buzz

Mmmm, I think the title of this entry is a Ben and Jerry's flavor...at least it was at Middlebury. I didn't have any coffee flavored ice cream last week, but I DID have lots of other coffee flavored delicacies, including cafequipe, or coffee flavored caramel (Colombia's famous for caramel). Last Tuesday I went with three other people to La Zona Cafetera, or an area of Colombia west of Bogotá. Incredibly lush and verdant, this region yields nearly half of Colombia's coffee crop. It's never too hot or too cold, the food is delicious, and one constantly has a view of deep valleys or impressive snow-capped peaks--all in all, a great place to be.

I think Colombia is on the brink of a major tourist boom, because we had an adventure-packed four days. And I didn't encounter one American, not like I had a problem with that. Each day was so exciting that I think I'll do separate entries for each.

And still, after all this time, I still don't understand the order in which photos get updated to blogspot. If anyone has figured it out, PLEASE let me know. I tried a new layout...don't know if I like it.

Anyway, we took the bus to Armenia, one of the main towns of the region. I slept most of the time, which was good because it was six hours of hairpin turns as we climbed up the mountain. We lucked out and were able to rent a finca with a pool AND an empleada for just $25,000 pesos/person/night, so something like $18.00. This included breakfast made by Rosalba, and we had the whole house to ourselves. It was reallllly nice. The pictures above are of our of the yard...you can see the pool and then the other caretaker is in the background of the other photo. It was right outside Armenia, so we were able to catch colectivos to get to every sight. Each night we played cards and cooked.

The rest of the pictures are of El Parque Nacional del Cafe, which is kind of like Colombia's Disney, but dedicated to coffee. It was really beautiful; these pictures don't do it justice. Everywhere I looked there was jaw-dropping natural beauty. Soooo pretty. We went to a show with traditional Colombian dancing, took a train ride, rode various rickety roller coasters, learned about the coffee cultivation in Colombia, ate over-priced food, took a ride in the teleférico, or cable car, and walked through a bamboo forest.

I think the pictures are pretty self-explanatory. That's me, obviously, with a man, his burro, and his café. The other with the sign was a funny translation mishap. "Puente Colgante" was meant to translate to "Hanging Bridge," but someone forgot the g, making it read, "Hanging Bride." Oops. The others are of the beautiful views, and one is of Olivia and Diego, two of my traveling companions. They were bargaining outside of the park for the traditional Colombian sombreros, which you can see here.

This was just the first day of our adventure...more updates to come!

Love,
Gina