So I got my flight Monday and headed to COLOMBIA!! but first - Happy Birthday Andrew! Anyway, after a short 2 hours or so I was in Pereira, Colombia. It is a small airport with basically nothing there. I caught a cab to the bus terminal and found an ATM. Of course my UK ATM card didn't work, again
thankfully I have my US card.
With a bit of cash, I caught a bus about an hour up to Manizales. ($10,000 COP, $1USD = ~$1,800COP). Manizales is a beautiful mountain town in the heart of the Caferteria - coffee district. It is extremely hilly, has a few small universities and is also known for having beautiful women (several beauty queens and soap stars are from here).
I got to the hostel and chilled out for a bit. Then I met up with someone from couchsurfing again
and she drove me around town for a bit, showing me the sights. We got some dinner and then I went back to the hostel. There was a group heading out to the termales (hot springs) that night.
Tuesday I signed up to do a coffee
plantation tour. There were a couple of us from the hostel and we caught a jeep out into the mountains. We toured the plantation, hiking up the hills learning about the coffee process. Unfortunately the best coffee isn't sold in Colombia. It is worth too much so is only grown and sold for export. It is beautiful countryside and
a cool tour.
Afterwards I headed back to town. I
decided to take a taxi out to Chipre, its on the other side of town but has great vistas of the city. I looked at some statues, took some photos and walked back... not the best idea. It was a long walk but I wanted to see some of the city. Manizales like most places in South America has several beautiful churches. There are also statues all
over the place. Apparently there have been some famous sculptures and artists from here.
The next day I bummed around for a second and then set out for a new town - Cali, in the south.
No comments:
Post a Comment