A few days after I visited the coffee region (La Cafetera), the volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupted. If you look at the map, you’ll see that this volcano is part of the national park Los Nevados. As the heart of this park, the volcano is surrounded by the cities of Manizales, Pereira, Armenia, and Ibagué. While I can’t say much about the eruption – I just saw pictures of the smoking peak and ash-covered cars – I’d like to tell you about my trip to the valley of Cocora, which is also part of La Cafetera.
To access the valley, you enter the national park in the south-west; or, more specifically through the 7,500-people village Salento. This place had been recommended to me by one of my coworkers back in Europe. My Colombian part of the family hadn’t really heard of it before: What a nice thing to show my wife and in-laws something in their own country that they didn’t know! And as far as I can tell, they liked Salento and Valle de Cocora.
Photographer: MG
To begin with, the trip gave us the opportunity to visit one of the many coffee farms in the region. I learned that Colombian coffee usually contains much more sugar than, for example, Brazilian one. While Brazilian coffee is often grown at sea level or slightly above, in Colombia the cultivation starts at roughly 2,000 m: the higher the altitude, the more sugar in the coffee bean. Unfortunately, the European customer won’t be able to taste the sugar-related differences in the final product, because the European market only offers blends. Most important though, by visiting this farm, I learned how labor-intensive it is to produce coffee.
Photographer: MG
The next day we took a guide and rented some horses that would carry us from the valley up into the mountains. You might think “how lazy”, but I can assure you how exhausting and physically demanding it is to ride a horse in rough terrain (you climb from approximately 1,900 to 2,800 m): One needs to pay attention to have the upper body in the right position to distribute the weight properly, and work with all arms and legs to not fall from the horse when going steep hill upwards or downwards. And you really don’t want to fall off the horse when there is a precipice right next to you. Nonetheless: Poor horses! Especially when you see what kind of people they have to carry sometimes…
Photographer: MG
But for us, it was definitely worth the effort. The landscape is impressive. To quote my coworker, Cocora looks like the Alps with palm trees. As one of Colombia’s landmarks, the Quindio wax palm grows only between 2,500 and 2,800 m above sea level and may itself reach a height of 60 m. Because its wood, wax, leaves, and fruits can be used for various purposes, the plant faces extinction. What a shame!
Phoographer: MG
Finally, if you ever go to La Cafetera (or some other rural place in Colombia, if I’m correct), find a Tejo place and play the eponymous game. Tejo is similar to the French game Boules, and you learn the rules within two minutes. However, (harmless) caps of gunpowder are used to increase the enjoyment. If you are equipped with decent hand-eye coordination, you’ll be able hit one of the caps with your metal puck and that’s a lot fun. But be aware, your capability to aim might suffer quickly, since a game of Tejo seems to be mandatorily accompanied by plenty of beer.