Manizales

When waking up Saturday morning it was still raining, although a lot less than before. You could see how much rain had come down though! With a short drive to Manizales we left at 8, after yet more scrambled eggs!

Manizales is a friendly city right in the heart of Colombia's coffee region with a comfortable climate and plenty to see and do. Although still opening up to international tourism, Manizales has a lot to offer the visitor in the way of outdoor activities and ecological attractions. The town itself is a relaxed and friendly place centred around the magnificent cathedral with attractions such as the botanical gardens, thermal springs and eco-parks all easily access able from the centre of town.

Venturing a little further, you will find coffee haciendas and plantations in the surrounding area as well as some beautiful country landscapes perfect for trekking or just taking a relaxing break in the great outdoors. In Manizales we stayed on one of these working coffee plantations covering approximately 480 acres which provides people from around the world a taste of the finest Manizales fair trade coffee. The plantation employs around 100 people all throughout the year and about 400 people during the peak picking season.

We had another pretty spectacular drive throughout the mountains, climbing massively as Honda was in a valley and the only way to Manizales was straight over the Andes. The road was very slow and windy, and at one point we ended up on this ridge with shear drops both sides. There were also cheers at we reached 3000m for the first time, although we continued climbing. Before long we were in cloud and then above the cloud in what is known as cloud forest. We went as high as about 3700m in the end before decending into Manizales. We were kept amused on the bus as we found out names meaning in Japanese!

We arrived in Manizales at about lunchtime where we we given about 3 hours to explore, have lunch, and get ingredients for our meals. My group had 6 people in, and was assigned to cook the nights dinner and next mornings breakfast. We split into a 4 and 2 though and I was in the 2 to sort out breakfast. It was funny getting the ingredients as a couple of people were getting stressed from other groups. For lunch a few of us when to this Italian restaurant where I had the pizza.

Our campsite for the night was a on a coffee plantation outside of Manizales. We arrived at a reasonable time, setting up camp and then relaxing. It was nice to be back on the beers after a 3 day dry spell. Dinner in the evening was this Japanese curry which was amazing, with big chunks of beef and vegetables. The Japanese man in our group had bought his own spices from home which made a very interesting flavour. We even had this chocolate mousse made up too. After dinner the guitar came out and it was a very funny evening, although I may of had quite a late night.

Sunday morning was meant to be the day I cooked breakfast for the group, although when I got up everything was prepared as people had got up early. It was probably a blessing in disguise as I didn't get to bed until like 5 and felt horrendous when waking up. Breakfast was scrambled eggs with leeks and mushrooms, bacon, and fruit. I did do the washing up however!

As we were staying on a coffee plantation, we had a guided tour of the place during the morning. We firstly walked up to the house where we learnt about how coffee spread round the world and the different types. Colombia produces 8% of the world's coffee. After a lengthy talk and some free samples we entered the actual plantation and walked through where we could see all the coffee beans growing, many of which were ready to be picked. We then continued walking round the plantation for a while which was absolutely vast when you think about it.

After a while we ended up at the place where they dry the beans and prepare it for exports. It was very interesting and we were even able to sample some the  actual beans. The final part of the tour took us to this main guesthouse where we were learnt the different flavours and roasting processes and we're able to taste some of beans. I don't really drink coffee but it was nice to taste the bean, which was very bitter.

The afternoon was effectively free time, so most of us went to the pool where we had our packed lunches and went for a swim. I felt exhausted by this point though so I headed back to our campsite and zonked out in a hammock for the afternoon. I got a bit of sleep but someone did decide to chuck water at me which they thought was hilarious...

Come the evening we had the most amazing bbq prepared by some Colombian locals. There was so much meat and salads, including whole joints, and they were so particular about the charcoal used to cook it. It was probably up there with my top 5 meals ever. We were stuffed by the end, and there was a lot of meat leftover. Afterwards we had some live music from a Colombian band which included lots of dancing. It was also one of our group members birthdays so we made a big thing of that! I bossed the dancing. I had a relatively early night after the entertainments.