We had arranged a tour of a coffee farm today but breakfast was first, it was included as part of our accommodation. Martha made us a nice plate of scrambled eggs with toast and coffee. On hindsight it seems bizarre but we had a second cup of coffee while we waited for our transport to the Coffee Farm.

Hacienda Venecia was a 30 minute drive outside of Manizales, on the steep slopes of the mountain. On arrival, we were sat down, given a coffee and told we could drink as much coffee as we wanted all day. David didn't think twice about having his second cup even though everyone was still to finish their first - it was good coffee.

We were given a very informative talk about where in the world coffee is grown and how climates affect the production (the growing and the drying process). Turns out that Colombia's climate is particularly well suited for coffee growing, they have two seasons during the year that are both good for growing. The majority of Colombia's coffee is for export and the poorer quality is used locally.

We then had a demonstration on the coffee roasting process - this is where the real skill is required. Varying the temperature and time of roasting the dried coffee beans is how different aromas and flavours can be obtained from the same beans. Apparantly, there are over 1,000 flavours and aromas.

Afterwards, we were taken for a walk through the actual coffee fields towards the farm's processing plant. Coffee beans are actually the seeds inside the cherries of the coffee plant. After the cherries are picked, they are skinned and dried - the final bean quality can be affected by either insects on the cherries or the drying process. There is very stringent quality control testing and the farms themselves are very vigilent to ensure they seperate out poorer quality beans at the outset. This in effect increases the price of the entire sack because having too many lower quality beans in a sack would downgrade the entire sack.

After the tour, we were taken for lunch - a very typical meal of chicken and potato soup with a side plate of salad, rice and arepa. Our meal was finished off with some more coffee. David did check that the coffee we were drinking was 'export quality'.

Back in the hostel we watched, in disbelief, Germany crucifying Brazil 7-1 in the semi-final of the World Cup. Brazil hadn't been playing so great all tournament and this was probably karma for kicking Colombia's James Rodriquez up and down the park in their previous game and not allowing him to play his game.

Shortly before sunset, we walked to neighborhood of Chipre which has beautiful views over the valley of Risaralda and Cauca. It is the most visited by tourists in Manizales and the locals. Unfortunately there was too much cloud for a sunset but it was still nice views.

We went back to the Cathedral for a coffee and because we were on a coffee overload day, we had some delicious coffee cake too.

On our final return to the hostel for the day, we stopped by the supermarket and David picked up some local rum. For only the equivalent of $5, we got a 250ml tetrapak of rum and it was surprisingly good. Gotta love Colombia for their use of Tetrapaks...