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 dr...

It was time to leave the city and head towards ZonaCafetero, a coffee growing region to the west of Medellin. We were taking a public bus to Manizales, it was a new, converted VW van with very comfortable seats and even WiFi onboard. It was lacking in luggage space though and we were delayed by 15 minutes while the driver tried to get all the luggage in back of the van. David was biting his tongue, despite not being able to talk Spanish, about how badly the lugga...

Maria had bit of cold and was feeling a bit under the weather so it was a good excuse to have a lazy day. There was a panaderia (like a bakery cafe) a block away from the hostel so we wandered down there for some breakfast. As we ate our croissants, we watched TV and the homecoming of the Colombian Football Team from the World Cup in Brazil. A bomb had went off in downtown Medellin last night which had killed at least one person and injured many more but it was...

We were booked on a full day tour to Guatapé that included breakfast and lunch so we only needed a coffee before our pickup. Rafa, our driver and guide for the day, arrived at the hostel at 9am with a really cool customised blue Ford van from the '70s. There was only ourselves and a couple from New York so we could spread out on the seats. Rafa drove us through some of the eastern neighborhoods of the Medellín such as Buenos Aires, Las Palmas and Mila...