This morning I was woken at 4am by a rooster. He was so loud, that it sounded like he had taken up residence outside our room. He continued to cock-a-doodle-doo for a good hour. I was so ready to hunt down this rooster.... and if I ever catch up with him, I swear it will be my job to turn him into the most delicious roast rooster imaginable!!
It soon came time to get up... we had a lot planned for today!! Whilst Lisa went out for a run, Donna and I set out to get up, showered, and dressed ready for the day. Perfect timing, as we were all finished by the time Lisa got back.
We headed down for breakfast, and again were pleasantly surprised by the quality and the amount that was offered to us. We definitely were fully fuelled for our morning activities.
We assembled in the foyer, all prepared for excursion number one... to the Coffee plantation.
We set out on foot. Andres was happily singing his classic Colombian rock tunes out front, whilst the rest of us followed behind. He was like the pied piper of Colombia. He sings his happy tunes, and the tourists follow him!!
We initially thought that we were just walking to catch the bus, however as the walk continued on and on, I started to joke that we were walking to the coffee plantation. Not actually serious about this claim, you can imagine our surprise when after about 20min of walking we in fact did arrive at the coffee plantation.
We stood out the front of a house, converted into an office, a place called the plantation house. Here Andres organise our tour, and eventually we were all herded up and asked to fill in the sign in book.
Our guide arrived, a beautiful 17yr old Colombian girl. She happily spoke in Spanish with Andres, as we started our journey.
We started to walk down the unmade road, jumping over the occasional puddle that remained after the rain that had fallen early this morning.
As we continued on down the road, we soon arrived at a fork in the road... and of course we were heading down the steepest and muddiest section.
I began to thank my lucky stars that I had not only decided to keep my now brown converse sneakers, I was even more thankful that I was actually smart enough to put them on this morning.
We started to descend down this road... and it was getting muddier by the second. Donna was the first one to do a little skid/slide.... but amazingly she was able to correct herself and stay upright. That served as my warning... I was on a 'high fall on my arse alert', so I just pulled back and really took my time getting down this hill. We had only been walking down this hill for about 5 mins.... I was concentrating so hard on where I was walking, however I heard a massive thud from behind. It sounded like a tonne sack of potatoes had just been dropped from a crane. Wondering what the hell the noise was, I turned round to find Dim on the ground in the mud. All 150kg of him. The crocs obviously weren't the most appropriate choice in footwear for this excursion. We all rushed to ask if he was alright, which he said that he was, however it was enough for him to throw in the towel and head back to the hotel.
We watched to make sure Dim was alright to return to the hotel, and once we thought that he was safe, we continued on our slow and steady walk down the hill.
I found myself gravitating to the side of the track, and as much as possible walking on the grass and decaying branches, both of which provided much needed traction. We soon came to a flat section, and here it was a lot safer for us to continue our walk towards the coffee plantation. Having learnt from experience, I was still concentrating very hard.... it's when you become complacent that you end up falling on your arse. Without incident, I soon found myself standing at the entrance of the coffee plantation. I only had a set of stairs to navigate, which I did so with no real issues.
Under the protection of a shed, we all sat on some old wooden bench seats and listened as our young guide explained the process of cultivating coffee, from seed through to coffee cup.
She did a great job. She often struggled to find the English word she was searching for, however always found a way of explaining how things operate on the plantation. The poor thing was probably thrown into that position as she is learning English at school, and her family think that that makes her fluent in English. But in saying that she did do a brilliant job!!
The farm still remained rustically true to how the coffee would have been processed years ago, without the fandangle machines that the big processing companies have these days. We saw some of the more traditional manual machines that are used to sort, dry, shell, roast and make the coffee. It was a brilliant tour, especially when we got to taste the end product!!
We spent a while relaxing under the shed and enjoying our cups of coffees. However time was moving on, and we had an afternoon excursion booked, so it was time to head back to town. Now for the fun part.... Going back up the slip and slide hill.
I took the same approach as what I did coming down, concentrate hard and walk up the side of the path where there were plants to help with traction. Again, my motto of slow and steady wins the race worked, and we eventually all made it up without any further incidences.
We started to walk back to town, a few of us deciding to quickly head back to the hotel for a bathroom break. We soon found Dim, who was having a nice cold beer.... probably to dull the pain.
We then encouraged Dim to go and put on some more appropriate foot ware for this afternoons activity... again, I don't think crocs will cut it for this excursion. He came back with closed toed shoes on... and we were ready to head off. We walked to the town plaza, and again we were confronted with lots of people out enjoying the festivities of the public holiday. As we walked down Main Street, the atmosphere was magical. Again, buskers were out entertaining the hoards of crowds, restaurants and food vendors selling their delicious treats and plenty of activities to keep all of the kids and adults alike entertained.
We met up with the rest of the group out the front of the local supermarket, and then made our way down to a little bakery a couple of doors down. Here we all had a couple of empanadas for lunch. They were freshly cooked, and came straight out to us. Piping hot, we all ate the empanadas, trying the different sauces and salsas. Yummy, the only word I can use to describe the deliciousness of what we had just consumed.
With our tummies satisfied, we walked from the bakery to our jeep. It was actually only on the other side of the plaza, so we didn't have far to go.
The jeep, was literally a jeep. We all piled in, with the majority of us sitting on bench seats in the back facing each other. This particular jeep actually had a cover over the back, so we weren't exposed to the weather, however it also meant that we really couldn't take in the stunning views either.
Donna and Andres decided to stand off the back of the jeep, as if they were water skiing out the back.
We drove for about 20mins until we reached the Les Nevados national park, and soon entered a huge car park, where the jeep let us out. This is where the group separated. Andres took a couple of the group on a 5 hour hike up the mountains in the national park. The remainder of us were left to wonder along one of the paths through the national park, and then to make our own way back to town. Most of us wanted to head back in to town and take a good look around there, and besides if the walk this morning to the coffee plantation is anything to go by, none if us were too keen to attack another slip and slide hill.
We said goodbye to the others, and we set off. The path was quite wide, as the occasional 4wd made it's way past us. However the main users of the path, wasn't us walkers, but people on horse back. These horses were all in very good condition, however they were a little flighty for my liking. Especially as the guide generally just walked along side them.... which didn't really help when the horse started randomly trotting and cantering away. Most of the people riding these horses didn't have any idea on how to control their horse, so there was total horse anarchy out on that path.
We walked along the path, however again we were so distracted by trying to not stand in horse land mines a along the path way, that we actually had to remember to just stop, and take in the magnificent views that this park had to offer. The green rolling hills were amazing, however the wax palms, Colombia's native tree and the tallest palm in the world just towered over these hills. Across the peak of the mountains, the palms, so much taller than all of the trees in the forest stood tall and proud!
We made our way along the path, however decided to turn around once we hit the section of the path where we couldn't determine if it was mud or quicksand.
Once we arrived back at the carpark, we then had to organise a jeep to take us back to town. This was made a lot easier by the fact that we had Martina with us, our Spanish speaking group member.
We were to catch the jeep 'bus', which was able to carry 13 people - however I think this is the same as the elevator signage advising that 25 people could fit in a lift... However practically this is impossible without carrying people on your shoulders.
The next 'bus jeep' to leave was in half an hour.... So Martina did a bit of investigative work, and found out that to catch a private jeep back to town would cost $27000 Colombian pesos, so on top of the money that Andres had given us for our return trip, we only had to put in an additional $1000 pesos each, equivalent to 50 cents. We all took a vote and opted for the private jeep transfer back to town.
Everyone piled in to the jeep, all comfortable without having to share their seats with another 12 people. Bruce and I opted to stand out the back of the jeep for the return trip. Holding on to the roll bar at the back, we made our way in to town. We weaved around the windy roads, and it was just so beautiful to see all of the countryside and breath the fresh air. I hadn't seen a lot of the scenery on the first journey to the park, because of the cover over the back of the jeep, so to experience it for the first time like this was amazing.
We rolled back in to town, and Donna and I decided to have a walk around town. We explored all of the beautiful little artisan craft shops, that lined the streets. We found a few things that we each bought, and then decided to go and grab a coffee.
Andres had told us about a really nice cafe, located just off the plaza. So we headed there. This place was filled with some of the most gorgeous eclectic decorations. Every where you looked, your eyes were continually pleased by the new, creative and fun filled decoration they had placed there. We ordered our coffees and a piece of cake each and sat and enjoyed our afternoon talking. The coffee was amazingly good!!
We then started to walk back along the Main Street, and we decided to head down the end of the road that we had yet to cover. As we walked down the road, again we were greeted with arts and craft stores and street vendors. As we looked up to the end of the road, we could see a mountain side full of stairs, all climbing to the top of this mountain. With a look at each other with questioning eyes, Donna and I decided to climb them.
We stated to walk up the stairs.... and enjoyed the flat landing that was located after each flight of stairs. We just took it slow up the stairs, until we eventually made it to the top. The view was again stunning. On one side, we had the birds eye view of the town. With all it's colourful buildings, and the street lined with people enjoying the celebrations. On the other side, was equally amazing views of the surrounding green mountains, covered in its thick jungle. We were also met by the armed military... just keeping a watchful eye on everyone, keeping them safe!!
We soon decided to descend down the stairs, and finally made our way back to the hotel. Here we just lay around relaxing, biding our time until our group dinner.
At 7.30 we met in the foyer. We again walked back to the Main Street, and headed towards a restaurant for dinner. We made our way through the very large restaurant, and was seated on a huge sturdy wooden table with matching benches. The views of the town from this restaurant were gorgeous. Tonight we were encouraged to try a local favourite dish..... trout. I love fish, so this was a no brainer for me.
After dinner, we made our way back to the Main Street only to find it empty. All the shops had closed for the night, and everyone tucked up safe in their homes..... What a contrast from last night!! We walked back to the hotel, and I was surprised we didn't see any tumble weeds rolling through town it was so quiet.
We all retired to our respective rooms, and again it was time to repack our bags. Tomorrow was roll out day!! The task of repacking my bags has been made a lot easier by the fact that I have left a bag of my stuff back in Bogota. No need to stress, my bag zips up easily now!!