DESERT SKIES TO CITY SIGHTS
(Crossing Colombia Part 4)
Travel Tales Index - Crossing Colombia Index - Colombia Pix
From San Agustin we headed to Desierto de Tatacoa, a 140 square mile geological oddity between the central and eastern mountain ranges in Colombia. In the nearby town of Villavieja, we arranged for someone to drop us off at a guesthouse in the desert, pick us up early the following morning, take us on a tour and then drop us off back in town. Due to the lack of any light pollution, the number of stars we saw was incredible. The next morning, our guide took us to two different parts of the desert; one area was ochre red and the other was pure grey. Many years ago, the area was an inland sea and when the Andes rose and the sea receded, the remaining sediment was eroded into beautiful formations by the wind and rain. Red clay, blue sky and green cactus created a gorgeous combination of colors and shapes.
After spending about an hour walking through the red part of the desert, we drove a short distance to a totally different world. While above ground is desert, there is a large subterranean water supply which allowed for a number of nice swimming pools. Our first sight in the grey part was a swimming pool which reinforced the curious juxtaposition - a desert with an abundance of water. The desert here was completely grey. We walked another hour through and among the various shapes.
If you recall from our "Getting Ready" e-mail, we came to Colombia in part due to the suggestion of our good friends, Mark and Gerre. Some time after we decided to go, they reached the same decision. After the desert, we went to Salento where we met up with them. By coincidence, there was a festival in Salento. From what we can tell, Colombians love a good party and that is what the festival was. The small town was packed with people, food vendors, a large stage for music in the main plaza and lots of places to drink. The national police even had a salsa band that played on the main stage.
One evening during the festival, we heard some great live music. It was in a funky outdoor bar with a variety of seating areas; one with an open pit fire, another with hammocks, another with tables and chairs made from cross-sections of tree trunks. The band played a variety of up-tempo latin jazz tunes and included a horn section, a pan flute, keyboards, guitar, bass and drums. The joint was a jumpin'!
Our main reason for visiting Salento was not, in fact, the festival, but the Cocora valley, home to Colombia's national tree - the wax palm. We hiked for two and a half hours along the Rio Quindio to a nature reserve at the top of a mountain. There was a nice little restaurant where we sat and relaxed while listening to the sounds of nature. There were birdfeeders and we watched hummingbirds darting in and out while feeding.
We were at the top of the mountain but we didn't have a good view of the valley since it was dense forest. We hiked another hour to a spot where we could see the river that we hiked along, the lush, green fields on the sides of the mountain and the forest above them. The wax palms which grow to between two and three hundred feet in height towered over all the other trees. While hiking down, we cut across one of the fields and discovered just how lush they were when our feet sank in at least three inches with each step on the soft, thick grass. We just barely made it out of the park before sunset.
Between Salento and our next destination of Manizales were the hot springs of Santa Rosa de Cabal. They weren't exactly between them, and it took an extra open air chiva bus ride to get there. The bus made a quick stop at a food stand where they sold arepas made from corn meal and corn kernels with a little cheese on the inside. From there it was a quick ride to the hot springs as we enjoyed our delicious, warm arepas.
The hot springs were in a beautiful, green setting in a narrow gorge. There was a large pool with hot water cascading down into it (you can see the steam in the picture below). The other side of the pool had a cold waterfall. High on the mountainside above was a three hundred foot waterfall. Our afternoon consisted of soaking in the hot water, swimming, eating lunch, hiking to the upper waterfall and enjoying life before continuing on to Manizales.
Manizales lies in the heart of the coffee growing region of Colombia so we went and visited a working coffee plantation. We had a wonderful guide who walked us through a large part of the plantation and showed us the whole process. They start the plants from seeds and it takes two years before they produce beans. After five years of producing beans, the plants are trimmed back to about seven inches and it again takes two years before they produce beans. This seven year cycle occurs four times before they cut down the plant completely and put a new seedling in its place.
A coffee plant has two crops a year, producing a total of two thousand beans which weigh eleven pounds (on average). Eleven pounds of beans results in a pound and a quarter of actual coffee. The beans are hand picked by workers paid 10 cents per pound. A good picker brings in about 180 pounds of coffee a day. They carry the beans to a machine which peels them and then takes away the mucus membrane. The beans are then washed with the bad ones being removed, dried in large ovens and then sold to a processing plant which removes the parchment (inner skin) around the bean. The inner bean is then either sold raw or else roasted and sold. One interesting element of the tour was the emphasis on how the process has changed over the years to become more green. The parts of the bean that are removed are used as fertilizer for the plants or fuel for the drying ovens. According to our guide, nothing is wasted.
We hiked in the Rio Blanco reserve on the outskirts of Manizales the next day. It was a mixture of primary and secondary forests and a good way to avoid the heat of the day. Orchids, birds and butterflies were in abundance. We met an older birding couple lugging around a large, fifteen pound, reel to reel, tape recorder to record bird calls. We wondered if they had heard of digital recorders, MP3 or iPods? They got to the park at 6:00 am, instead of our 11:00 start and said they had seen some "lifers" that only existed in this part of Colombia. We settled for hummingbirds and a great view of Manizales.
Manizales is not a major stop on the gringo trail, but we did enjoy walking around the city. As in other Colombian cities, there was a lot of art in the streets, some of it quite whimsical (or else beyond our comprehension).
Another common sight in Colombia was what we called "Minutos Guys". They are people who make their living by having a number of cell phones and plans, one with each service provider. You can use their phone to make a call for between five and ten cents per minute. Some are more concerned than others that you might run off with the phone!
Manizales is built on a hill, with the historic center being at the top. Way down at the bottom are the newer parts of town, including the bus terminal. Last year they built a cable car to provide a more direct connection between the two. It provided us with a great way to get a bird's eye view of Manizales, as well as get to the bus station when we headed on to Medellin.
The route to Medellin was another up and down windy mountain road. We often see leisure cyclists all dressed up in their outfits cycling along the roads. However, some people are just riding bikes for transportation and try to avoid using pedal power to go up the mountains - they hitch a ride on a slow moving truck. Additionally, the drive to Medellin provided us an opportunity to reflect on fate, destiny and chance. But that's a whole other story...
Paul
& Lois
Santa Marta, Colombia
February 6, 2010