Colombia is world famous for its coffee, which originates from a triangular-shaped area enclosed by the small cities of Armenia, Manizales, and Pereira. We chose Pereira as our home base in our search for a perfect Colombian coffee.
Pereira itself does not have much to offer - the downtown area mainly consists of markets, with a shopping mall here and there. We were warned this area is not that safe, so we opted to stay along Avenida Circunvalar. Here, more upscale malls, restaurants, and hotels can be found. Apart from visiting the malls, we made day trips to Salento, in the heart of the coffee region, and coffee farm Don Manolo located ten minutes outside Pereira.
Salento & Cocora Valley
Salento is reached by a one-hour bus ride from Pereira, and is home to the Cocora Valley: a valley covered with 60-meter high wax palms, Colombia’ national tree. We arrived in Salento on Easter Sunday, so we did not expect much visitors. However, it seemed the city is alive on Easter, as the center square was turned into a big festival with plenty of restaurants and cafés.
Before exploring this further, we went to the Cocora Valley itself. This requires an 11-or-so kilometer ride by jeep from Salento. The ride was very uncomfortable, with ten people stuffed into a jeep really meant for four. Yet, after 30 minutes we arrived at the beginning of a hiking trail which lead into the valley.
We read online the full trail takes about four to five hours to complete, yet the highlight of the trail (the wax palms) was at the end of the trail. Therefore, we decided to hike the trail in reverse, and only spent 45 minutes hiking. A good decision, as the lush green scenery was beautiful, and there were plenty of wax palms around. As soon as we left, clouds started to roll in, so needless to say we were happy to only hike for such a short amount.
Back in Salento we enjoyed the festivities, we even got caught up in a Christian parade through the center. The trout, traditionally found in Salento due to the trout lake nearby, was not that good, so next time we’d spent a bit more money on getting it grilled instead of fried. After lunch, we decided to head back to Pereira.
Coffee Tour
A visit to a coffee farm is highly recommended for tourists visiting the coffee triangle. We opted to visit Don Manolo, a coffee farm just outside Pereira overviewing the city. After taking a taxi there, we were greeted by the owner himself, and (in Spanish) he was very happy to show us around and tell us all his coffee secrets.
Of course the first thing we did was taste the coffee itself: unbelievable. This was how coffee is supposed to be, no sugar or milk needed, just perfect by itself. Don Manolo next explained the process of how a coffee bean turns into his delicious coffee. He showed us the process of plucking, sorting, drying, peeling, and heating.
Even though the tour was in Spanish, it was very understandable as Don Manolo took his time to explain everything to us twice. About 100kg of beans are plucked every day, although not every bean makes it to the final stage as for example insects may have harmed it too much. At the end of the tour, we drank yet another great cup of coffee, justifying why Colombian coffee is so famous.
