Colourful Colombia

Images of Colombia remain with me long after our trip: lush green hills cloaked in coffee bushes, colourful towns with brightly painted houses, their balconies adorned with vivid tropical plants; Spanish colonial villages steeped in history; rose farms (their major export); and much more...

Bogota is the capital but we found it to be rather dirty and very noisy. We did love the Gold Museum though which held fascinating pre-history objects as well as glittering gold artefacts reclaimed from tombs. And we got in free because we were 'viejo' (old).  Here are two views from the hotel window. (You can see why I titled this blog 'Colourful Colombia.)

We had a 9-day trip planned with a local Engish-speaking driver/guide. Our first destination was Villa de Leyva, a town settled by, and named for, a Spanish governor in 1572.  It's World Heritage listed so is well preserved.

We loved the attractive and well-cared for courtyard gardens.

A side trip was to a Dominican monastery where we saw the fossilised body of an anaconda. Definitely not an every day sight!!!

The next town, 5 hours away, was Barichara. After a long journey past fields of corn and potatoes, bananas and sugar cane, and green hills dotted with cattle, up and down twisting mountain roads with drivers careening around bends past trucks with nary a thought as to what might be coming in the opposite direction, we eventually arrived. The village is built on a hill so all the streets dive headlong downwards.

In the next photo, can you see the white statue in the niche above the church's doorway? 

My trusty long lens could!

 I loved the little decorative touches around the village as in the figure in the next photo, and the lovely window-and-hanging-basket image in the one after.

We were hooked on the delicious fruit and fruit juices. Every morning breakfast consisted of a freshly squeezed fruit juice (orange/pineapple/blackberry/mango...), a huge plate of pineapple, papaya, banana, mango, passionfruit, watermelon, guava and rockmelon (as well as eggs, bread and jam, and a hot chocolate). The fruit drinks were so fresh and full of fruit. Here are our blackberry drinks.

Another amazing drive took us through the Chicamoca Canyon; on one side lush jungle and the other rocky hillsides with no vegetation, deep crevices and a river carving its way through the topography. Imagine living in this village! 

Then it was off to a coffee farm 4 hours south of Medellin, the country's second biggest city. Here you can see young plants dotting the hillside.

At the Finca Los Angeles, we learnt about coffee growing and processing on a very informative tour. At first I thought I wouldn't enjoy it as I don't drink coffee and hate its smell. That was such an ignorant assumption; coffee doesn't gain its aroma until the beans are roasted! So I was in a coffee-smell-free zone as this small, family-owned farm sends the beans to a cooperative to be roasted and sent back to the farm packaged to sell. Here are the coffee beans growing on the bush.

And here I am doing some picking.

Pickers wear a heavy bucket around their waist. It is back-breaking work and I was exhausted after picking a mere handful.

Then it was on to Jardin (pronounced in the Spanish way 'har-deen'). It was my favourite place in all South America. It is so colourful. All the chairs in the square and outside restaurants are painted with scenes from Jardin's history, simple but decorative designs, or vivid images of home, flowers, animals and birdlife. This one was at the coffee farm.

People sat around the main square drinking, eating, chatting. Horses clattered along the cobblestones. It was such an exuberant atmosphere.

The houses too were painted in such intoxicating colours...

.. and the balconies were vibrantly decorated.

I loved this woman's shawl draped over her shoulders as she went home from church.

Even the colour of the flowers was garishly bright.

I fell in love with the leather bags and succumbed to a purchase from a family-owned business who manufactured them right there in the town.

The next day we drove away from the town. Here we saw a number of properties that are weekenders for the rich from Medellin. A sharp contrast to the traditional homes - but I wouldn't mind living in this one.

Our tour included a bit of gold panning in the Cauca River (as Colombia is well-known for its gold). We've seen it done before but went along with it anyway. However, the gold panner who was supposed to be a 10-minute walk away was unavailable and we were told to walk 'a little ways' to the next beach. On the way we passed an old railway station now converted into a home which I thought was rather romantic looking.

Then we followed the old railway line...

...then through a village (our guide is on the right and and on the left is the young girl who was taking us to the gold panner) ...

... then through the countryside...

 ... and more countryside long after the track had petered out.

In the end it turned out to be a 6 km round trip in hot and humid conditions. We were exhausted. Our guide gave Steve a parasol to use as she thought he was going to faint in the heat. Unfortunately I have had threats to my life if this photo ever sees the light of day!

And the gold panning was not that great, though the setting was quite evocative.

But, on the way, I managed to get a shot of a cowboy rounding up some cows across the river...

.. and these posters of Christ and a kitten on a verandah.

We briefly stopped at Tamesis, another hillside town.

Here we saw the brightly coloured chiva buses that operate off the main bus route, taking people to and from isolated destinations.

We were now on our way to a cacao farm, the first time our guide had visited, so she was a bit unsure how to get there. In her defence it was definitely a hidden gem and difficult to find. At the first stop we were told the road we were on led to the rubbish tip, so we decided it must be the next driveway. However, this turned out to be a private house. The husband came out to see us but didn't know where the cacao farm was, but his wife had been to Australia so she wanted to meet us. Then her two young boys came out to try and speak a bit of English, then the teenage daughter arrived and then their dog.  It was a fun meeting as we laughed at mistaking their home for a plantation. Then then gave us a bunch of bananas from their trees and the girl insisted on having photos with us - and the dog.

We finally found the farm a few kms on and were shown how the cacao beans are made into delicious drinking chocolate, which we of course sampled.

Their lovely home had a lush tropical garden.

Our final stay in Colombia was on a mountain top with magnificent views over the valley and mountains beyond.

I really enjoyed Colombia. We always felt safe and, thank goodness, we were never ill. 

I'll finish with one of my favourite photos. This man was so happy to see us and stands in for all the welcoming people we met along the way.