A Few More Days in Manizales

After our lesson in nighttime shortcuts in Manizales, we've successfully avoided the criminals and had a good few days relaxing and exploring the area around the city. We've visited hot springs, local ecological parks and Kadie managed to successfully renew her visa...

On Wednesday, I coughed up the hefty price to visit one of few glaciated mountains in Colombia, Nevado del Ruiz. Like all organized tours in Colombia, the van was overfilled with people, the food was marginally edible, and the road to our destination twisty, bumpy and very dusty. In these ways, Kadie was wise to sit this one out, but being a bit of a fiend for mountains and high places, I took the journey for better or worse. Before breakfast the guides did a good job of convincing everyone not to eat much food, because the tour reaches an altitude of 5100 meters (16,800 feet) and altitude sickness is a real risk. So with largely empty stomachs our van began ascending to the high refuge where we would hike higher up the mountain. En route we stopped at a small lake (probably the only pure glacial lake in Colombia) and other spots to snap pictures and admire the vistas.

Around 11am we arrived at a small bridge that was partially buried in a small mudflow. After getting the van stuck in the mud once, our driver refused to give it another go and instead called to other guides on the mountain to help us out of the situation. What started as a promised 20 minute wait, quickly turned into nearly an hour and a half, and my hungry, surly companions openly expressed their envy as I devoured the eggsalad sandwich I had smartly packed in my bag that morning.

Eventually we got over the small obstacle and reached the high refuge on the mountain. The landscape was extremely lunar as the soil is all volcanic and completely unhospitable to plant life. Unfortunately, because of our delay at the bridge, time did not permit us to reach the glacier, but regardless it was a remarkable landscape, and very different from any other mountains I've visited.

After a good night's sleep, we woke up the next morning and headed to a nearby coffee farm for a tour and education of coffee production in Colombia. The coffee region in Colombia is based around the cities of Manizales, Pereira and Armenia, and in the areas between these cities lie hundreds of small and large farms growing coffee for both domestic use and export. The farm we visited was a larger farm where they completed all cycles of coffee production including roasting. However, all the good coffee they grow (80% of harvest) is exported to Japan, Canada and Europe and the rest is left for South Americans to drink.

The tour was informative, and our guide did his best to speak in English so we could understand. Unfortunately, while walking through the coffee fields, some of the workers accidentally knocked a rock down the hill directly into Kadie's calf, leaving a good size scrape and bruise. After a couple games of croquet on the lawn, where Kadie beat me horribly, she was feeling better amd we headed home to do laundry and prepare to depart Manizales in the morning...


Because of Easter and Semana Santa (a weeklong holiday before easter) we're trying to stay away from big destinations until we have to go to Popayan on Maudy Thursday. Popayan has the largest Easter celebration in Colombia and one of the largest in South America, so we're looking forward to getting our fill of processions and religious songs next weekend. 

I'll end this post with my recent passport photo. In Colombia, evidently they believe passport photos should look professional, so they photoshop suits into the photo...awesome.