medellín, colombia

Arepa with scrambled eggs, cheese, and hot chocolate.

Art in my hotel room. 

I usually alternate between staying in fancier touristy areas and more local, less gringo-y parts of town. This time I stuck with the latter, so as to say I ended up in the Centro. My taxi driver took me to a place which I found a bit expensive, but I at least had a private room with the ever-important fan. The woman working at reception was so kind and helpful and had genuine smiles by the dozen.

Despite being a bit pricey, it was in a ghetto area with prostitutes, junkies, and homeless people. The hotel itself was secure and nice, but the neighborhood wouldn't match the description of charming. But, if you want an authentic experience then I recommend Las Rampas Hotel. It definitely beats all the 'love hotels' in the proximity. They have rates for the night, or 'ocasional' - for 3 hours.

It's not really a mystery what they sell here.

The rapid transit system is great in Medellín, and locals are proud to say that it's the only metro in Colombia. I first heard about this fact from one of my student's presentions. The trams are nice and wide... reminds me of Berlin.

My first day of trips on the metro were free because it was election day. On the one hand it was a nice little surprise, but it also meant huge lines to take the few gondola-style trams with views which I decided to bypass as it would have been an even grumpier in the heat here.

Fernando Botero is the famed local artist, and this is Botero Plaza.

Botero said he´s not inerested in `fat people` but that his pieces are `voluptuous.`

Sampling Botero's sculptures...

The Museo de Antioquia houses international, pre-hispanic, colonial, independence, and modern art on top of donations of Botero's pieces.

Pablo Escobar, no more.

Does this fly with you?

It was interesting to see this information about gentrification as it's a hot topic in the DTES in Vancouver.

Some modern art just makes me laugh.

The Botanical Garden felt more like a picnic park loaded with families and vendors. The Orchidarium is within the garden and it is supposed to be amazing during its annual orchid show.

I met 2 guys from New York here and I ended up joining them (and 2 other New Yorkers) on a `coffee tour` the next day.

Things found on the New Yorkers` hostel wall:

The night before I went on my coffee tour I did some negotiating and there was a lot of back-and-forth communicating. I guess that would explain my dreams that night of being a warrior fighting wolves and other creatures with martial arts.

All that is nothing to say against our guide from landventuretravel who was professional and very knowledgeable about many things Colombian.

Cerro Tusa

Before getting into the coffee stuff, our guide told us about the previous wealthiest Colombian and how he liked luxurious things and that he`d reserved a spot on the Titanic. Fortunately, his boat to England was a day late and he wasn`t able to make the famed trip.

We first drove to a coffee farm near Ciudad Bolívar for the `adventure` part of the tour. As passengers we hung on tight as quad bikes took us up steep bumpy roads in the middle of the 90,000 plant farm. Post-gear, each of us sailed through the sky over a huge section of the property on a zip line.

More quad bike time transported us to the highest points of the farm for great views.

Most Colombian coffee is grown at or above 4,600m - one of the reasons why the coffee is famously delicious here. Plants grown at a higher altitude and in a lower temperature produce more flavour in the beans.

A coffee berry, freshly picked:

About 90% of Colombian coffee is exported, so unfortunately you don`t need to travel here in order to get good coffee. In 2012, 43% of Colombia`s coffee was distributed in the USA and 7% in Canada.

One of the issues with coffee is that the money gets spread around inequally. Our guide said that a load of coffee sold for $600 3 years ago, while the price is now down to $200 per load. Needless to say, it`s not good news for coffee farmers.

Lunch time!

And then there was more driving which took us to another coffee farm (as we decided to extend our tour and day) near Concordia. This property has a massive 450,000 plants.

It takes 40 days for the plant to sprout after planted and it`s another 1 month for each successive layer of leaves. After 6 months, these little babes can be planted in the earth.

After 5 years, coffee plants are pruned - sometimes up to 2-3 times - then a new tree is planted since production decreases after a time.

We climbed into the back of this truck to go pick up workers after a day of picking coffee berries.

You definitely have to be careful to not slide out the back of the truck on the steep and bumpy ride to meet the workers.

Amazing weather, amazing views.

During the busiest harvest time there are workers who live in the 100-bed dorm for the season.

Our guide brought bocadillo (dried guava concoction) for the workers. No, it`s not meat!

After the berries are picked, various machines are used to de-pulp and separate the good, the bad, and the ugly ones.

When the beans are washed, the ones unsuitable for coffee float to the top. They can still be used, however, as they will be sold for a third of the price and used to produce instant coffee.

The largest beans are exported, while the small ones are kept for the local market.

drying time

This is where the roasting happens, if it happens at all. Most often it`s green coffee (unroasted) that gets exported as freshness is prolonged. And we all love fresh.

One of the people who works at the farm was caught by police with a firearm in his truck. The owners of the farm were able to get a good lawyer and the guy was given a sentence of 5 years house arrest here.

14 adorable itty bitty puppies (from 3 mothers) running around the driveway of the farm.

There were also parrots, cows, peacocks, and more.

Who needs a TV when you have a showdown between a small dog and a peacock? More peacocks arrived and surrounded the dog for enough time to make it dramatic. Shortly after, more dogs joined, but thankfully nobody got hurt.

Coffee shop in Concordia: