Sometimes on a long 'adventure' we find we need some downtime. Not just relaxing but also catching up on things like the washing and planning where we are going to next! This was going to be our downtime.
From the Plaza or town square in Salento, transport is available in two principal directions - one to see Cocora National Park with its wax palm trees that can grow up to 70m high and the other to visit small scale coffee farms. The interesting thing is that the transport is run by a local cooperative and it does not involve the ubiquitous white minivan. They actually run a fleet of Jeeps, real ones, not Japanese equivalents. With a Jeep you can get two up front with the driver, six sat down in the back and another three stood up, outside, on a shelf at the back of the Jeep holding onto the roof and riding shotgun. Of course we have no idea how insurance works on these trips. No seat belts and hanging on outside? Yes they drive slowly - they have to on the coffee trip as it is down an unmade lane, but things happen. And we did pass a stopped Jeep where someone had quite clearly fallen off the back which was what caused the question in our minds about insurance... Nonetheless we rode shotgun together on one trip and it was quite fun.
So we went to learn about coffee, the plant, its growing, the flowers that become little beans, the types of trees etc. Surprisingly a fresh bean picked off the tree and popped out of its shell tastes not coffee-like at all and quite sweet if you just suck it. The 'history myth' about coffee, and who knows, it might be true, is that people tried and failed to make a tea-like drink out of the leaves and gave up. They then threw everything on to a fire in disgust and it was only when the fire roasted the beans and gave off an aroma... well, the rest is history. Good beans, when they have been scrubbed, apparently float. They are also a creamy white colour. A large number don't pass this test and they end up in Colombian supermarket coffee we were told... we wonder, when we get back to the UK, whether we will be able to interrogate those coffee sellers with our newfound knowledge.
The 'finca' called El Recuerdo we visited was very small scale and trying to operate on an environmental basis. It was really pleasant; a shame in many respects that we didn't stay chatting with the people there a bit longer. But they will have had work to do and our return Jeep was calling. So was the coffee cake we had sampled the day before...
Visiting the palm trees in the National Park gave us the opportunity for a walk - something we find necessary when riding the bike so much. Even when it is hot and sticky and the insects are hungry/thirsty. The wax palm trees are the national symbol of Colombia and can grow to over 60m. They look as though they could be the subject of some anthropological TV programme about indigenous people who climb them for some bizarre reason. But then again they might be called wax palms for a reason which might make this difficult.
From Salento we moved to Jardin which had been recommended to us by a couple we met in Popayan. It was supposedly similar to Salento, relatively high up in the hills, coffee, town square and walks. However this time we were staying quite a way out of town which gave us the opportunity to use the taxi tuktuks to get back to our accommodation, after having walked down to the village. Jardin had the first European type Plaza we had come across in South America. By that we mean that there were lots of cafes all round the square with tables and chairs set out in the middle. And we benefited from this arrangement.
We had a long arduous walk to a cafe on the top of a surrounding hill on an old mule track still used by mules from what we could see/step in. Francoise's sandals were far from the ideal footwear. It was amazingly steep in some places; we don't know how the mules manage, but they clearly do, as that is the only way to get the bananas down. The bunches would be pretty good in the gym, lift one, eat one, lift again, eat another one.
We also visited a small bird sanctuary where some male birds, of an astonishing red colour, gather to 'sound' each other out. They are far prettier than they sound...
