DAYS 69-71 (14-16 March 2024) COLOMBIA: Manizales, Hacienda Venecia (Coffee Plantation).

Uber was a lifesaver for us in Medellin. They are reliable and cheaper than taxis and the cars are always clean and air-conditioned. Our Uber driver to the Medellin bus station looked like he was 15. Even at 630am traffic was horrendous and the 7km trip took the better part of 30min. The bus station is right next to the inner city propeller aircraft airport. Our “bus” turned out to be a 15-seat minivan. Reminded us of our Intrepid days. We got away at 8am and headed up high into the surrounding mountains. Most of the 5.5hr drive was all twists and turns. Spectacular mountain scenery reminding me much of Peru and Bolivia in 2011. That’s the Andes for you. We made a banos and lunch stop half way through and we were glad to see Manizales around 2pm. Manizales (Pop 455,000) is a mini Medellin built on several mountains and valleys but with a difference. Instead of thin high-rise apartments we have favela style shacks on top of each other. Just how people climb up and down to these is besides me. For the more modern apartments there is a metro cable car just like Medellin.

 

Manizales has an average elevation of 2160m and was founded late in 1849 by a Spanish expedition of 20 people who got trapped here crossing the Andes. The city is described as having an "abrupt topography", and lies on the Colombian Central Mountain Range (part of the Andes), with a great deal of ridgelines and steep slopes, which, combined with the seismic instability of the area, has required architectural adaptations and public works to make the city safer. Even though Manizales has this very difficult topography, there are many coffee plantations in its fertile lands. Manizales is regarded as the coffee capital of Colombia. The city is located near the volcano Nevado del Ruiz, which has an altitude of 5,321 meters (17,457.3 ft) but we could not see it because of constant heat haze. Despite the elevation it still gets hot and humid during the day but nights are cool and comfortable.

 

Antonia and I dumped our stuff at out hotel just behind the central plaza – terrific location but really noisy. We embarked on a 2-hour walk of the city centre which is perched high above the rest of the city on a plateau. It is a busy place with lots of one-way streets and few grand or old buildings. We visited the following places over 3 plazas: Simon Bolivar Plaza (Palacio de la Gobernacion, Basilica Manizales, Museo del Oro), Carrera 22 Main Road, Parque Caladas, Immaculate Concepcion Church, Metro Cabke car from Fundadores to Los Cambulos return. The Immaculate Concepcion Cathedral is huge but the highlight was easily the cable car ride down from the plateau into the valley suburbs. Terrific views of the entire city from the cable cars – so much so – it was not necessary to send up my drone !!! After our walk we visited the supermarket and headed home to enjoy some blog time. After sunset we ventured out to enjoy the city square under lights and collected some Churasco steaks for dinner back at the hotel with DIE HARD to introduce Antonia to Bruce Willis (who she did not know) but sadly she did not like the movie.

 

The next day was coffee day. Not a cup. A whole two days on a plantation with tour, local food and overnight. Our car pickup was waiting at 9am to take us 17km (35min) to the plantation down in a valley at 1350m elevation. Lush green jungle with steep drops just steaming in the sun – perfect for coffee trees. We stayed at the HACIENDA VENECIA plantation, which has been around for almost 100 years – a family affair in its 5ht generation !!! We stayed in the so-called “Coffee House” – a very cosy and colourful big house with 10 rooms, a living area, dining area, fully equipped kitchen and even a nice swimming pool outside surrounded by hammocks. Heaven. I wasted no time. It was approaching 10am and already I could feel the hot sun and humidity so headed off on my 10km through the steamy plantations along several dirt roads that I had mapped out the night before in Manizales. By the time I got back I was bushed. The heat had taken its toll on me and it was a slow run due to the heat combined with several hills but now was the right time so I could enjoy the next day with a big brekkie and poolside nearly all day !!! I got back in time for a quick nap before lunch at 1pm. We enjoyed the popular local dish known as AJIACO, which is in fact a watery soup with heaps of chicken breast and potato – delicious and not heavy. This area also loves a coleslaw style salad with lemon grass and lime – absolutely delicious and refreshing. After lunch we embarked on a 2.5hr tour of the plantation with 5 other older guests from Germany. Our young female guide, Laura did a great job explaining the plantation, the three coffee making processes used here and their customers. Laura is in fact and Agricultural Engineer which focuses on the mechanised processing of agricultural products and she decided to specialise in coffee making. She explained the three coffee making processes with actual hot tastings of the results of the three for comparison. She then took us on a big walk through one of the plantation blocks and to the processing centre which is highly automated. The first thing that hit Antonia and I was the size of the operation when compared to the small high quality plantation we visited in Boquete PANAMA, home of the prized Geisha Coffee Variety. Colombia is all about commercial scale volume.

 

Here is what we learned from Laura:

1.          The WASHED (LAVADO) method is the first of 3 processing methods and the most used for volume: hand-pick berry, remove two seeds with mucllage (sugar rich gelatinous layer), wash mucllage off with water, dry seed under dryer, de-husk seed to reveal “green bean”, roast green bean to coffee bean.

2.          The HONEY method is the second of 3 processing methods and the second most used for less volume but more berry flavour: hand-pick berry, remove two seeds with mucllage, dry seed with mucllage intact under dryer, de-husk seed to reveal “green bean”, roast green bean to coffee bean.

3.          The NATURAL method is the third of 3 processing methods and the most used for quality: hand-pick berry, dry entire berry under dryer, remove two seeds from dried up berry, de-husk seed to reveal “green bean”, roast green bean to coffee bean.

4.          Arabica is the most grown here and in Colombia and comprises 160 varieties. We tasted 2 of them.

5.          Colombia produces mainly medium roasted beans.

6.          Washed is the most bitter, Honey tastes sweet with more acidity and Natural is the least bitter with rounder berry flavours with chocolate overtones and is 50-100% more expensive than the others.

7.          Hacienda Venecia covers 160 hectares with approx. 5000 trees per hectare = 800,000 trees.

8.          Each tree produces berries every year enough for 350kg of green bean.

9.          Trees here are pruned annually to last 20yrs and then replaced by new seedlings.

10.     Hacienda Venecia’s biggest customer is the USA with their coffee available for individual purchase via Amazon but most is exported as green beans to roasting houses in the USA. Next biggest customer is an EU consortium.

 

The top three exporters of coffee in the world are: 1) Brazil 2,652,000 tons, 2) Vietnam 1,650,000 tons and 3) Colombia 810,000 tons.

 

After the your it was time to buy some coffee for home presents and hit the pool to cool down. Poolside drinks. Perfect. A lovely sunset followed by dinner at 7pm with the Germans. Lucky for us there was an Irish lady who could interpret. The conversation centred around IT and its future especially in developing nations. Antonia and I then retired to a movie given our isolation here.

 

We had the best sleep here. So quiet. We woke to the sounds of many birds and enjoyed our first full brekkie of cereal, fruit, yoghurt, toast and the best omelette to date of ham, cheese, tomato and onion. And of course the Hacienda Venecia coffee – loads of it. There is a machine in our living area and you can drink all you want gratis. The day was ours at leisure until our departure at 4pm. Mainly poolside with intermittent sessions on the laptop for me and mobile for Antonia. Blue-sky day with plenty of heat for that last minute tan before Australia. At 4pm we made our way back to the same hotel in Manizales. Dropped off gear and hit the supermarket to replenish what we had consumed on the coffee plantation. Some drinks and blogging back at the hotel. At around 630pm we walked to the adjacent central plaza to pickup the same hot food as before for a movie time dinner. This time it was LORENZO’S OIL produced in 1992 by none other than George Miller. Antonia loved it. A great way to finish our coffee plantation experience before heading to the big smoke capital of Bogota tomorrow – our last land trip and destination of this epic adventure…

 

Enjoy the sites and smells of coffee in the coffee capital of Colombia of Manizales…

DAYS 67-68 (12-13 March 2024) COLOMBIA: Medellin (City & Pablo Escobar).

The 76min flight from Santa Marta to Medellin was very smooth and comfortable flying the latest A320neo. Medellin Airport was large and fancy and 26km from our hotel. We were lucky to get an Uber, which is cheaper than taxi. Because we landed at 615pm it was already dark and much cooler being at 1495m above sea level. After 30min the most incredible views of Medellin greeted us. The airport is much higher at around 2000m above sea level so the city appears below surrounded by mountains with millions of tiny dots on it – we would find tomorrow that these were thousands of tiny brick dwellings on the mountainside. The descent into Medellin at night is a sight to behold. As I was filming downtown the Uber driver wound up my window saying that in this area people would grab and steal my phone. Bad move because this unsettled Antonia completely. We got to our hotel around 730pm in a very busy downtown Carrera 70 full of restaurants, bars and cafes. Dropped our luggage and walked directly to the Makro Megamarket. What a dud. This is more like a bulk Cosco and ironically had very limited cheeses and wines and no hot food. We Ubered it back given Makro was not in a well lit area. Lucky for us there was hot street food opposite our hotel so we grabbed some roast pork, fries and salad. It was delicious and by 10pm it was time to sleep given my 6am run the next day.

 

I woke to sunrise over Medellin and started my run. Wow. Medellin is huge. It is any skyscraper city surrounded by a wall of mountains. These mountains are covered in pencil-thin skyscraper apartment buildings like Hong Kong. A very strange site indeed. It is not a good looking city. There are many unkept and abandoned buildings and many are stuck in the 60s and 70s in design. My 10km run was easier than I thought thanks to the dedicated bicycle lanes next to the freaky busy roads. Cyclists have their own lanes and even their own traffic lights. My run away from the centre revealed many homeless. The weather was still warm and slightly humid despite the 1495m elevation. I was very please to run in Medellin given its reputation as the drug capital of not only Colombia but the world from 1976 to 1993 – more on this later. At 830am Antonia and I Ubered it to downtown El Poblado Park to start a pre-organised 4hr tour of the city starting at 930am. There is no way you can see this city on foot – it is way too big and has no Old Town as such – just old buildings scattered around a hugely wide area. We climbed aboard a 25 seat minibus with just 4 other people – one from Texas and the other 3 from Colombia. Our guide Noemey was young and enthusiastic. She spoke fluent English on top of an even faster Spanish giving us information about the city in alternate languages.

 

Medellin (Pop 4,137,000) is the second-largest city in Colombia after Bogotá. It is on the Andes at an elevation of 1,495m above sea level. This area was first occupied by the Spanish in 1616 but the city was not officially founded until 1717. During the 19th century, Medellin was a dynamic commercial centre, first exporting gold, then producing and exporting coffee. Since the 21^st Century it is now important to the region for its universities, academies, commerce, industry, science, health services, flower-growing, and festivals. It is also a major tourist attraction.

 

Our first stop with Noemey was Parque Berrio which features 23 bronze sculptures valued at $ISD1m each. They fill a huge plaza, which contains the Culture Palace, Art Museum and the first ever five star hotel. We then took the escalator to the Parque Berrio metro station above the plaza and caught the ultra modern metro train to San Antonio station to change lines for San Jose station for a big surprise. The surprise was metro owned cable cars !!! These climb up the surrounding mountains as public transport for people in places that are too narrow and steep for cars or buses. Amazing. The cable cars seat 6 to 8 people and are constantly moving. They slow down at each station slow enough for people to get off and on. We climbed aboard our own and travelled 20min high above the mountainside dwellings below to get to Vallejuelos station where we got off to take photos. Antonia packed it at first but got used to it quickly. These cable cars are ultra modern suspended on huge concrete pillars rising at least 30m above the mountainside. Amazing. You can ride these along with the entire metro system for only $AUD1.50 per entry and exit lasting all day. This is an excellent incentive to leave the car at home. We then caught another cable car back down to San Jose metro station. On both trips I managed to slip my Galaxy behind the slightly open air vent to get excellent clear footage of the expansive city below us. The cable car was easily the highlight of our day tour. These mountain communities are mainly refugees from the Caribbean and Venezuela forced to congregate and build their own red brick with tin roof shacks on the side of these steep mountains to keep them out of the valley city. It looks like the favelas of Rio with a cable car through them !!! At San Jose station the funniest thing happened. Antonia got left behind !!! Yes, we all hurried aboard except Antonia. Her face disappearing behind us outside. She called me immediately and spoke with Noemey who agreed to get off at the next station and travel back to get her. We headed to Suramericana station where we waited for Noemey and Antonia. Once reunited Antonia found out from Noemey that the station she was stuck at was in the suburb where the infamous Pablo Escobar lived. More on him later. The minibus was waiting for us at Suramericana and took us high up on Pueblito Paisa hill, one of 7 natural formations scattered through Medellin. On top of this hill is the Antioquia Spanish Colonial Town, a replica of what the Spanish Medellin looked like from its founding in 1717. This is a tourist trap of a church, plaza and lots of restaurants, cafes and souvenir shops but it has a 360deg view of modern Medellin around it but totally obscured by overgrown trees and bush. Finally it was back to the start of this tour at El Poblado Park where Antonia spent the next hour bagging more bargains. Loved it. An Uber back to the hotel to shower and relax with pres and blog. At 630pm we scooped up more delicious street food and sat down to watch a Netflix documentary on Pablo Escobar.

 

Noemey told us that no one in modern day Medellin likes talking about Escobar in much the same way as modern day Germans do not talk about Hitler. Both were monsters.

 

Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (1 December 1949 – 2 December 1993) was a Colombian drug lord, narcoterrorist, and politician, who was the founder and sole leader of the Medellin Cartel. Dubbed "the king of cocaine", Escobar was one of the wealthiest criminals in history, having amassed an estimated net worth of $USD30 billion by the time of his death - equivalent to $USD70 billion as of 2022. His drug cartel monopolized the cocaine trade into the United States in the 1980s and early 1990s. Born in Rionegro and raised in Medellin, Escobar studied briefly at Universidad Autónoma Latinoamericana of Medellin, but left without graduating; he instead began engaging in criminal activity, selling illegal cigarettes and fake lottery tickets, as well as participating in motor vehicle theft. In the early 1970s, he began to work for various drug smugglers, often kidnapping and holding people for ransom. In 1976, Escobar founded the Medellin Cartel, which distributed powder cocaine, and established the first smuggling routes from Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, through Colombia and eventually into the United States via a private island in the Caribbean that he bought for this purpose. Escobar's infiltration into the US created exponential demand for cocaine and by the 1980s it was estimated Escobar led monthly shipments of 70 to 80 tons of cocaine into the country from Colombia. As a result, he quickly became one of the richest people in the world but constantly battled rival cartels domestically and abroad, leading to massacres and the murders of police officers, judges, locals, and prominent politicians. In the 1982 Colombian parliamentary election, Escobar was elected as an alternate member of the Chamber of Representatives as part of the Liberal Party. Through this, he was responsible for community projects such as the construction of houses and football fields, which gained him popularity among the locals of the towns that he frequented. However, Escobar's political ambitions were thwarted by the Colombian and US  governments, who routinely pushed for his arrest, with Escobar widely believed to have orchestrated the Avianca Flight 203 and DAS Building bombings in retaliation. In 1991, Escobar surrendered to authorities, and was sentenced to five years' imprisonment on a host of charges, but struck a deal of no extradition with Colombian President César Gaviria, with the ability of being housed in his own, self-built prison, La Catedral. In 1992, Escobar escaped and went into hiding when authorities attempted to move him to a more standard holding facility, leading to a nationwide manhunt. As a result, the Medellin Cartel crumbled, and in 1993, Escobar was killed in his hometown by Colombian National Police, a day after his 44th birthday.

 

After the Escobar documentary I felt it was the right time introduce Antonia to the movie PULP FICTION which she had not seen. It turned out that she liked it and was like our grown up version of KILL BILL as a child.

 

Allow us to show you images of Medellin, a vastly different place from the Escobar days…