Thursday, February 4, 2016

Colombia's Own 'Valley of the Giants'

 

When we open the tent there are green valleys all around us. There are some gentle clouds covering the higher mountains. The birds are telling each other good morning, the sun is coming out from behind a cloud. This is promising to become a great day! After some coffee and some work on the bikes we ride off into the valley. The mountains are covered in grass and when we come around a corner the first palm tree towers into the sky. 
 
It is unreal to ride between these trees. 
 
It is a little piece of paradise complete with waterfalls. We ride around for a while and go for a short walk.

Azure is craving coffee again so we head back to town and visit a sustainable coffee farmer. We get a full tour which takes us through the whole process of making coffee including, picking, crushing the berries, washing, drying and finally roasting. It resembles wine making in a way and we thoroughly enjoy the cup of coffee at the end of the tour. 


 
We spend the afternoon in the square of Salento drinking more coffee and absorbing everything that happens around us. In the evening we take a short ride to Armenia where we get picked up by Uriel and Anna whom we had met on the road a few days earlier. They bring their daughter, Monica, who speaks English fluently. We spend the evening touring the city, which is part of the coffee triangle and looking at pictures and maps of South America.

The next day they want to take us to all the touristy highlights in and around town. It takes us a good amount of time to explain that we would rather get to know them and hang out in town. We have a beautiful morning together and in the afternoon father and daughter escort us out of town on their V-Strom. But not before they had Colombian stickers made for us because we had a hard time finding them so far. 

 
We ride up the mountain together and say goodbye after enjoying a local delicacy, Aguapanela (a hot sweet tea-type drink) with Queso Campesino (yes, cheese). 
 

Monica had snapped some photos of us while we were riding and by the time we make it to the next gas station, she's sent them to Azure. 



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