Medellin and Guatape

I had no intention of going to Medellin, but after many people told me how innovate it was I felt the need to see for myself. My friend and I bought tickets to go see the second largest city in Colombia. 

My travel buddy and good
friend: Daniel.

Once known as one of the most dangerous cities in South America, Medellin now has become a welcoming and safe place to live and visit. Much of this positive change can be attributed to the previous mayor, Sergio Fajardo. Fajardo, turned Medellin around from a distraught to an innovative city. 

My friend and I took a walking tour and were told that just five years ago few visitors came to Medellin. Now, as my friend and I witnessed, tourists can be seen in every major street and site. 

You may have heard stories of Medellin as being a very dangerous city. News and TV shows will give you a distorted story of the truth about the city. Our tour guide talked a little about this saying that movies have glorified Pablo Escobar, a drug lord in the Medellin area. During his lifetime, Medellin was a pretty dangerous place. Our tour guide told us that many of the Colombian schools refuse to talk about him, so many of the youth only witness the TV version of him. This has caused a mixed understanding and view of Pablo Escobar among the youth with the generation of Colombians who lived during his time. 

Some of the highlights of our trip included… 

• Over seeing the city at Pueblo Paisa.  

At the end of the metro, there are cable cars that bring people
from the metro to the barrios located on the sides of the mountains.
(Sorry they are not in any of my photos).

Medellin is the second biggest city in Colombia with about 2.5
million people. About the same size as Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  

You may notice that the city is kind of shaped like a bowl.

One of the look out points over the city.

Some artisanal touristy shops.

• Walking through a “crafty” street market.

Walking the street market where, specialty foods, and hand made
crafts were being sold. 

We of course bought some things as well as tried the free samples.

Little wooden animal whistles.

• Climbing "El Peñón de Guatapé" or the "Rock of Guatape" which boasts of the best view on earth. I have to admit it was breath-taking.

The view from above. 

• Walking through the town of Guatape. 

We walked in and out of shops.

Something unique in Guatape is the bright colored buildings
and the craftsmanship put into the architecture.

• Seeing all the sculptures in Plaza Botero. Fernando Botero, is probably the most famous Colombian artist. He is known for making disproportionate art. That is why the people look “fat” in his art. 

• Learning about Medellin through a free walking tour.

Once a dangerous part of the city is now
brightly lit public park. This light park is now
a symbol of hope. 

The Belgium architect, Agustin Goovaerts
created this Gothic style building, which was
latter finished by Colombian architects.

In this photo here you will notice two of Fernando Botero's sculptures. In the mid 90's
A bomb was placed in the bird sculpture on the left, which blew up while a concert was
taking place. And it killed over 20 people and injured many more. The bird that
the bomb was placed in was left there as a reminder. The bird on the right was
placed after the event. "Birds of Peace." This park was once lively, but now
people hardly come to the park; its their way of trying to forget.

• Enjoying bandeja paisa. Bandeja paisa is food that includes cooked beans, white rice, always some kind of meat (ground or fried beef, chicharron, chorizo sausage or what ever other option they have), fried egg, plantains, arepa, and avocado. 

More or less what Bandeja paisa looks like.
Just missing a few foods.

Daniel enjoying his Bandeja paisa over
an amazing view.

Learning all about Coffee

When Hanfei and I had visited a privately owned coffee farm, we learned a lot about the coffee making process. This blog post will share with you the interesting discoveries we made that day about coffee.

The coffee farm we visited is small, therefore, the coffee is not exported. The farm is family run and they profit from selling their coffee and providing coffee processing tours. 

Here is some of what we learned…

The first step in the coffee making process is the planting of the seed. Once the plant has grown into maturity and it produces coffee. The coffee at this point is in the form little red seeds or cherries about the size of a marble. With this you peel away the red part of the seed to get to the bean. It looks just like a regular coffee bean however it is pale and a bit slimy on the outside from the red seed covering. At this point in the process, you can suck on the bean to taste a sweet flavor. During the tour, we took the seeds in this form and planted in a little nursery for them to grow into more coffee plants. 

The coffee cherries

The coffee beans once planted and starting to grow

Walking through the plantations and picking the best coffee cherries

The next step for the coffee process is the placing of seeds into a special machine that peals the cherry so that only the bean is left. At the farm we were at, the cherries were hand picked by two men, who were paid by the kilo.  

The third step in the coffee making process is the drying out of the bean. The slimy outer layer, previously described as tasty, must be removed by being laid out in the sun to dry. At this step in the process, the bean can be recognized as the coffee beans we have at home, however, the outer layer still appears pale. The best beans are chosen and by hand the soft shell is peeled away. 

Our Tour Guide; his family owns the place

Hanfei picking the best beans

The next step to the coffee making process is roasting the beans. Since we were at a small farm, they did it in a pot over the stove, the artisanal way. Larger corporations have special equipment for equally roasting all the coffee beans. Once roasted, the coffee can be sold as whole beans or it is ground down and bagged to what we normally purchase in our stores in North America. 

Hanfei grinding up the coffee beans

Finally, the coffee is enjoyed. At the plantation the hosts made us little espressos, allowing us to taste the rich flavor while enjoying a fantastic view of the coffee plantations. 

The view of the farm

Coffee with a view

(Please note that this information came from what I remember from the tour. If I have made any mistakes or if you have corrections for me please comment below).

Salento

Its always fun having friends from other countries come to visit the country you’re in. I love showing people around, where I live, where I work, introducing them to the local foods, and of course meeting the people who have welcomed me into the country. 

The week Hanfei came was a blast. I was able to show her around Bogota and some of my favorite places as well as explore a new region of Colombia together. Hanfei is very spontaneous which made exploring new places fun.

On her first day in Colombia we went to the Eje Cafetero or the coffee region of Colombia. This is where a lot of very good coffee is grown. Since Hanfei and I both love coffee we were excited to be in the region where it was grown. We stayed two nights in Armenia, the capital of that “state.” The remaining of our days in Eje Cafetero we spent in Salento, a cute touristy town located near Cocora Valley.

Many of the buildings and houses in Salento were brightly painted

Salento's center

We stayed in a hostel where we met a lot of interesting tourists. We were amazed at the extent of travels our fellow guests had pursued. Several of these travellers spent weeks traveling around the world. Since we only had one week of vacation we had to make the most of it.

We made two friends at the hostel: Rahul and Alex.
We are in the back of the Jeep going from our hostel to Salento.

One of our nights in Salento we played Tejo with two friends we met at the hostel. Tejo is a game where you toss a rock and try to hit triangular, gunpowder pieces. Every time you hit the piece, it ignites a small explosion. There were about eight to ten such triangles placed in a circle on soft clay. Players stand about twenty meters back and toss their “rock” hoping that it lands on the gunpowder. Although we were not very good, it was fun.

Our time in the Eje Cafatero was relaxing and full of spontaneous adventures. We walked around Salento taking photos of the brightly painted houses and shops. Since we were in the coffee region of Colombia, we had to order coffee at every place we went. Some of the regional food we tried was trout with a tomato onion salsa and plantains with tomato, onion and beef sauce. All was delicious. 

We also explored the surrounding areas of Salento. We hiked part of Cocora Valley, and went on a coffee tour. Seeing the mountains and the tall palm trees made me think of Haiti. It was seriously beautiful. On the coffee tour we learned all about Colombian coffee. I guess you can call us coffee experts now. (To read how coffee was made on the coffee farm we went to, click here). 

Cocora Valley

Looking up at the worlds tallest palm trees.

Bright purple flowers

Rahul

More photos of Cocora Valley

Back in Bogota, on Good Friday we climbed Monserrate. Monserrate is one of the places Colombians traditionally go to on Holy Week as a pilgrimage. Thus, we were among thousands that day. It was my first time walking the trail, as on a previous visit, I rode a train. I was excited to try something new. Hanfei and I climbed it in less than an hour and were quite proud of ourselves for that. We did not stay long, however as the amount of people was overwhelming. It was Good Friday and it seemed half of Bogota was climbing the Monserrate that day. We estimated that it could have taken us a less than an hour to hike down, but because of the crowds, they led us through a different mountain trail, which took us over three hours. It felt like we were in the Exodus. It was definitely an experience going on Good Friday, but not one I would recommend. 

The last night out dancing with the "Daniels"

Saturday was Hanfei’s last day, so we crammed in as much as possible. We purchased gifts for all her friends and co-workers. We ended the day going out dancing. My friends, the Daniels, joined us and it made for a good end to the trip. 

I am extremely blessed to have a friend like Hanfei and that she was able to take time out of her busy life to visit me.