Dear Colombia, I will come back!

Bogotá, Colombia Wednesday March 19 6:30pm

This pic is the road leading to the coffee tour I received. Those are coffee trees and banana trees (for shade-grown coffee). How exciting!!!

Wow, it´s been a while since I blogged. I don´t have too many crazy stories outside of Merrill and I getting involved in our third landslide. This one was the worst, in fact the worst in four years in Colombia. The nine hour busride from Bogotá to Medellín should have taken 9 hours. It ended up taking 32. No problem, just 24 hours extra. Let´s just say by the end of it, we had made some friends on the bus! (Actually a lot happened, but seeing how the last several blogs were about stuff like that, I´m not going to blog about it.)

So we arrived in Medellín and went out on the town! And let me tell you something, Medellín is gorgeous. The town, the parks, the trees, the river that runs through the city, and the people. Everyone is gorgeous! I´ve never been in a city where every guy, girl, old person, everyone is just beautiful. Needless to say I enjoyed it. Merrill and I went there mainly for the nightlife. We had heard it has one of the best nightlifes in South America. I am now of that opinion as well. You can imagine how much flirting, dancing, and romancing goes on in a city full of hotties with great night clubs and bars. About three days worth for me.

Then I headed to a small town of a couple of thousand called Salento. I must say, as much as I enjoyed Medellín, my heart lies with Salento. Salento is a coffee town with national parks surrounding it. Go figure why I love it so much. I don´t think there is a street in the entire town without a great view of the surrounding mountains. The air is fresh, there is a river at the bottom of the town, it´s a good crisp/cool temperature all year round, plenty of hiking, plenty of cows, and most importantly plenty of coffee.

I stayed at a hostal which gives free coffee to its tenants. Seeing how much coffee I drank and how much the room cost, $8, I´d say I won. I´ve never had more fresh coffee in my life. I mean, there´s no more to say, it was just so fresh, aromatic, stimulating, black, delicious, slightly acidic, and hot. It was just perfect. Simply perfect.

I went on a tour of an organic coffee farm as well. The farmer, our guide, was named Don Elias. I really think that´s a cover up. I actually think his name is Juan Valdez. Look at the picture and you can decide. I think Don actually is just trying to get out of the spotlight, so he made up this alias. Unfortunately his looks give him away, for he is no Don Juan. (That is officially the worst joke I´ve made on this blog. If you can find a worse one, please post it.)

Well, ole Don Juan Valdez showed us all around his farm. I´ve attached some pics for yall´s entertainment. At the end of the tour he took us to where he washes and dries the beans. He had some beans ready, been drying for 8 days, so he took them to his cast iron skillet and roasted them for us on the spot. After hand grinding them, I had a cup of the purest and smoothest coffee I´ve ever tasted in my life. And I´ve had a lot of coffee.

How much did this tour cost? $1.50 God I love backpacking.

So I´m probably not going to blog again until Panamá. I just arrived in Bogotá and only have like 48 hours here. So I´m not going to spend it in front of the computer if possible.

chao,

stewart

Blog Point:
1. Colombia exports tons of flowers. If you´ve gifted flowers to your sugar-darling they were likely from Colombia and you didn´t know it. Here, the flower boquets that you see above cost about a dollar. So what do you think it takes to make an impression with flowers to a girl? I mean, do you have to fill her room?