If you want to keep enjoying coffee once you return to your home country, I would suggest staying clear of Colombian coffee.Out of the 5 top listed coffee producers in the world Colombia is number 3, behind Vietnam and Ethiopia.
A while ago Colombian coffee had a bad reputation as it exported all the great coffee and kept the second class coffee for themselves. We made it our mission to find the best coffee in Colombia, and we definitely had some pretty tasty coffees.
When we asked locals where to get a great cup of coffee, most of them referred us to the chain coffee company Juan Valdez. It’s similar to our Gloria Jeans or Starbucks. It made it quite apparent that Colombians don’t have the same coffee culture we have in Australia. Walking around the city of Sydney you would be hard pressed to find a coffee shop without anyone in it or a person wandering the streets of the city without a coffee cup in hand. We love coffee! One of my favourite things is getting a coffee with friends at our local coffee shop, so we decided to steer clear of the Juan Valdez chain and managed to find some pretty funky coffee shops who make it their mission to make a great cup of coffee. So when you stumble across one of these cafes you will know what we mean about not drinking the coffee in Colombia. Their coffee is delicious!
We headed to Salento! It is one of the main coffee producing regions in Colombia and overall a beautiful, colourful, relaxing little town worth visiting for a couple of days.
The town of Salento is situated just outside of Armenia and takes about 1-2 hrs by bus or about 40mins by car. There are quite a few activities to keep you busy for a few days. From horse riding, hiking, mountain biking and the obvious coffee tours.
We stayed just out of Salento on this amazing little farm in a big colonial style house, El Mocambo hostel and guesthouse.
It is located in Boquia the first town you hit off the main road on your way to Salento. And while it was a 20 minute walk over the hill in to Salento, it was the perfect place to enjoy the scenery of the area.
In addition to wandering around the gorgeous towns, we also hiked the Co Cora Valley. You jump on a local jeep that is packed with more people than it can possibly hold. I think our jeep fit thirteen people in/on it. Some hanging off the back and sides of the jeep for the twenty minute drive to the start of the trail. The hike is approximately a 4 hour round trip through farm lands and rainforest. When we reached the top of the valley there was a small little house that offered hot chocolate and a slice of cheese.
We are not sure how, but a lot of people got lost trying to find this little place. It is a very simple trail, signs are limited but it’s basically one trail all the way up. Where the jeep drops you off there is a path and gate on the right side of the rode follow that path the whole way up and back again.
The area is famous for its extremely tall wax pine trees and abundance of little humming birds.
We left Salento with our backpacks a tad heavier from numerous bags of coffee to take home. We bought them from a local coffee farm after taking a tour to see the production of the coffee. We can both say we have a new appreciation for a cup of delicious coffee. Brett especially changed his tune. After years of trying to get him to have a cup of coffee with me at my favourite cafe and hearing the familiar line of “I don’t drink coffee” he is now the one suggesting a trip to a cafe in the morning! Much to my delight!
Picking some coffee beans
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