Black please, no sugar, no cream

Trip Start Mar 31, 2010

Trip End Jul 29, 2010

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Where I stayed

Hostel Manizales

(Manizales hotels)

Flag of Colombia Manizales, Colombia
Monday, June 28, 2010

Manizales is one of the major coffee production capitals of Colombia. It's located between the magical altitudes of 800-1800 meters, where coffee plants thrive. We were really impressed by the fanciness and cleanliness of Manizales and somewhat unprepared for the hills. Let’s just say, it’s not really a walking city, but the cabs are cheap and comfortable. The city also boasts the fifth highest Cathedral in the world.

We saw Toy Story 3-D and Tyler was a good sport even though he doesn’t speak Spanish.

The coffee finca we visited, Hacienda Venecia, was beautiful and relaxing and we learned a giant mug-full about how coffee is harvested and produced. For example, instant coffee consists of all the beans that either crack or turn white during the drying and separating process. The good beans are mostly used for export-quality coffee. We also drank no less than 8 espressos while we were there. (It was included in the tour.)

All coffee’d out, we moved on.

Slideshow

Post your own travel photos for friends and family Pictures

Juan Valdez would be proud	We visted Finca Venecia	Mmmm...coffee	Coffee tastes better with silly hats on
Tyler sorts the good beans from the bad	And then we roasted the green beans	Coffee looks a bit like grapes	Sara's favorite flower
Tyler picked the trees bare with this tool	City art is very edgy here	Jayson perfects his plantain recipie	Fifth highest cathedral in the world
Awesome contempory art	Again, the art work in the plazas were amazing

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Comments

Dr.Dive on Jul 13, 2010 at 07:47PM

I realize I didn't comment on the last trog (short for travel blog?). The blue flower was a oriental lily, and I don't think there is such a thing as a natural blue one.
Sara's favorite flower in this batch of pics is some sort of Heliconia. They look like crab or lobster claws, or like little boats with flowers inside. Sometimes they hang upside down. The big colored parts are actually bracts, the colored modified leaves surrounding the little flowers inside. They're another very popular tropical flower that you see everywhere, but I think they are native to the Americas. The are in the same group as the gingers, bird-of-paradise flowers, bananas and cannas. You'll notice all these plants have leaves that look similar. Bromeliads are also in this group but look quite different, although they do have very similar looking flowers though, you'll notice some similarity in the shape of bromeliad and heliconia flowers.
BTW, can you tell I did some botany in college?
Coffee... I remember seeing platations on the volcanoes in Costa Rica. We have Columbian coffee here at work.
Is that a pic of Tyler picking mangoes with the stick thing? I lived for a year in the biggest mango growing area of Australia, and made one of those stick thingies out of some bamboo and an old ice cream container. Mmm mangoes. Did you know there are about 200 varieties of mango? Did you also know that mango trees are in the same plant family as poison oak and also contain small amounts of the urushiol oil that causes poison oak rash? Some people, especially those previously exposed to poison oak, can get a bad rash from picking mangoes.
Anyway, this trablogomment is getting way too long. Enjoy your travels.