Kathleen
Columbia – Armenia & the Coffee Triangle
June 9, 2014
A 6.5 hour bumpy, windy, pretty bus ride brought us into the fertile interior of Columbia. Here you couldn’t go too far without seeing expansive plantain, pineapple, and of course coffee planatations spanning the verdant hills. We booked a room at a place recommended by trip advisor for its great views and infinity pool and we were not disappointed. The first day we were there, Steve caught up on work while I relaxed by the pool (someone had to do it!) and spent some lovely hours enjoying the fabulous green hills…we were perched way up on one of these and it was just stunning.
The next day we road (we were driven by one of the hotel’s drivers out to the Cochucua valley, home of the tallest palm trees in the world. On the way we stopped at a coffee plantation and got the whole skinny on the coffee process in addition to getting to pick some coffee berries ourselves, dress up in traditional costume and see coffee seeds get roasted and then made into coffee for us to drink – yummmmm. This was a delightful day and we really felt like we got to see a bit of the gorgeous countryside.
The next day we had to check out one of the area’s main attractions, a coffee themepark! We thought this was just too amazing to pass up, so we paid for our tickets and enjoyed a half-day at one of the most relaxed theme parks we have ever experinced. OK, so maybe there was only one roller coaster and it wasn’t really Cedar Point material, but there were absolutely no lines for anything and we were able to get coffee frappacino type beverages anywhere in the park. In addition, there was a 45-minute show with amazing costumes, dancing and singing, depicting the history of the region and traditonal dances and clothing. This show alone was worth the price of the admission, so we considered it a good attraction over-all. The coffee musuem was just ok and we would have preferred to see more coffee-themed rides, but just the concept of this amusement park way out in the green plantations of Columbia, was amazing in itself.
And so we passed 4 nights (a long time for us) in the coffee triangle and could have easily spent several more days touring around the area and relaxing at our beautiful hotel. This is definately a part of Columbia not to be missed!
