Part 10 Southern Colombia, late May 17

Part 10

Day 59 Pereira

We headed out the garage door from the hostel in Medellin during morning rush hour but it wasn’t a problem because we were leaving town. The going was slow but things moved continuously. The motos felt good, refreshed after their servicing. Everything that had been  needed was done to them and all for a good price at Ruta 40 BMW.

South of Medellin the roads became curvy and the trucks were slow. The speed limits were also very low. Only about 10 km of our route today was posted above 60 km/hr. There were construction zones with flag stations and blocked lanes every few kilometers, largely for landslide repairs after a difficult rainy season. We arrived at the hostel in Pereira at about 4:30 pm. 215 kilometers had taken us a little over five riding hours. Lunch and other stops added two more hours. Throughout the day the scenery had been gorgeous.

Stopped at a construction site - photo taken through my mirror

And that’s what it is about. The day we crossed the border from Mexico into Guatemala was the start of 100 km taking 2 ½ hours to cover. Once we accepted the idea that road travel is and will always be slow here things become easier. We have learned to enjoy the scenery and all the conversations during hourly breaks and in the halted wasp nests at the construction sites while waiting for the go signal.

Colombians are fantastically friendly and inquisitive. They stick their heads out the car window or steer their motorbike beside ours at every stop-light or construction zone and start to ask questions. They are thrilled we are visiting the place they love so much. They want to know our story and always suggest things we must do and see. Most common questions in Colombia: how did you come from Panama and how fast will it go?

Coming in from the north we looked down on the city of Pereira from about 200m above. The city sits at about 1300m altitude so the climate is very much like the eternal spring of Medellin. The hostel has its lobby/office in what was the garage of a house. The administrator opened the big garage door and I helped him move the furniture back. Then I rode both of our motos into the remaining space, occupying all of it. It required three of us to lift and slide the back wheel of the 1200 closer to the wall. They will be safe there tonight.

Bringing the bikes in from the street

Day 60 Pereira

Breakfast at the hostel was simple but did the trick, especially with Colombian coffee in the mix. Our private room and two breakfasts cost $25. The low-key rooftop terrace has a bar and some tables and chairs. It was a nice place to spend yesterday evening as the inside rooms cooled for the night. We stuck around the hostel in the morning because our coffee tour wasn’t until the afternoon, then we went out for lunch.

We found a little 5-table restaurante called “Café Mariscal Pereira” that served a set menu almuerzo for $4.50. It began with a generous bowl of pork and beans, then came the main dish of sausage, fried plantain, white rice and a tortilla. Desert was Jello and a drink of lemon and sugar cane juices with cinnamon. Everything was delicious. He also fixed me a great “café negro”. The owner and his wife had real pride in their food. He checked a few times with us regarding the quality of the food. He described each dish well and made sure we left with a business card for his restaurant.

Mauricio Ibanez

Mauricio Ibanez picked us up from the hostel at 3 pm and brought us to his coffee finca (farm). He is a small producer like all the others in this area and every step of the process of coffee production at his farm is done by hand. The best coffee here grows on steep hillsides to create partial exposure to the sun. This makes for a tough job clambering around on those hills and using only traditional hand tools to tend the small trees. A hand scythe is used to keep the grass and weeds down between the coffee trees. Mauricio hires local workers at picking time and to do the heavy work. He has at least one full time employee who is very knowledgeable about farming and local plants.

Some of Mauricio's coffee trees

We asked Mauricio about the “bad times” after he mentioned that phrase. I asked, “when were they?”. He answered, “Well we had 60 years of bad times but in my lifetime, it was in the 90’s”. He said that they lost many people, that it was a lawless time. Corruption was everywhere and many people thought that they could become rich through the drug trade and they quit their regular jobs. This led to the disintegration of productivity and the whole system slowly fell apart. The cities and more specifically the walled and barred homes within them became the only relatively safe places. The police were too few to protect those who lived in the countryside from the bandits so most farms were abandoned. Many farms fell to ruin.

Touring the farm - up and down...

Mauricio told the story of his father’s death. His father was murdered only 6 blocks from the nearest police station by bandits. He said the police were, “too afraid to go so they waited until the next day to recover the body. Then a new president was elected and he started a war with the criminals. People began to see the advantage of working to make a living and safety came back to the countryside.”

Peek-a-boo

Mauricio also told us stories about the road that we had ridden the day before from Medellin to Pereira. One of them was even a ghost story that featured the sudden appearance of a second passenger that was behind and pushing on his sleeping wife, on the back of his motorcycle late one night! The other stories revolved around the physical dangers on the road like falling rocks, full landslides and included people’s warnings not to drive on that road at night.

Coffee Trees

We have heard, read or seen YouTube videos of some crash and over the side plunge stories in the Andes at night. We avoid any travel at night by motorcycle. Add stray animals, potholes, unfamiliar territory, drunk drivers and the personal warnings of countless local truck drivers to Mauricio’s stories and the risks of night driving cannot be justified for us.

Coffee beans ripen at different times

It is abundantly evident that Mauricio loves the business of farming. Our private tour through the hills, deep valleys and across the streams of his farm was punctuated by Mauricio picking a wild plant, immediately smelling it then passing it to us. Next, he would go into an explanation of the medicinal or cooking uses of the plant. He continues to study plant uses from an indigenous teacher in the region.

Sun drying is the preferred method

Mauricio showed us the husking and cleaning machines and the fermentation vats. The fermentation time for coffee in this region is 14 hrs. Next came the sun drying racks outside. He has a propane powered small drier if he needs to process a batch quickly but the sun adds flavour to the beans and is the preferred method of drying. His coke fueled drying oven is not used any more as it is very bad for the health of the workers. He uses the inactive cavity for storage of tools.

Cooling after roasting

He roasted a small amount of already dried beans to show us how. Timing is everything with seconds and degrees C combinations being strictly adhered to. A light roast is preferred to preserve the aroma and correct acidity. It makes the best filtered coffee. Dark roast, accomplished by leaving the beans in the machine for not much longer, reduces the caffeine and aromas. It is best used in espresso machines.

Into the grinder

Then came the tasting. Mauricio’s wife Jimena served a tasting at the table in the house. It was delicious. Coffee is at its best when it is ground just before brewing and lightly roasted no more than 6 days before brewing. Jimena drove us home and we had a great chance to practice Spanish with her in the car.

Washing up after the tour

We got to the hostel at about 7 pm and walked down the street a couple of blocks. We ate some street food then bought some pastries from the panaderia (bakery) across the street. We enjoyed them with tea on the roof-top patio back at the hostel. It was another fun day in Colombia.

Mauricio's garden

Geese lifting off

Pastoral beauty

Day 61 Cali

Getting out of Pereira was relatively easy this morning and we enjoyed 220 kilometers of great roads and few obstructions. We even got the motos up to 100 kph for a couple of kilometers before the speed limit dropped again. Drivers mostly adhere to the speed limits in Colombia. The small moto riders, however and within their power limitations, do pretty much what they like.

We ride/drive as if our bikes are cars because we are so big. The spaces need to be quite large if we are going to dare to filter through traffic like wasps. We usually just try it on the highways near borders, tolls and construction sites when the traffic is stopped. City traffic is already incredibly intimidating, there is no need to add to that stress!

Today’s ride mostly took us through a long wide valley. It was at least 20 km wide at the narrow points and was well over 100 km long. It was huge, and it was full of sugar cane. We passed by a few four and even five-trailer rigs called “tren de caneros” (cane train) that resemble an Australian “road train” in the outback.

"Tren de Caneros"

We arrived through the big front door, literally, of the Kilele Hostel in a hip area of Cali at about 2 pm and parked the motos in the lobby.  It’s a former urban mansion, the back opening onto a steep hill overlooking the city. It is complete with servants’ quarters and a swimming pool three levels below the main one. A football championship game featuring the favorites, Real Madrid was just about to begin. A large crowd of young people had gathered and the beer was flowing, possibly because the first one was free. It was a ton of fun to watch the game with passionate fans. “Futbol” is an obsession with many in South America. Madrid won, thank goodness!

Preferred parking

After the game and a gigantic hamburger at the hostel we went for a walk around the area with the clubs and bars looking for a café with dessert choices. We had to look a while to find a simple café. Most establishments were themed restaurants or disco bars where people dance salsa all night. Cali is the place for that, we are told. I can hear the mixed beats and DJ’s through the open window as I write this. It’s Saturday night and we are in the middle of the party zone. Things are continuing, albeit on a smaller scale, here at the hostel too. It’s fun to be here tonight. Yes, we’re old and will go to bed early as usual, but it is still fun. We are especially buoyed by the news today that our daughter Gabi booked her flights and will join us to ride for a few weeks in Peru. We are overjoyed!

Cali from our room in the hostel

Day 62 Hato, outside Popayan

Getting out of Cali was lengthy and traffic filled even on a Sunday morning. The rest of today’s ride was on good roads that wound through river valleys again. We were waved though military check points. When things got hillier we saw numerous pairs of soldiers posted at the side of the road. We also saw a few sandbagged firing points that were manned by more soldiers. Some bridges are well manned and have sandbagged or concrete hard points at either end. These sightings grew fewer and stopped altogether as we moved more toward Popayan. The last hour and a half was a gentle climb.

We are at a house in the country outside Popayan owned by Elizabeth. Riding on the rough dirt road in from the main one was worth the effort. The tranquility of this beautiful place is reflected in our host, Elizabeth. She is kind and serene. The farms in this area are small and very close together. People work the land by hand and grow enough for themselves and perhaps a little more to sell. Coffee grows here too. We saw no farm machinery. There were a few small trucks on the road but mostly people and goods are moved around on small motos. We saw a few signs on the country road for cheese. Our stay tonight cost $17.

Elizabeth is a retired pharmacist

Elizabeth and I talked while fixing dinner in the kitchen upstairs. Isabelle’s knee was giving her grief again so she stayed downstairs in our spacious and hospital clean room. Elizabeth gave Isabelle some herbal remedies to put on her knee. Elizabeth said she wants to learn English. She is taking lessons from someone in the village. She would like to study in the city, Popayan but she said it is very expensive and then there is the problem of getting there each day.

We disturbed one of Elizabeth's neighbors, can you see the raised eyebrow?

Isabelle and I walked through the village of Hato earlier, probably making her knee worse. We noticed how immediately open and quick with a greeting people we met on the street were. Also, there is a distinct lack of walls and fences and locked gates. I told Elizabeth some of Mauricio’s stories about the dangerous times in the 90’s and how his father had been murdered by bandits just outside Pereira. I asked her if things were ever dangerous here. She said in the days of Pablo Escobar that all the trouble was farther away, nearer Cali. She said that this place is different from Cali. People just went about their everyday lives here.

The atmosphere in this region of small family farms is charming. Today marks the second time, the first time being in Panama, we have ventured off the beaten path and been rewarded with pastoral tranquility. The elevation is 1900m. The night air is fresh. The hypnotic sound of rain gently falling outside the open window is all we hear tonight. This place really is a world away from Cali.

Day 63 Pasto

The city of Pasto sits at 2700m and the climate is wonderfully cool. The ride from Popayan to Pasto is mountainous. Isabelle is getting much better at sharp turns and is putting some actual wear on the sides of her tires now! We saw a few different ecosystems along the way. Some of the differences in ecosystems are caused by local rainfall or the lack of it. Rain seems to fall mostly on one side of the mountains. Crossing from one side of a mountain to the other can bring you from desert cacti in 38 degrees to lush cultivated land a few degrees cooler. Pasto is a city with about 800,000 people nestled in a shallow valley.

View from Elizabeth's back porch

News of landslides, flooding and the terrible loss of life in Peru and southern Colombia this past and difficult rainy season reached us at home on the TV news. Our trip planning puts us in the mountains during dry season. Tomorrow we will cross the frontier into Ecuador.  Up until now it has felt like a mad dash that started with the first clear roads at home (04 Apr) and will end tomorrow with our arrival in the high Andes at the beginning of dry season.

Breaktime in southern Colombia

We have made our two deadlines: the pre-booked sailing to Cartagena and Ecuador at the beginning of dry season. Things can slow down now as we spend the next four months in the three countries of the high Andes, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.