Plantation House Coffee Tour

I have been visited coffee farm in Guatemala and Costa Rica and seen the roasting process in Finland, Paulig factory. Plantation House gave something much more!! Tim was so passionate about his farm and coffee :D What I liked the most was his idealogy about biodiversity plus he thought that making quality is more important than making money. His farm is 7 hectars and produces Arabica from traditional and modern plants. We saw the whole process and it was nice little group of us, Finns, Sweds and Norwegians. Go Scandinavia, the most coffee consuming countries! 

Traditional coffee plant is the skinny one with less leaves. And then the modern one, ( you can get 4000 plants from Colombian goverment when registrating your farm) which can get up to 10m high and looks more like a tree. Tim had both of these. From white little flowers it takes 30-35 weeks to pick the ready red or yellow berries. From there you peel the berries, beans going otherside and peels to the other and they will be thrown back to the ground and used as a fertilizor. Beans needs to be washed and soaked about 18h to separate the bad from the good ones and also get the slimy sugar away. This water can be used again to produce coffee wine, more like an appertive or coffee whiskey, like Baileys. 

Drying process depends about the season, will you dry the beans on owen or in the sun. April-May is one season to pick the berries but it is also the rainy season so drying takes longer, up to three weeks. Plantation House had two different drying places, other on the roof and other in the 'hot house'. After the beans are dry and once again separated you can start selling your coffee beans. This stage is how all our coffee beans are brought to Europe. Rarely they are roasted in the counties they are grown. Before roasting process you will have to peel the beans twice to get the actual green bean. This bean will be then ready to be roasted. 

There are less roasteries than coffee farms. The person who roasts the beans will have years of experience. For our little amount of beans it took 10min to rovisitedn and 2min to cool down. Aroma was gorgeous!! It would be wrong talking about smell. We grinded the beans and made the most fresh coffee I have ever tasted! I love the smell of coffee but I don't like the taste, never have. Until today. The taste was so fresh and fruity, delicious full of flavors. My first cup of coffee :D 

Finca was really beautiful also, and if you would want you coukd stay there also. Lots of pineapples, bananas, platanos, limes, oranges and blackberries growing all around coffee plants. They had tobacco also to keep insects away. All in all our half day tour was one of the best experiences so far. 

Traditional coffee plant

Modern coffee plant

Tobacco

Drying the beans at Hot House

Peeling the beans

Vino de Cafe and Cafe Whiskey

Back to the city

Getting back to the city was nice and not so nice. 

Hot shower and clean clothes was definitely the best thing, right after the chocolate cheesecake with rasberry sas! :D We went for a burger and I had an ice cream also. I think it was little bit too much after our two week diet..

The other thing what I hate in the cities, especially on weekends, partying locals!! Same happened in Bogota! Stuff everywhere, occupaying showers, taking showers at 11pm, putting lights on middle of the night, having a smoke and leaving patio doors wide open. Arrgghh!! I barely slept three hours.

Yesterday was pretty much a day that I hated travelling. I was so tired, Rob was grumpy also, we only talked like five sentences to each other. We took bus to Salento and oh how convienient that our ticket, which was suppose to be direct, wasn't direct at all!! After sitting 7 and a half hour on a bus, driver left us middle of the motorway and told us to cross the road and catch a Salento bus from there. Paying a new ticket of course! Luckily the bus came almost right away which was good cos it had started to rain, and the ticket wasn't that expensive. But damn I was frustrated of everything!

El Amargal - Choco

It is not that easy or safe to go to Choco region, in Colombia. But we both wanted to see the Pasific Coast jungle, indigenous villages and the coastline before others will realize what they are missing. In few years beaches will be full of resorts. Luckily we found this volunteer project, El Amargal through HelpX. So we didn't have to spend tons of money staying in expensive cabañas or lodges, instead of, we worked. We actually didn't know what we would be doing, not so much information given. We knew that we will be middle of nowhere and that we have to bring everything what we need with us.

There is no roads to Choco, so we flew to bigger village, Nuqui. Oh my good, smallest airplane I have ever been and the loudest one also. From there we still had two boat rides to catch. And once again I felt like proper Justiina, complaining about being on time and right directions, while running like headless chicken around the village buying last minute groceries, because our first boat was suppose to leave in 30 min. Should have just enjoyed the cold beer and rum with the captain immediately when he offered.. He was enjoying his siesta and wasn't going anywhere for a while ;) Two hours later (or should I say 6 beers and half a bottle of rum later) we finally left the harbor.

One kilometer of beachline, one hut top of the cliff, nobody else nearby. Not bad at all. Very hot and humid once again, but no mosquitos! Other bugs - YES. Spiders, bats, lizards, crabs and ants everywhere, I am totally biten and eaten. We were the only volunteers there, Jazz was looking after us. He has spent the last 12 years learning how to live without everyday connections, cook with fire and eat from the sea and jungle. From our few ingreadients we brought with us, we learnt to be very creative. We had - 2kg of rice, beans and lentis, 1,5kg of pasta, 2kg of porridge, 6onions and 3peppers, 8potatos, 6carrots, 5platanos, 30eggs, salt and garlic, stock cubes, ketchup and teas. That's all! Imagine surviving with that for 2 weeks :D Luckily once Rob catched us a fish, you can imagine what a fiesta that was! I don't know how neither of us thought of buying any snacks with us, but I tell you it was a torture living without unhealthy stuff.

It was so relaxing to be in one place for two weeks, no need to wander around streets, look places to eat or pack our bags! It was so nice to listen to the sea, the jungle and insects. Sometimes it felt that we had to raise our voices, just for a normal conversation cos the nature was so loud. Afternoons were free so we chilled on hammocks, went for the beach (very good bodysurfing), did yoga (I managed to find perfect balance on headstand) or played some games. Definitely no stress, no hurry or negative thoughts in there. I didn't miss phone, tv or internet, but I did miss sugar! If I wasn't dreaming of cakes and different candies, I was thinking what would I like to have :D Mozzarella pizza, mango smoothie and triple chocolatecake, please!

For our time there we fixed two roofs and paved a part of the path with new rocks. Very heavy work indeed! The rocks we had to collect from the beach and carry back up, 95 steps! Also the palm leaves (900) we cut, piled and carried from the jungle. I can tell you a shoulder massage would be nice right now :) We used two different palm leaves for the roof. The other one was flat leaf which we just folded in half but the other ones were whole palms, crunched together and twisted between the wooden bits. I know there is a third option how to do roof from palm leaves cos neither one of these were the same style I learnt to do in Guatemala. So now I know how to do three different style of palm leaf roofs :D

Here are few clips from my diary during our stay -
Day 5 I want CandyKing blackred skulls, creamytoffee chocolate and salmiakki!! I am an addict for sugar! :) For five days we haven't had any sugar, unhealthy food or snacks. Today we had a two hour walk through the jungle to the nearest village called Arusi. Made a huge mistake buying two lollies. That's not enough for me! I should have bought all bisquits and sweets what they had in the store. But the walk was great, we saw a sloth!!! Amazing lazy little animal :) Heard very loud howler monkeys and were completely middle of the jungle.

Day 8 It has rained the whole night and day. Now I really would want to be inside a warm house, cuddling in a huge couch watching Pride and Prejustice, drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows and enjoying huge bowl of different ice creams, topped with caramel sas and whipped cream, maybe some white chocolate bits also ;) But no, instead of that we spent hours in the pooring rain picking more palm leaves for the roof. I have a blister and I am cold!

Day 9 Second day no work. Finally! I can't believe how exhausted I am after four hours of work in the mornings. I wake up early anyway, but today it was nice to lie in bed knowing that we don't have to start working soon. We went for a walk instead. Walked through banana plantation and sneaked few bananas (on Jazz's permission). I don't think banana has ever tasted so good, fresh and sweet! Hallelujah, fresh fruits! We walked to the river front where one indigenous family lived. Amargal is hard to get to, but how about this one then?

Day 14 Bastard wasp!! I got stung by one and it's much more painful than Finnish wasps. Damn! Whole elbow has been numb for hours. We finished the roofs and the path so we haven't been working. We wanted to have one more walk in the jungle so Jazz took us for the nearby waterfall and natural pool. It was so beautiful when sun was shining through the leaves and hummingbirds flying around us :)

Outdoor shower

Great catch

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Medellin

If you want nice restaurants and pub crawls this is your place! If we would be end of our trip and I would have tons of money left, I would want to stay two more weeks here only trying the cafes and restaurants. But cos we are not and we have gone over the budget already, we only indulged few of the amazing restaurants.

Verdeo, oh my goodness! Set menu of the day, you don't even know what you are getting and I thought I was in heaven :) and the place was so cozy as well! So many ice cream and proper sundae places for dessert. Yesterday we met Maria (from Ciudad Perdida trek) and went to eat in Lentajes, another delicious vegeterian place. It was actually really hard to find a place open because of Easter, almost every restaurant was closed. 

We got the last bus tickets from Bogota to here and we barely found a hostel to stay. Arcadia Hostel was already fully booked, five people sleeping on the floor. It was too cramped so we went like ten different hostels to look for another one, all full. Eventually after two hours of internet search we found one, jihuu!! Wouldn't have believed how busy it really gets on Semana Santa, and mostly with Colombians. Tried to get in to Parque Arvi, but already at noon they had closed the gates cos limit had gone over. Next day we went again, nine in the morning and still had to wait more than an hour. Ridicilous. Cable car ride top of the hills and poorer areas was so cool, walks around forbidden paths and picnic area along the river was a very nice day trip. Got sunburned again :(


We didn't sign for Pablo Escobar tour or went to Guatepe, way way too busy for those. Maybe when we come back from the volunteer project. Definitely could spent few more days in here, ride in the metro (only metro line in Colombia), eat some more ice cream and visit few more parks, maybe do paragliding.. It was very nice just to relax for few days, enjoy a Colombia vs Bolivia football game (these people take it seriously) and catch up with people we have met earlier on this trip :)

Botanical Garden

Sometimes you just feel like dancing :)

Bogota D.C

Welcome to the big city! It wasn't actually that bad as I was afraid, except the pipe and coca which I found from my bed, nice welcoming gift ;) We changed hostal, didn't want stay there if there would have been some other drugs also. I liked the most the street art, graffitis. Lot around town and such an amazing pictures! Would have been interesting to hear the stories behind the pictures. We were told that it is much quieter around La Candelaria area because of Semana Santa (easter), but I think there was quite a lot of people anyway, locals mostly. We stayed in El Chapinero, much nicer and quieter area. Area was very modern and it didn't felt like Colombia. Fancy restaurants, no local food or street vendors, no rubbish or homeless people, very safe.

Bogota has hundreds of kilometers if cycling lanes, and lots of people using them, Sundays and holidays many main roads are closed just for cyclists and runners. We didn't have chance to cycle cos we desided to leave a day earlier, enough for city life. Not fan of gay clubbing or partying till morning, what most of the other guests were doing. We were happy with chilled beers in BBC, Bogota Beer Company. We checked the Museo de Oro and the view from Cerro de Monserrate. Travelled around different areas with TransMilenio bus, very cheap, effective and fast system if you know how to use it! Around Bogota there are quite a lot to do and if you like cities why not stay longer, but for us two days was enough. (Plus we shared a room with a person who snored so much! Seriously, I thought he was choking) Taking a night bus to Medellin, so another bad night sleep ahead. 

Almuerzo, typical lunch