Feeling like a coffee farmer

Only a 9h bus right south of Medellin in the middle of the zona cafetera lays the pretty town Salento. Salento is known for its surrounding coffee haciendas as well as the cacoa valley with the highest palm trees in the world. This was also the reason why I wanted to go there. But the weather was not as I expected.. it was cold and rainy every day.. sometimes we even had pouring rain for more than 3 ours.. my clothes and shoes, my camera gear and my backpack got so wet the day I hiked to the cacoa valley that it took almost 3 days to dry..
On the second day however I got more lucky when I booked a tour to a coffee farm. This tour was truely amazing! I learned everything about the different types of coffee, which coffee has the best quality and walked through the 100 acre land that was full with coffee plants. I was even able to dress up like a true coffee farmer and harvest my own coffee. The thing that however surprised me the most is that in Colombia it is „illegal“ to drink the coffee with milk and coffee should not lead to stomach ache usually. It should be smooth and taste a little bit like tea.
I truely loved this experience especially because we are true coffee lovers in my family. In the evening I met up again with two very nice girls from the Netherlands which I met during pouring rain in the cacoa valley and had some beers. We also played the typical Colombian games called Tejo. This games was an experience in itself but it was so much fun. The game consists of stones which you try to throw into a circle that is surrounded by gunpowder. When the gunpowder explodes you receive points but also when you through into tue circle. The person with 21 points in the end wins. Everywhere in the place which had the feeling of a saloon from the Wild West it smelled like gun powder.. something that would never be allowed in Germany. We played one round and had the fun of our lives.. I will never forget this experience :)Lue lisää