We got our chocolate tour and a coffee tour and very interesting they were too. I’ll write them up later and you’ll know all you need to know about the industry, organics and so forth.
The road through the coffee country got us pretty exhausted and luckily for us GANNET2 performed magnificently. How we got into this rather backwoods trail driving is a point of contention between Layne and Sue.
Sue and Hugh we first met in Nicaragua and we’ve been crossing paths ever since. They’ve driven their Land Rover from British Columbia and like us are aiming at Patagonia this December.
Their vehicle is four wheel drive and a lot less comfortable to live in but dirt roads are of no concern. They find my worrying about GANNET2 on these trails rather quaint.
They promised a tow if we got stuck though I will say it never came to that much to my relief. The issue is we are at full load capacity and some of the inclines are rather steep. Hugh thinks we are worrying for nothing and with our new heavy duty tires we will manage just fine.
Some of the grades were pretty steep but we never got put to the test as we took the road out after the coffee tour and all the downhill never got tested as uphill!
After we drove through the village of Salento famous in Colombia as the heart of coffee country, High pulled over and asked how we felt about going down the hill, and we admitted we didn't feel great sitting there on the dirt road looking into the deep coffee valley.
Layne said we could hire a jeep tour to take us to the coffee farm. Bit late for that Sue said so off we went, the crews of both vehicles feeling rather reluctant to embark on the journey but unwilling to give up. Sheer stupidity of course but there it is, we led each other into it.
Give them credit: they are building a paved road but with no sense of urgency, and the road crews were really excited to see us coming forcing them to clear their tools out of the travel lane.
Notice how narrow the road will be and already the prospect of meeting a truck head on is stressful. Motorcycles and small sedans were bad enough. At one point we paused on the top of an extra steep slope pondering how we might get back up when a car came up behind. We could do nothing but press on, our hearts in our mouths.
We got to the coffee farm, we had the tour and then the owner sat us down and said it was time to go. We stared at him as we planned to stay the night in this Garden of Eden. Don Carlos told us the road we had gone down was going to be closed Thursday for road work and the road we would have to take out of there was our only chance, but…if it rained we might get caught by a fresh mud slide like the two that closed the road earlier in the week. Indeed we came across the slides on our drive to Armenia.
The road to Armenia was pretty flat, dank and dark and wet but not hilly. It had been cut originally as a railroad bed which helps big that made it narrow.
Hugh and Sue’s perspective when they followed us…
Passing was complicated especially as Colombians stop for almost nothing.
And the motorcycles still buzzed us irritating bluebottles intent only on getting ahead. Pretty nice cement eh? It should all be like this next year…
Then of course there was the roadside repair which was no fun for the truck driver with the broken axle but jangled my nerves also.
I suppose I should have been glad they were stopped rather than hurtling at us but I had no idea how solid the soil under the grass was. Gingerly I pressed forward, hoping for the best.
There was no room to spare but we made it without scratching anything.
The bridge was entirely anti climactic. The orange warning about dump trucks on the road came a little too late.
The whole road is probably ten or twelve miles long and on Google Maps it’s a gray squiggle through the mountains. Layne’s view:
High and Sue following us:
You can get the idea where it is if you find Medellin and Bogotá on a map.
The rains have swollen the rivers, water restrictions in the capital city have been lifted and in the rain forest its damp, very damp.
Fortunately for us the road is built on a solid base so mud holes were shallow and our tires found purchase.
For us it was a relief that we had no steep inclines to climb.
We knew one impossible hole or slide or blockage could stop us in our tracks so the tension was always there.
But the scenery as always in Colombia was outstanding. Not wilderness here but farmland and still lovely.
This rained was how they got the equipment in and the coffee out once upon a time.
I was leading here and sounded my horn but happily no one was barreling into us in the opposite direction.
Check out this guy with a broom. It’s a national obsession in Colombia, keeping your sidewalk clean, even where there is no sidewalk.
We let Sue and Hugh lead where the road got gnarly.
And at last: pavement.
And lunch at 3:30 in the afternoon.
We found out finally why so many people were out and about as May First is one of Colombia’s 18 annual national holidays…
I ordered the dish most famous in Colombia, “bandeja paisa” which means platter from the department of Antioquia (Medellin basically). I’d long wanted to try it but never had the opportunity. As you can see there’s a bit of everything and as usual we deployed the to-go box for leftovers…
We had a plan to camp at a place called Steel Horse outside the town of Filandia a thirty minute drive away.
The countryside is a series of high ridges and soon enough we were plunging down a mixed road of some dirt and some cement.
We’ll never get back up we told ourselves as we followed the Canadian Land Rover down the steep twisting road.
That’s a problem for later. For now we’re parked and resting and reflecting on a hell of a day on the road.
