Pereira, The Heart of Coffee

We were ready to leave the city behind to continue our holiday in a less hectic environment, so we flew into Pereira, the capital of the Coffee Zone, which was just a short flight away.

We took a taxi to a hacienda on the outskirts of town, the Hacienda San Jose. The hotel was built in 1888, and the owners have kept it in excellent repair and true to its original design. The place is drop dead gorgeous! It really felt like we dropped into paradise.







We spent the first afternoon splashing around in the pool and pigging out on local goodies like arepas, which are corn pancakes, and bean casserole. It was pretty excellent.

We were asleep before 9 pm, which was just as well as we had arranged for a tour of Valle de Cocora and Salento for the next day. Our guide and driver met us early the next morning to drive us to the Valle, which is home to the wax palm tree. It's the second tallest tree in the world, and the only palm that can grow insuch high altitudes. It's the first cloud forest I've seen in person, and the place feels ethereal.

We met with the local environmentalist, and we had the opportunity to plant our very own wax palm, which is currently endangered. Now a little bit of a Colombia belongs to us!

We were also greeted by the local restaurant owner with a glass of the local speciality, las cabazelas. It's a hot drink made with passion fruit, cinnamon, cloves, orange juice, panela (sugarcane water) and a drop of aguardiente (the local firewater). J was brave and opted to have the aguardiente added to his drink. It was a great way to warm up before we hopped onto our horses.

We had an hour ride through the valley, and the terrain was quite rocky and rough. I really enjoyed the ride, especially splashing through the streams, but my butt ended up paying for it as it was quite sore for a while from the saddle. I do miss my horse, Crisol.

We returned to the restaurant where we sat down for lunch, which was a Colombian version of fish and chips, fried rainbow trout and crispy plantain. It was yum! Especially since I had mine doused in garlic butter. J was quite jealous.



We got to watch a wayward cow as we ate, and it was better entertainment than what's on tv these days!

Refreshed from lunch, we got back in the car to visit Salento, a nearby town that still retains its old colonial charm. 



J drank lots of cappuccinos, and we walked around a bit on the high street, buying a few souvenirs and checking out the local architecture.



Unfortunately, the heavens opened and the rain just came pouring down. We ended up cutting our visit short due to the rain, but J did manage to sneak in a cheeky cappuccino before we left to head back to the hotel.

The spoils of the day!

All in all, a pretty packed day! We were happy to return to our room, wash off the horse smell, eat, and sleep. 

We were meant to visit a coffee plantation the next day, but the hacienda we were staying at was just too tempting. The place is tailor made for sitting around and doing absolutely nothing.





We decided instead to stay put and enjoy everything the hacienda offered. Not the least of which included Josh! 

I explored the grounds, which is chock full of beautiful birds I've never seen before, along with the familiar hummingbirds. 





There's also a really chill resident parrot! The front desk warned us that she might not be friendly, but we ended up having a great time with her. She would mimic everything we said, including our laughs, or she would make sounds like "corre corre." She was adorable!

There's also an absolutely huge saman tree, which was beyond tempting to climb, but I restrained myself. With my luck, I'd probably get stuck up there with a nest of insanely huge and unbelievably hairy spiders.

Instead of getting treed, I spent lots of time splashing around in the pool, while J barely looked up from his Kindle.

We were both sunburned and mosquito bitten by the end of the day, but I think this was the kind of holiday J was dreaming about.

I've got to say, he's been quite a good sport of going along with all of my travel suggestions. Although he did shoot down my plan of going to the Amazon, which I'm still a bit bummed out about. But I'll live. Which might not be true if I did go to the Amazon, which is filled with piranha, anacondas, and something called a willy bug. Yeah, I can't figure out why J didn't want to go. Shrug.

Around Town

I'm pretty smug about the fact that I finished most of my Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving, which is a good thing since our Christmas list is a mile long! The added bonus is that it gives me time to enjoy the run-up to the holidays without panicking about what to buy everyone. 

I still have a few odds and ends to pick up, which means I'm venturing out around town despite the cold weather that's settled in to stay. I don't mind since it's a good opportunity to see some of the Christmasy things that have popped up for the occasion.

We went to Selfridges this past weekend and saw this 3D printing pop up shop next to the jewellery department. You step into this booth where they scan your body and print out a mini 3D version of you! I was this close to getting a mini-me made for my parents, but the £159 price tag convinced me otherwise. But I haven't ruled out having one made for J's office so that he can never escape me. Muahahaha.

We also went to brunch with some friends at Caravan behind King's Cross station, which is a great tapas restaurant that also serves the best coffee in town. A simple thing, but I liked that they decorated the trees in the plaza.

Not exactly a Christmas thing, but there's a giant St. Bernard that lives in our neighbourhood. He seemed ancient when we first saw him 3 1/2 years ago, but he's still around and roaming the hood. Unfortunately, he was whimpering from an earache yesterday. He normally lolls about on the pavement, but his dad got him a sofa to lay down on while he's sick. Lucky dog.

Coffee and Money - Two Very Important Things

There are many things in my life that wouldn't have happened without coffee and money, for example, law school. I needed to stay awake to stay in the law school where I was paying tuition - see how that works? I needed both then, and I need both now.

The problem now is that I have money (I even got a brand spanking new wallet to accommodate my giant British money), and I'm trying to use some of that money to buy some coffee, but it's a no go at this point. Why? Because the English are PARANOID. Especially about their money. I can't really figure out why since they seem to have no problem forking over millions of pounds to the queen so she can buy ermine coats and fancy teapots and all the other accoutrement that a typical reigning monarch requires. 

In any case, I'm trying to buy groceries online, which is super convenient and relieves me from the necessity of carting 12 giant bottles of Scottish Spring water home on foot.  Never mind the fact that the coffee here is baaad, like so bad that IHOP wouldn't serve it, it's just that I need to have it. The grocery store's website is requiring me to do a separate verification with my bank, which is odd, but I comply. Or at least, I try to comply. Now I'm directed to contact my bank directly.

J takes over, and he explains the problem to the nice lady on the phone, who tells him that he needs to first register the card online in order to use it online. Sure, okay. Apparently, activating the card over the phone only permits you to use the card in person and not online. Why didn't we think of this? Of course you have to activate it multiple times in multiple ways! In fact, I can't think of anything funner than spending all my days playing with the super fun bank people who constantly obliquely accuse you of trying to commit bank fraud. It'd be less of a bother to actually rob the damn bank.

So when J tries to activate the card online, he's informed the account has now been locked.

It's so funny, I could cry.