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.

Horsing Around at Hyde Park Stables

I never asked my parents to buy me a pony. But then again, I grew up in LA and I don't think horses are allowed on Wilshire Boulevard. Asking for a horse wouldn't have made much sense back then so I made do with my hamsters.

Since I've moved to London, I see horses everywhere. The cops ride them around, and I frequently heard the clip-clopping of hooves down Chancery Lane outside of my old office. All of a sudden, horses are an option, and I decided that learning to ride would be my kind of fun.

Seeing as how I've never ridden one before, I decided a taster may be in order and I signed up for an hour-long ride with Hyde Park Stables.



Silly me, I showed up an hour before my ride was to begin, so I walked around Hyde Park for a bit. The weather had definitely cooled down quite a bit, and the park was deserted.







No one swimming in the Diana Memorial this time around.



Anyway, I returned to the stables, and they fitted me with the proper boots and a riding hat while I waited for my horse. I should mention that I was probably the only grown-up there - I was surrounded by eight year-old girls smartly dressed in jodhpurs and chaps. There was quite the variety of horses - I had my fingers crossed for a mid-sized one if not a pony.



And then they brought out Monty. He wasn't huge or anything, but I still needed a mounting block and a big hop to get in the saddle. But not before he let out a bucket of pee all over the cobblestones. Nice.

Once I was up there, I became super aware of the fact that there was nothing to catch me if I fell. And it felt pretty precarious perched up there, but I quickly got used to it and riding at a walk was pretty easy once they had my stirrups adjusted and I figured out how to hold the reins properly.

Cameras aren't allowed while riding, so you have to take my word that it was pretty sweet. I rode around Hyde Park with an instructor, who held my horse on a line, and we were followed by another instructor who was riding a spooky pony. And by spooky pony, I mean that he was scared of everything. He had a major freak out when he saw two ladies rolling luggage along and we had to avoid a big orange fence, but other than that, the ride was pretty mellow.

A lot of the ride was at a walk, but my instructor was keen on trotting so trot we did. I was told to hold on to the saddle for dear life and stand up and down with the rhythm of the horse as it trotted along. Apparently, this is the English style of riding, and it's a lot harder than it looks but I managed to nail it after the first failed attempt. Two days later, and my forearms still feel like noodles from grasping the saddle so as not to fall to my death.

As fun as it was, there wasn't much, if any, instruction during the ride, and I definitely want to learn properly. I've done some looking around, and it looks like there's a stables down in Wimbledon that's more like a proper school and a bit cheaper. Their weight restrictions also aren't quite so strict as to limit the riders to children or munchkin-sized adults.

I do hope their horses are a bit smaller...