We have just spent 2 days on the road and walking around tourist spots so am tired but here we go!!!! We lef
t early morning yesterday with a rental car to an area about 3hrs away, its the next state up from Valle de Cauca (Cauca Valley) where Cali (paulo`s city) is. The state we went to is called Quindio and there are a couple of theme parks in the area so its quite touristy. The first one is called PARQUE de CAFE, the region is heavily industrialised with Coffee and Platano (plan, a huge kind of banana that they eat while still green, usually toasted. So anyway this theme park is dedicated to coffee and the area. The closest town is La Tebaila, a really cute town, Montenegro, and the biggest town in the area Armenia (sorry Carolina, so close to visit you but didnt have time). The coffee park has coffee plants (surprise surprise hey!!!), a museum of info and old machinery for coffee cultivation. they had a train that takes you around the park, a mock typical Colombian village for the area, rided (like roller coaster etc) and horses an
d stuff. we paid the extra to go on the horse ride around the park. good value for money but a bit boring going around in a walk and other people on horses running into you. there were some slightly naughty ponies there. i went on a mule hahaha!!!! paulo couldnt believe it there were so many beautiful horses there and i asked to go on the mule!!!!! It was a really nice area and really well done. I cant help but walk around like a tourist student looking at the organisation, interpretation, interactivity with visitors and the sustainability of the area(aka i did a tourist degree), but I managed to put that aside a bit so I could enjoy it. I was a bit tired as the night before we went to JUANCHITO the salsa capital of Colombia which is just outside Cali and we got home at 4am to wake up at 8am the next morning to 
go to Quindio. But it was really nice and the abundance of coffee kept me awake. Juanchito is a bit og a dodgy outskirt suburb of Cali but it is famous around the world so I wanted to have a look, so Paulo and a few of his friends took me to a nice place in the area. its supposedly Mafia central, but we had no problems. We stayed the night in a farm type accommodation just outside of the coffee park called LA GRANJA (the farm) - very beautiful and tranquill. our rooms didnt have hot water so i had to heat up a big soup saucepan of water and bathe myself by panning water over me!!!! Colombia generally doesnt have hot water in the shower as it is so hot here that a cold shower is bliss. but i need at least luke warm water which some showers do have but for example Paulos parents`apartment has 2 bathrooms but only one has a ´luke warm`shower. this farm does have what they call hot water (what i call luke warm) but only in some rooms and they were taken by the time we reserved rooms with them. The area is basically agri tourism based but the agri but in mixed with the natural characteristics. But it means a lot of the farms in the area have the chance to offer B&B type accommodation. The next day being today we went to PANACA which is about 15mins away (when you know where you are going) and is a theme park based on farm animals and the general farm environment. The farm is an orange farm from what I can make out but it also has coffee and Platano. They have pens of different kinds of farm animals, different breeds of cows, goats, hens, pigs, horses etc etc etc. rabbits. you name it! & they have a show of cows, horses, dogs and pigs. We missed the horse show as it was at 4:30pm and we had to have the car back at the rental place by 6:30 so we didnt have time but we had a gawk at the horse pens before we went anyway. There was a beautiful Donkey there which i took a photo with hehehe. I have decided that I will get a donkey to keep Starlight company, (my beautiful horse I have had since I was 5 and still going), they`re so cool!!!!! Anyway, so we raced home in crazy Colombian traffic around thin bendy mountain roads to get the car back in time (but still late!) and here we are. I better go before I use up all the internet hours. Take care everyone and thanks to those who replied my last email I will reply at a less tired state of mind :-)
t early morning yesterday with a rental car to an area about 3hrs away, its the next state up from Valle de Cauca (Cauca Valley) where Cali (paulo`s city) is. The state we went to is called Quindio and there are a couple of theme parks in the area so its quite touristy. The first one is called PARQUE de CAFE, the region is heavily industrialised with Coffee and Platano (plan, a huge kind of banana that they eat while still green, usually toasted. So anyway this theme park is dedicated to coffee and the area. The closest town is La Tebaila, a really cute town, Montenegro, and the biggest town in the area Armenia (sorry Carolina, so close to visit you but didnt have time). The coffee park has coffee plants (surprise surprise hey!!!), a museum of info and old machinery for coffee cultivation. they had a train that takes you around the park, a mock typical Colombian village for the area, rided (like roller coaster etc) and horses an
d stuff. we paid the extra to go on the horse ride around the park. good value for money but a bit boring going around in a walk and other people on horses running into you. there were some slightly naughty ponies there. i went on a mule hahaha!!!! paulo couldnt believe it there were so many beautiful horses there and i asked to go on the mule!!!!! It was a really nice area and really well done. I cant help but walk around like a tourist student looking at the organisation, interpretation, interactivity with visitors and the sustainability of the area(aka i did a tourist degree), but I managed to put that aside a bit so I could enjoy it. I was a bit tired as the night before we went to JUANCHITO the salsa capital of Colombia which is just outside Cali and we got home at 4am to wake up at 8am the next morning to 
go to Quindio. But it was really nice and the abundance of coffee kept me awake. Juanchito is a bit og a dodgy outskirt suburb of Cali but it is famous around the world so I wanted to have a look, so Paulo and a few of his friends took me to a nice place in the area. its supposedly Mafia central, but we had no problems. We stayed the night in a farm type accommodation just outside of the coffee park called LA GRANJA (the farm) - very beautiful and tranquill. our rooms didnt have hot water so i had to heat up a big soup saucepan of water and bathe myself by panning water over me!!!! Colombia generally doesnt have hot water in the shower as it is so hot here that a cold shower is bliss. but i need at least luke warm water which some showers do have but for example Paulos parents`apartment has 2 bathrooms but only one has a ´luke warm`shower. this farm does have what they call hot water (what i call luke warm) but only in some rooms and they were taken by the time we reserved rooms with them. The area is basically agri tourism based but the agri but in mixed with the natural characteristics. But it means a lot of the farms in the area have the chance to offer B&B type accommodation. The next day being today we went to PANACA which is about 15mins away (when you know where you are going) and is a theme park based on farm animals and the general farm environment. The farm is an orange farm from what I can make out but it also has coffee and Platano. They have pens of different kinds of farm animals, different breeds of cows, goats, hens, pigs, horses etc etc etc. rabbits. you name it! & they have a show of cows, horses, dogs and pigs. We missed the horse show as it was at 4:30pm and we had to have the car back at the rental place by 6:30 so we didnt have time but we had a gawk at the horse pens before we went anyway. There was a beautiful Donkey there which i took a photo with hehehe. I have decided that I will get a donkey to keep Starlight company, (my beautiful horse I have had since I was 5 and still going), they`re so cool!!!!! Anyway, so we raced home in crazy Colombian traffic around thin bendy mountain roads to get the car back in time (but still late!) and here we are. I better go before I use up all the internet hours. Take care everyone and thanks to those who replied my last email I will reply at a less tired state of mind :-)
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