A ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ history nerd travelling The New World. ยฟWhat could possibly go wrong? Join me on my way to The fabled lands of Ar Wladfa ๐ฆ๐ท
A ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ history nerd travelling The New World.
ยฟWhat could possibly go wrong?
Join me on my way to The fabled lands of Ar Wladfa ๐ฆ๐ท
in ๐จ๐ด
Hola Todos, for this blog I will talk about the main attraction of Salento, the famous Valle de Cocora. Today I decided to hike this place. So this morning I initially didn’t plan to go but as for no real reason I was up at 0630 today I decided to force myself out of bed and go get an early jeep to the valley.
Same story as last time, rock up get your ticket and your off. This time I was stood on the back hanging on the railings. This way is probably the most fun way to go as you can see everything and get the fresh morning breeze in your face to wake you up.
We soon arrive and off I go to the trail. Starting off you walk up a road until you come to a sort of farm house where you pay the entrance fee of about ยฃ6 and in you go. As you enter you are greeted by 60+ meter high palms, which are a special species native to that valley, don’t ask me the name though.
Next it is a climb uphill and this is a long climb up a strep dirt track, I stop several times to catch my breath and admire the view on the way up. There are two viewpoints each about 1/3 and 2/3 up. It is a spectacular view of the valley from there.
Continuing walking up I end up meeting some English kids doing the same thing and hang with them up to the finca at the top of the trail before descending into the narrow passageway which the river flows down.
You have to watch your step down here, especially in my case as my boots are a bit old and the grips aren’t as good as they used to be. I end up getting left behind that group I was with but didn’t bother me, was taking it all in. Once your in the valley proper you come to a crossroads, one takes you on a trail where you can go birdwatching but adds another 10k’s on to the hike, or you take the passage back which is another 4/5k hike. I went for the latter.
The passage back kind of reminded me of the Mazca hike I did back in Tenerife many years ago as your hiking through a narrow passage and have to cross over the river several times using these wooden bridges with planks that don’t look too sturdy. It was a proper adventure getting back to base camp.
After you pass through the jungle your back out on a dirt path that is very uneven and muddy in places and it still takes the better part of an hour to get back, oh and just to make you work for it there’s one last big uphill stretch up a road at the end to get the calves burning.
Once at the top I am able to get on the half 1 Willy Jeep back to town. Once again I’m hanging off the back. Once back in town I treat myself to a well earned post hike pint and some lunch. Lovelllyyyy!!!
What a good day this has been. After this I decide I am going to stay another 2 days as I had some business I had to sort out with family.
Later that evening I head to the Viajero again and end up watching the UFC with some lads. It was mostly Latinos Vs Russians and some excellent entertainment……until 3 girls made them switch it off right before the final fight because karaoke night…..booooo! Oh well that was that so went for a wander then turned in fairly early.
I will skip over the next 2 days as it was just a combination of rest and various bits of admin to take care of.
Catch you next in Cali! The capital of Salsa๐๐๐
Hola todos. So for day 2 in Salento I decided a trip out of town is in order and so after chatting with some fellas in the Viajero anoche I decided it would be a visit to Finca Buenos Aires – a coffee plantation about half hour out of town.
So to get there there is actually quite easy as in this town as there is a very well organised taxi service of sorts. Basically you go to a hut in the square buy your ticket for the tour and the Jeep. Yes they use old Willy Jeeps to take the tourists around to these places as the roads to these plantations are not very well kept and would have been quite problematic in a normal car or on a moped getting there. I buy my ticket and we are soon off.
It is a bumpy ride and you certainly feel it in these Jeeps, whether your in the back, out front or stood up hanging to the railing at the tailgate. It is about a half hour ride and we are there. I join a group about to start the tour. Due to the difference in numbers the tour is done in Spanish. Now this was a hard one to follow as lots of words and phrases I didn’t know came up. The conclusion the end of it, is making coffee is bloody complicated!
so here’s what I learned *goes to check notes*.
So firstly how is coffee grown, well this plant needs to be in a certain tropical climate which is not too hot or too cold and in the right altitude (between 1000 and 2000 metres above sea level) and in an area which gets lots of rainfall, so this part of Colombia is the ideal conditions for it.
Next they talk about the plants themselves it is a long cycle to grow. Up to 3 years then they cut them back and it takes another year for them to grow again about a 4 year cycle.
From there they show us the berries. The coffee berries need to be read before they are ready. Green ones are not. Forgot to mention they dressed us up in ponchos and gave us baskets to pick some and look the part while doing it.
So you pick up a red berry and break it apart you have the two beans inside. You can suck on them like a sweet and they taste sweet but don’t eat them our guide tells us.
After this we are brought to this diagram of a wheel which has the different coffee flavours from the basic in the centre to the more defined advanced flavours on the outside. Highly complicated stuf because to get certain flavours again firstly climate and altitude play into it. One thing I did pick up was the blacker and more bitter coffee is grown at lower altitudes, but that is not the whole story, the next thing depends on the process of drying the coffee. There are 3 processes, one is more natural where the whole fruits are left to dry in the sun, another which involves washing and removing the fruit leaving the beans to dry and a third which involves putting them in honey first which I forget the details of. Again muchas palabras que no sรฉ!
After this we go back and have the tasting session where basically it gets explained how we pour coffee wrong back home. First you should not put the water in as soon as the kettle is boiled but give it about 2-5 minutes then put some water into the pot so that the coffee does not get burned and lose flavour if I heard it correctly then you put your coffee into the filter and slowly fill it up wait for it to drain then fill it up again. Also the thing about heating up the pot also applies to your cup just before you pour the coffee.
I have to admit it did taste different and something to take note of to do when I get home. After this it was back to town in the Willy Jeep then siesta and out for some dinner and drinks back at the Viajero. Ended up playing some beer pong with some lads who just arrived then headed back for an early one. Tomorrow I do the Valle de Cocora hike.
All in all was an interesting day even if I didn’t understand half of it!
Hola todos! After that whole episode in Ibaguรฉ, I left off being sat on the bus to Armenia, I wanted to chill somewhere for a bit before Cali. Hoped Ibaguรฉ would be like that but no. However on the bus out of there I remembered a list of places my good friend Owen gave me for Colombia, among them was a colorful little town in the mountains called Salento. It looked very promising from pictures and so decided to book a place there for a few nights and go give it a look.
I soon arrived in Armenia and it wasn’t hard to find the collectivo heading to Salento. ยฃ1.60 and 40 mins later I was there. Do the usual thing of check into the place, sling the bags in and have a wander round town. Yes it was a very relaxed and nice place that felt like a more colourful mini version of some of the nicer colonial cities we visited, like San Cristรณbal or Antigua. After getting the lay of the land I had some dinner in town then stopped by the Viajero Hostel and had a drink and chatted to some folks.
The next day I decided to go have a look around some of the different Miradores on the edge of town just to do something for the day. It was quite steep to get up but they offer a great view of the whole town and the valle de cocora (which we will cover on a separate post). The weather up here is also similar to Manizales, as such at each stop I found myself sheltering from rain like it was the end of summer in Wales.
After the weather breaks I go back to my hostel. Decide to extend my stay for 4 nights as there are a few things to do here and it is a nice place. I work out how to get onto some trips and then chill out for a bit then go back to the Viajero for some food and a few drinks and then turned in. Tomorrow I visit Finca Buenos Aires, a coffee plantation outside of Salento.
Hola otra vez todos! Well my short stay in Ibaguรฉ was quite the weird one and one that left me both mentally exhausted and rather pissed off. So what happened then?
Firstly we are out of Bogotรก in good order, head to terminal sur and get on a bus nice and easy. It’s about a 4 hour ride down. Journey was quite uneventful save more mental mountain roads. We end up getting there about an hour ahead of time. So usual story get an Uber down to the new gaff.
Now this was a little weird. I had booked to stay in this apartment hostel which upon getting to the address we get there and can’t find it. The driver shouts at one of the neighbours and they have a quick convo which is hard to follow. Eventually I tell the driver let me out here I’ll figure it out. It’s not late in the day and can go somewhere else if it’s non existent or it’s sketchy.
This neighbour bloke walks me 2 streets behind and there is the hostel. Outside the father and son were doing some work and the son comes up to me welcomes me in and shows me the place. I go upstairs and it is as it was in the pictures and I have a brief chat with the son. He was a cool guy and worked as a Mountain guide. Hostal was a family project and only recently got listed on booking.com We soon shake hands he hands me the room key and all seems good. He offers to take me in his car for a look round town later in the evening once I’m settled in. I say okay since logically if your trying to get more business here your not going to put your guests in a bad situation are you? I can’t help but feel a weird gut feeling about this situation. I don’t feel unsafe but something feels a little off and can’t put my finger on it.
Before the evening excursion I try to go put some laundry in at a lavanderรญa nearby but they refuse to take my clothes so I go back with my bag and the old man in this place offers to take and wash my clothes for me I say okay since there’s no options nearby and I’m quite hungry want to go get something to eat. He then offers to show me a good restaurant 5 minutes walk away. I say sure and off we go. We get there I have some lunch while he just has a soda and chats with me all in Spanish of course. We’re getting on fine and cracking some jokes about my Cartagena experience. It’s all cool but again don’t quite know what to make of all this attention I’m getting.
After this and a brief siesta the son takes me for a little drive up to the city centre. We have a bit of a look round he shows me some of the main attractions here such as the cathedral and this Alcatraz style prison which Bolivar used to lock up his political opponents back in the day when he turned dictator. We then have a beer and some empanadas in this place the lad recommended then on the way back to the house we stopped for some more food, some burgers. I paid for his for driving me round and giving me a mini walking tour. After this It was pretty much day 1 here done.
So Day 2 starts a bit weird. After I get up I head downstairs and the old man is there saying where do I want to go? What do I want to do. Nothing thanks I just want to go out for a coffee. Have my morning brew have a walk round but it is very hot and muggy here and I couldn’t be assed to walk round too much so back to the gaff it was.
I’m just chilling writing up the blogs for the Manizales leg and the door knocks. The old man says do I want to go anywhere later I’ll take you. I mention this mirador that looks pretty and he says yes we’ll go there for sunset. He also then says do I want to have lunch with him and his family on the rooftop? Okay so up we go. I get introduced to the wife and about 11 relatives like I’m his newly adopted son or something. East this rice and chicken dish but pass on el sopa as it looked a little cold with meat in there – not chancing another holy trinity today gracias! They are curious why I didn’t eat the soup but tell them I had a big breakfast and am full which was a lie but it’s rude to refuse hospitality if your a guest in someone’s house here.
Lunch was over and I’m back to blogging then 5pm we hop into the car and head up to this mirador. It’s about a 20 minute ride up there and then a short walk up a hill. We sit there and have some tea and another bun thing while we watch the sun go down. I pay for this then we drive back towards the house and he asks me if I’m hungry I say yes, he recommends this Peruvian restaurant. We go there and have this mixed meat and rice dish and again I get this one in. In short I’ve bought him about 10 quid in food and drinks and this keep him happy.
At this point I’m feeling quite tired and want my own space so ask can we go back to the house. Yes sure. I then find a small bar near the house have a gentle few beers then turn in. All this attention had weirded me out so I decided to move on to Salento tomorrow, a small little town in the mountains both the son here and my good cousin and friend Owen back home recommend me it.
Next morning I check out and go to settle the bill and per usual the old man is there waiting. I have the money for the room (ยฃ58 for two nights) plus some more money as my daily spending ‘allowance’. I also owed him for doing my laundry, which he wanted ยฃ10 for. Again this no real issue as while about 4 quid more then the typical price there was no other places I could go in town for this without taking a taxi and spending that and laundry is one of those things that you need to do it when you need to do it. Fair enough.
Up to here was fine but then here comes the piss take, he asks me for ยฃ20 for fuel noting I paid for him and his son both nights they took me round. The distances we went were about ยฃ10 gas max. Internally i am screaming you cheeky C**t though he looks at me and says “ยฟno me entendiste?” I’m not thinking clearly and mumble something under my breath. I can’t think of anything and just play dumb I give him 10 quid and say something along the lines of that’s all I got and turn and leave. He sort of follows me out the door offering to have a mate give me a ride to the bus station and I just say no I’m getting an Uber thank you. Good grief glad to be out of there. He tells me please leave a review on booking.com should I? I’ll be telling it as it is if do.
I get out to the bus station and am soon on way to Armenia. On the bus I do some maths and fuel is priced at 3 quid a gallon. So basically asking for ยฃ20 was well above what that was worth. He was trying to get me to brim his tank for him!!
So yes I went away rather miffed after this stupid little detour. As for the son if you read this nothing against you we got on fine but you need to get your dad to stop trying to charge guests making it look like he’s generally happy to show them round. Or at very least be very upfront about it if your going to offer this as a service and make sure the price is transparent and agreed up front before anything is done.
Hola todos! For my last day in Bogotรก I decided to hop an Uber back down to la candelaria and go check out a few museums in the morning.
First stop is the Gold Museum or Museo del Oro. ๐ช. I arrive at it’s actually gratis para domingo which is excellent news for me save some cutter.
It’s a 3 story museum and there is a lot to see and read up about though today I was a little short on time so I didn’t read everything though it was more about the ancient tribes that lived in Colombia before the Spanish conquest such as the Muisca, Tairona etc. There are a lot of exhibitions which show the various artefacts and personal articles made by these tribes. In short what we know was the land was (and still is) abundant with Gold, Silver, copper and platinum – all the stuff which goes into creating money and many of the consumer goods which we take for granted in the west today.
I wrapped up that tour and then took a walk through Plaza Bolivar. Get some photos then get touted by some shifty looking fellas who would do this thing where they would point to the floor like you dropped something and they try to come up to you and make chit chat, presumably then youd get asked if you want to buy powder or something. I didn’t engage and gave them the hand โ and not even said anything. Not sure what the game was there but was not in the mood for more of this.
Taking a walk out past these hombres I come across another museum called “Museo casa de moneda”. As you can expect this was an old minting house turned museum. Go inside they have all the old presses there and an exhibition of the history of money through Colombia’s time as a Spanish, colony up to independence and into the modern age.
It has within coins from different eras and a detailed explanation of how much care and precision went into smelting coins for currency. Gold and silver content had to be very precise at each stage of the smelting and when the ingots were smelted again and turned into coins they had to be carefully weighed again for purity and to make sure it was all exactly to what the law said it was. This was of course the old fashioned way of doing it – back from the days when a dollar was actually worth a dollar. Modern times it’s a whole lot simpler – fed printer go BRRRRRR and keep on printing till we go full Weimar Germany once again!
My museum visit was kept fairly short as I had a catch up with my pal Simon once again. We chatted about various things including the upcoming journey into Inca Country which looks like it will be difficult but more to come when we get there.
Later that night I met up with Alejandro, a man I met back in Medellin who is an actor and is from Bogotรก, he was back in town so met up with him and some of his pals and we had a few beers at this street rave. The rave was a big celebration – they changed noise laws in this district which meant that parties can now go on till 6 am as opposed to 3 am! It was a good but short catch up. We then went out separate ways as I had to get myself sorted for the journey to Ibaguรฉ tomorrow.
Hola todos! Today was an exciting one as today’s wanderings took us deep into the depths of Zipaquirรก, Colombia’s Very own mines of Moria! What is this place exactly?
Buried 180 meters into the mountain within an ancient salt mine, the Catedral de Sal de Zipaquirรก is hailed as the “First Wonder of Colombia.” It is both an underground cathedral and a salt mine and is still a working mine in various parts of it.
The halite deposits ere have been mined for hundreds of years before the Spanish arrived by the Muisca peoples; those who inhabited the region before the Spanish conquest. The mine was said to have a larger deposit of salt than any salt mine back in Europe and has been mined for many years though the current salt cathedral is a more recent construction being opened in 1995. However before that miners constructed shrines and chapels down here and prayed at them for gods protection before going about their shifts.
Today the salt cathedral stands as a testament to Colombia’s mining heritage and a masterpiece of colonial engineering.
With that out of the way onto the visit itself. First up was actually getting over here since it’s about 40 miles out of Bogotรก itself. Now there are two ways to get here; first you can go by bus out of Terminal Norte, or there’s also actually a dedicated train which runs between Bogotรก and Zipaquirรก – unfortunately information on the tren was sketchy and hours inconsistent and often it doesn’t run at all. So I opted for the bus option. I get an Uber from the hotel and it takes nearly an hour to get to Terminal Norte. Once there I ask a man at a counter how to get to Zipaquirรก, he points me to the desk I need to go to, buy my ticket for ยฃ3 and off I go to wait for it. 20 minutes later the bus shows up and off we go.
During the wait for the bus I get to chatting to another traveller, an Italian woman from the German speaking northern alpine region of Sรผdtirol. This chica by the name Laura ends up being my travel companion for the day. It was her last day before flying back to europe and at some point we lose each other down in the mines so never exchanged details.
The ride over to Zipaquirรก Town is uneventful but soon we are there. First we grab some lunch then begin the hike to the cathedral. Walking through the town it is a very colourful place much like Guatapรฉ Town was. After a brief stop for photos in the centre we head up towards the cathedral. It is a 20 minute uphill hike but we soon get there.
Once you buy your ticket (it is quite dear at ยฃ20) you begin your descent into the mines. Despite the steep cost of the ticket this place really does have a lord of the rings vibe once your inside. The tunnels go on and on and at various points you can stop and look out into deep chasms. These days much of this level of the mine has been turned into a salt cathedral and the way down to the main nave is dotted with different shrines each depicting a different stage in the story of Jesus Christ before he was crucified. I didn’t stop to listen to everything on the audio guide but you get the point.
Working your way through the tunnels you eventually enter the main nave of the cathedral which is quite spectacular with all of the lighting changing colour every few seconds in the vast open hall. It really does look like a scene from LOTR or The Hobbit down here.
One downside in my opinion is how much this place has been commercialised. Outside the Nave and chapel several other tunnels have been used to set up different cafes, gift shops selling different random things at inflated prices. Okay I get they need to make their money somehow but let’s not forget this is still a working mine outside the cathedral area and there even is a guided tour where you can don a helmet and a hi Viz, grab a pickaxe and pick some salt deposits yourself – must be a great little money maker for them – make you the tourist free labour for an hour or so and you get to pay for the privilege of it!
After going past the commercial bits and a few bizarro art exhibitions you come to the tunnel for the ‘train’ out and down the hill – the train is just a truck towing a trailer kitted out to look like a train carriage. I got on this and was out of there after a 10 minute ride. 10 minutes later I walk back to town and manage to jump on a collectivo heading back to Bogotรก. I soon get back and get an Uber back to the hotel and have a fairly uneventful evening. I think in total I was out for about 6-8 hours.
Tomorrow is the last day in Bogotรก before continuing our journey south.
Hola todos! Day 2 in Bogotรก was quite a shitty one saved by an evening that ended up going really well.
Entonces vamos a empezar! First up my initial 2 nights in this hostel was done and so I asked to stay one more night as while I wanted to move out of there I needed to do laundry and catch up on other admin bits so I extended by 1 night all okay then asked about a laundry place nearby, they said they could do it, without looking for others I accepted but coming to pay I got hit with more gringo tax with my loads being like another 3000 peso per kilo to other people’s (60p) not much in the grand scheme but it pissed me off – people trying to nickle and dime an extra couple of bucks out of you as the gringo has been a constant thing across much of Colombia and a constant piss off to be honest. You’d get it occasionally in Mexico and Central but here its probably like a 1/3 chance there will be something and it’s always petty like trying to put an extra drink on your bill or prices changing in places depending on who’s serving you. One day something costs X amount then another day the same thing is 50p more then back to the other. Petty but it’s annoying.
Anyways what next? I booked to do a walking tour at 13:00 round the historic town centre. This was one of those ones you paid ยฃ10 for up front (the free tours work the same with the customary til being around ยฃ10 too by the way).
So I go to the meetup point in this square and nobody is there who resembles who this company’s people are. After about 20 minutes I WhatsApp them they then say someone will be there for 14:00. Okay, meanwhile I sit and have a beer outside this cafe. 14:00 rolls round still nobody there. I order another beer and it’s now 14:30 and nobody has come. At this point I just pay my tab and head home clearly this lot stood us up. Lo que hay I guess! It’s now siesta time.
Some point earlier this day I messaged a friend who was with me back in Medellin in the Spanish School who said she was in Bogotรก asking if she was still there and turns out she was and asked me if I was up for some Tejo later. I say yes.
So at 6pm I head to the place she suggested which happened to be 2 minutes walk from my hostel. She shows up about the same time. We have some empanadas and catch up a bit about what we’ve been up to since we left. She left the school about a week before I did. After some chatting we got round to playing.
Tejo is a traditional Colombian pub game that in a way is a bit of a cross between Darts and Skittles, simple game but hard to master. Basically you have to throw a rock ‘puck’ at a clay board trying to hit these triangles and the centre. When you hit a triangle they are actually filled with gunpowder so you get a good pop similar to popping old school party poppers. You get points for hitting near the triangles, the centre and the triangles themselves. It is good fun and quite a workout actually since the rock discs aren’t that light. We weren’t really keeping score but have a feeling she won having played this before.
After Tejo we go for a walk to Plaza Bolivar, that square where Gustavo was doing his speeches when the Colombians were having their soberana (Sovereignty) march the other week after Trump was threatening Colombia after the Maduro raid.
After this we end up going back to her hostal, having some more food and a drink then we go our separate ways. That evening saved the day.
The next day I moved up to Chapinero on the North side of the city. I will skip blogging on that as all it was, was getting the lay of the land up there andย settling into the new gaff. The day after that was epic however. When I visited the Mines of Moria!
Hola todos. For the first full day in Bogotรก I decided to head to Monserrate, a sanctuary 3000 meters into the mountains.
I’m up and running fairly early and go out for some coffee and an empanada before heading to the mountain. Now there’s two ways you can climb up this mile high mountain, there’s the hiking trail or you can take the cable car. This time I decided to be lazy and take the cable up, however would also make a point of hiking back down, so queued up and bought a one way ticket up for ยฃ4.ย
It is quite a quick ride up the mountain and soon we are up. It is quite a small place with a church and several stalls and restaurants. It’s a bit of a tourist trap up there to be honest but it’s got some lovely views of the city from up there and a little sort of trail with representations of different countries. From what I gather this is to do with this being a pilgrimage site both in the modern day and from when it was a holy site for the Muisca peoples – the native tribes which resided in Bogotรก before the Spanish came here.
I didn’t spend that long up here about an hour, during which time I did bump into one of the french fellas I met back on Ometepe (the one who explained me how to properly eat a crepe if I recall ๐คฃ). Still always good to bump into people you’ve seen before travelling a similar path.
After this and a look round the stalls it was time to walk back down. Hiking down still felt quite tough from the amount of steps I had to walk down. Also everyone heading the other way looks absolutely shattered so doing it this was was definitely the right call.
Later that evening I go to the Viajero hostel for a drink and a bite to eat. I talk to a few people there both locals and other travellers though nothing much comes of it. I later go back to my hostel go have a drink on the terrace and get chatting to another French traveller who is heading for Panamรก and central America. Good I met him as I was able to trade the last of my Nicaragua Cordoba’s for Colombian pesos. Best of luck to him. I forget his name!
All in all was a good day. My 2nd day however wasn’t so great.
Hola todos! This will be the first blog installment for my visit to Bogotรก, Colombia’s capital city. Before we talk about Bogotรก itself we must first briefly discuss the journey as it was one of the more tedious ones we’ve done on this trip. Probably the most since San Jose.
It wasn’t the earliest of starts out of Manizales. About half 9, I was out and on the cable car over to the bus station. After a short ride and a quick bit of breakfast we were on way by 11. This bus however was a full bus and unfortunately I got the worst seat being sat right behind the dark metal pane behind the drivers seat so could barely see much outside and there were a lot of twisty roads again much like the ride to Manizales. I don’t get car sick much but this was making me feel queezy. From what we could see weather was quite bad all the way up so naturally this slowed things down.
This journey whiled on until we hit the outskirts of Bogotรก. It took another hour and a half to get into the station and then another half hour to get to my hostal in an Uber. In total I think I arrived about 3.5 hours late. 7 hour journey took 10 more or less. Arriving in Candelaria, the historic centre it didn’t look the nicest place to be at night but I was starving and headed out anyway to find somewhere to get some grub and a beer. The only place that was open was an Irish bar, so it was a burger and 2 pretty expensive pints but hey, beggars can’t be choosers!
I eaten up, went back to our hostal and had a little drink on the terrace and chatted a bit to some of the hostel mates and turned in about half 11. Slow going day but worked out alright. Tomorrow I will visit Monserrate.
Hola todos! Been a bit delayed writing this one up. So for my last day in Manizales I joined onto a guided walking tour around the city. I booked a local guide by the name of Viviana, this was another guided tour all done in Spanish. Good bit of practice there. Link to her tour at the bottom of this article.
So I’m up and running and walk about 10 minutes to the meetup point, grab a coffee and wait for her. She soon shows up and we get going, first she explains that the wooden tower we are at was part of the original cable car network built by the British back in the early 1910’s. You can see old towers rusting away from back then however this tower was wooden because of ww1 breaking out and metal not being shipped to finish this tower. So they used wood instead. The old cable line ran until about the late 1960’s with the newer one being opened in 2009.
After this we jump on a short 20 minute bus ride where we then get off just outside and we have a walk around different view points in an area named Chipre (Spanish for Cyprus). There is also a church here which is a replica of the original cathedral in the centre. She explains to me that Manizales is quite a new city being founded in the 1850’s by a handful of settlers from Medellin.
Over the years the city grew and expanded out and around these valleys. There are some excellent views here and some very steep hills and sheer drops. It is amazing but mental why you would build a city all up and down hills rather then building in a valley or on a plateau. No idea but this is what they prefer to do here.
One major moment in Manizales history which is worth mentioning is the 3 fires which destroyed most of it back in the 1920’s. From what I recall the original city was mostly built out of wood and in the 1920’s electricity first came to the region. At some point or another a spark got out of control and lead to a huge fire breaking out spreading rapidly and destroying large chunks of the city. 3 times this happened in 1922, 1924 and 1926. After the last one they stop using wood for buildings and rebuild with bricks instead.
Following into this we walk into the centre where we finish the walking tour and she recommends I check out the cathedral and that’s exactly what I did. First I went into the downstairs and later went on a tour upstairs. This place is mad. When you get up into the towers you can see just below high up this place is and it can feel just a tad uncomfortable if you have a fear of heights. That said the views are amazing and it is truly a surreal experience. I would highly recommend.
After this we got hit with another rainstorm and I eventually got back to the gaff and chilled for a bit. The evening was uneventful, I went and had some food then got some tinnies from Oxxo and had them back at my place as everything was practically shut by 9. That’s post Feria bank holiday for you. The next day I left for Bogotรก. That however is for the next installment.
The full name of this cathedral is The Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary (Catedral Basรญlica Metropolitana de Nuestra Seรฑora del Rosario) which is right in the city centre’s Plaza de Bolรญvar. It was built between 1928 and 1938 in a a gothic style replacing earlier churches here destroyed by the 3 previous mentioned fires in the 1920s. It took so long to build because they had to import various materials from Europe and North America that they couldn’t get in Colombia and shipments arrived very randomly, so work would often stop when they were waiting for something to arrive.
At about 120 metres tall, it is the tallest cathedral in Colombia and was the countryโs tallest building from about 1938 to 1969.
You can take a tour upstairs here for about ยฃ4. It is well worth the money as it allows you to see the panoramic views from it’s four corner towers and climb the spire and see all across the city and it’s valleys. Inside are numerous stained glass windows by different European and Colombian artists.
The cathedral was declared a National Monument of Colombia in 1984 and remains an important religious and cultural landmark in the Caldas regiรณn.
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