Finding Feria – Pereira to Manizales

We turned over the new year in Pereira, a town known to be the business end of the coffee region in more ways than one. It is home to both a large segment of industry and corporations from the area, and unfortunately – or fortunately I suppose, depending on one’s proclivities – an abnormally high number of prostitutes. Thankfully that fact was not very noticeable during our stay outside of a slue of advertisements addressing the issue and calling to put a stop to the trade. At least it seems they are heading in the right direction.

On New Year’s Eve we were surprised to find most bars and restaurants in town closed, the streets barren, the city completely quiet. Slightly disappointed, we made our way back to the hostel a bit earlier than expected, but just in time to settle down to a view of fireworks. This year not from our high-rise apartment overlooking the Trinity River, rather from a second floor window adjacent to a small neglected knoll commandeered by our new neighbors for a homegrown and slightly haphazard pyrotechnics display. What this one lacked in grandiosity it made up in adrenaline pumping close calls with the roof of our building. Exciting all the same.

Before leaving Pereira we caught a brightly painted Chiva out to a particularly beautiful hike through a nature reserve a few miles from the city center. The old wooden school bus streaked with primary colors was completely packed when it arrived to pick us up, so we were shuffled onto the roof with several other daring passengers. For over an hour we traveled the mountain pass playing a somewhat treacherous game of limbo, ducking under low hanging vines and branches; something I found a bit uncomfortable due to an unnatural lack of flexibility, but that elicited uncontrollable laughter from Mel. The kind that reminded me of the contagious delirium that would set in when you stayed up way too late as a kid. Eventually all of us who had found our way onto the roof were almost falling off in laughter. After being told of the presence of jaguars (not the best thing to mention to a pair of gringos before they walk off alone into the woods by the way), we were dropped off in the middle of the reserve and we were once again taken by the beauty of this country as the hike led us through a diversity of landscapes. We trekked all day in the shadows of unimaginably dense rainforests reminiscent of those in the movie Predator (a notion that continued to remind us of the jaguar stalking us around each corner), wide open valleys lush with green grasses and filled with cattle (not yet eaten by the ravenous jaguars), and boulder filled expanses, each intersected by a powerful river running white with rapids.

After Pereira we biked through a region known for its prolific pineapple harvest, to Cartago, and finally took a bus back up to Manizales where we stayed for a week. Upon arriving we found out that the town of about 400K was in the throes of Feria, one of the country’s largest fairs which draws in an extra hundred-thousand or so Colombians every year. The entire city was alive with festivities; artisan markets, pop-up restaurants, coffee vendors and pubs, football (the round kind), a surprising amount of tennis played on beautiful clay courts, volleyball, concerts, and bullfights to name a few. Sometimes referred to as the San Francisco of Colombia, Manizales is well known for its beauty, a prominent arts and culture scene, and as the home to 7 national universities. It is perched high in the Andes and of course close the the equator, a combination which lends to an almost perfect weather profile year round (~70 degrees), and to amazing views from nearly every street corner. Centrally located, it is just a few hours from the beaches of Cali, the capitol of Bogota, and the bustling city life of Medellin. It has an airport, and to Mel’s delight sits at the very top corner of the coffee triangle, just outside of one of the largest nature reserves and volcanoes in the country. It was a favorite for both of us; undoubtedly a place we would be comfortable calling home after the tour if we ended up in Colombia.

Leaving Manizales represented a transition in our tour from bikes to bags. From here Mel would fly to D.C. to attend a work function, and I would head back to Bogota to prepare for the next phase. The bikes would be packed into boxes and we would prepare to meet up again in one week on the beaches of Lima, Peru, our heading SouthEasterly toward Cusco – but who really knows, our plans change almost everyday.