Colombian Conquest Day 12 - Manizales to Jardin

It's going to be a full on day. At the bikes, ready for breakfast at 7.  Leave, and be on the road by 7:30. Plan. 

We leave at 7:40. Not bad.

We're heading for Mirador El Robles: a destination for serious bird watchers. That's definitely us... 

Ohhh, those kind of birds. Well, Steve will definitely have his long lens extended. 

At breakfast we talk of unpleasant foods: rotten shark in Iceland (some have tried), wormy cheese in Spain (Steve's tried), surströmming (not tried).  We have egg with onion and tomato. No contest.

We ride on the outskirts of Manizales. It's rush hour and many locals must be on their way to work. A woman zooms by on her scooter downhill and corners the bend like a demon. We know it's a woman as we're bird watchers, or maybe it's the flowing long blond hair sticking out of her helmet.

We pass an ambulance attending to an accident on a bend, and later we see an overturned truck. Those are three only accidents we've seen while here.

We continue on the dual carriageway out of the city and it seems to go downhill forever winding its way through many corners. 

It's beginning to rain a little. I already have my rain jacket on for warmth, but many don't have theirs on yet; they must be cold. 

A Honda Africa Twin thunders past, its exhaust booming and rider waving at us; Christopher and I exchange thumbs up (he has an AT). In the opposite direction a BMW R1300GSA rolls by. I wave. The rain gets a bit heavier, but then stops.

We refuel the DRs (these have smaller tanks and they use more fuel than the Honda 300XRE bikes). As it's stopped raining there's no incentive to put on rain gear.

We climb up the mountain and soon it becomes foggy, or rather we enter the clouds from below. It's damp. I'm glad I still have my rain jacket on. 

The visibility is poor and in some places it's difficult to see if you're still following the bike in front. We pass through commercial areas with garages and cafes.

Suddenly Jeff stops and turns around and heads back the way we came. We do the same. Unfortunately Alan tips his bike, and over he goes. Two locals help him lift the bike and then push him to the side of the road as he's blocking traffic. The slight delay means the riders ahead are now some way off. Alan, Mark and I try to catch up. 

Unbeknown to us we miss the corner man on the LHS and continue back down the hill chasing the group ahead. Before we know it, we're back at the petrol station! But no sign of anyone.

We fire off a few messages to Jeff but there's no answer. We Google the hummingbird place and decide to follow Googlemaps at least until where we think the group turned off. On the way back up, a young guy on an old two stroke passes us like we we're standing still. Luckily, as we get to the junction, Edy arrives from the other direction almost at the same time.

We follow him for about 10k though some rough and muddy terrain. It's raining properly now and my visor is also steaming up making it difficult to see.

A lorry approaches from the other direction and ahead the guys stop to let it pass. But I don't slow quickly enough and end up hitting Alan from behind. This deflects me to the left and I brush the end of the lorry as it passes slowly, which seals my fate and I then hit the deck. I'm bounced around like a pinball and in the process: knocked a spotlight off, broke an indicator, and cracked a mirror. 🤦🏽

I'm unhurt, but red faced. The lorry driver helps me pick the bike up.

Back on track and we pass a convoy of pack horses. Famously these would have been used to transit drugs in Escobar's day. But now they carry tourists and goods. We pass a tourist group heading the opposite direction. They wave as we pass, and we are careful not to spook the horses. Then it's a sharp left and steep up a hill.

We've arrived at Mirador El Robles. Pretty soon we have small pots of sugar water and hummingbirds literally eating out of our hands. This must be one of the coolest experiences ever. Steve is especially over the moon and his poor camera goes into overdrive. We spend ages taking photos and discovering modes on our cameras that we never knew never existed. I get some superb super slow-mo videos, which unfortunately can't be uploaded to the blog, so you'll have to make do with stills, or checkout some of Steve's footage on Facebook, or perhaps even mine!

Ray shows that he can still pull the birds!

The day that Graham almost sees eye to eye with a humming bird. What tune I wonder?

The rain has not let up, so it's waterproofs on. Back down the steep slope and we follow the muddy dirt road for about 20km.

Eventually we start seeing road signs, which means we're getting near civilisation again. We're now riding through a banana/plantain growing area and those plants line the sides of the road. The dirt track turns to broken asphalt, and eventually sound asphalt.

We arrive in Jardin.  

There we follow signs for Cafe Historias where we have a tour of their coffee plantation. It's a steep climb to reach it and there's a commanding view over the town.

We are given lunch served in banana leaves, and they have prepared a vegetarian meal for me which is seriously delicious. It's plantain to see that Mark goes bananas over his too.

Don Diego is the owner and gives us an introduction to his family and the coffee estate. We dress the part and then he shows us around, with help from translator Andres. 

It's fascinating to hear the process, from: beans used to grow new coffee plants, to beans that are roasted then ground. We pick some berries, then they are dehusked and fermented, then dried. Roasting is done in town and the final product ground. 

Graham Matthews up for an the time he's missed on Peleton, by dehusking our pick of the day.

Who knew that washing and grading coffee was so complicated. We see the three different grades: first, second and third. We think that third grade is nothing but empty shells and detritus, but apparently it gets made into instant coffee! If this doesn't turn all of us into coffee snobs, nothing will.

We get to sample some first grade coffee, washed and "honey", made using different techniques, and the results are the best coffee I've ever tasted! Our coffee addict, Ray, is in heaven.

We note that by end of the three hour tour, Andres has remembered all our names, something that we're not convinced Jeff has mastered. That said, I'm not sure if I've remembered Andres' name correctly! 😳

After this long tour we ride into town and check-in at our hotel. Ice-cream follows dinner and a brief wander around the square dominated by a beautiful church.

The hotel is lovely and despite having an eco bias it retains its charm. But while we try to sleep there's a bizarre sound randomly coming from the ceiling. We think it's some kind of cricket, but can't see it.

165km today, and some of those are repeated km for Alan, Mark and myself.