Eco-Hotel Santa Barbara Armenia

... to sit on the right hand side of the bus. It reminded me a little to Arthurs Pass in New Zealand. At around 7pm we rolled into Ibague. It was at this point that we found out, through some simple Spanish conversation with another passenger that we still had three hours before arriving in Armenia. I was a little anxious since arriving that late may be difficult finding accommodation and I had absolutely no information on possible places to stay. The guidebook ...

... Whilst I was making the deal one of the local Colombian entrepreneurs had engaged Christie in conversation about a possible tour in the afternoon. He seemed genuine, so after we had decreased his price by 25% we agreed. We had about an hour and a half before the tour started, so we sped back to the hostel to return the bikes. Christie mentioned that another 10 minutes on the bike would have been really painful, mine ...

... should be $10mil pesos.<br><br>We took in a menu de dia at a nearby restaurant, (as we had skipped breakfast) and got on the collectivo. As we left went through the streets of El Banco, it seemed a town full of character. There were barely any cars, we saw about 3.Everyone rode motorbike and mopeds (usually with two if not three on board, none with helmets. Others were on bicycle and there were numerous rickshaws driven by bicycles, or motorbikes. Some donkeys, but no cars ...

... station? The passengers on the bus were yelling at the driver to stop picking up more people, we're full already! That was a first! Locals complaining. Needless to say, there was no A/C and the bus was not even direct. After about 4 hours I had to change to another bus. I got off and was directed to the next bus but still needed to get my bag out from under the bus. Just then, the bus takes ...

... speaking of the mountain, our gasping vantage point and the glow of the full moon made for an amazing view as far as the eye could see. Arriving safely at 6:30 am, we were greeted by our friend Luz Marina, who allowed us to stay at her "finca" (farm) for a few days. We were welcomed with a traditional breakfast of a warm bowl of "caldo de papa con Costilla" (potato soup with ribs) and arepa mmmm, one of Carl's favorite sides. "La Finca" is on ...

The day before yesterday I arrived into Armenia. No I have not quickly hopped continent, Armenia is one of the three towns that make up the corners of the coffee triangle - along with Manizales and Pereira. In fact there are many towns in the coffee region with the same names as countries or regions elsewhere - Syria, Montenegro, Palestine, Florida, Puerto Rico to name a few. I was met by the infectiously ...

... Unfortunately we had to keep goingto a little post known as El Burro, once in here we found out that there was nobody willing to take us tothenext town till the next day, staying in here was going to be rough but also these people were trying to take advantage of us. Keeping my silly philosophy to brake but not bend we started looking for a place next to a horse to spend the night, but before getting comfortable ...

... double bed you've ev** seen and stangely, the mattress was set in a bed of tiled concrete. I asked if th**e was a twin room available and the response was yes at 9 oclock, but $20,000 pesos more. Being on a tight budget, we stayed put. Within moments of being in the room, we realised we didn't really want to be th**e..the sheets w**e dirty, the toilet didn't flush, the show** was such a dribble that it took 20 ...

... park were great and explained everything so well...in Spanish...it felt great to understand, but if we didn´t, they did their best to try in English. The amusement park itself was nice as well, and while it didn´t offer the immensity of Disneyland, it was a nice park to walk around and see the rides. Another aspect about this park that we really enjoyed was how they had not leveled the surrounding forests to create a huge theme park, but rather, they have used ...

... even half way through the meal I discovered a moth had landed in mine and I had two eyes staring up at me. My dinner went in the bin. The next day we went to a coffee farm with 4 others and a stray dog from the hostel. It was a small farm only producing coffee for locals and tourists sent down by Tim from Plantation House. Don Elias took us round his farm teaching us about the different beans and how the coffee is produced. It was really ...