Finca Hotel Bosque del Saman Armenia

... is a struggle for them to get above first gear. Some of these trucks are so old it is a wonder if they ever make it to the other side. They bellow out large clouds of black diesel fumes. The consequence of all of this is that some trucks can barely reach more than 15km per hour. Without any passing points on the road this leads to a procession of lorries, trucks and buses crawling up the mountain. There is no advantage going down either since these ...

... to be falling apart and Jody's chain kept falling off.

We stuffed ourselves with homemade sandwiches, coffee, filled our water bottles and gathered our swimmers.

At 2pm a motorbike rickshaw came and collected us from our hostel. We arrived at our boat 5 minutes later and were joined by three other tourists. We spent 3 hours travelling down the river, down and estuary which then joined a large wetland. We ...

... it seemed reasonably busy. Some motorbikes had small trailers attached. As we left town we soon found out why the guide book advised taking a jeep. The road, where it doesn’t fall into a crater, is just a dirt road, and certainly not flat. The collectivo bounced around and rarely got as fast as 20km per hour. I am certain that vehicles last very long if they do this trip. In fact I’m not sure that a jeep would fare any better for comfort, it maybe would just last ...

... What the hell??!!!? Before I can panic too much, a guy (who?) tells me, don't worry they'll bring your bag. I was already hot and tired from a too long trip and I found it hard not to worry about my bag disappearing down the road...but sure enough, 10 minutes later a guy showed up with it and I got on the bus to Magangue where I would catch the boat. Another ridiculously overcrowed half bus ...

... places to visit in "El Quindio" ... they mentioned to take a bus to Rio Verde and walk around, because we told them that we were interesting in a ecological walks, not in a touristic and busy places. Ones we arrived to Rio Verde, we start walking next to a small river, the vegetation it was changing as soon we were climbing the mountain, from cactus, to big trees and mountains with plantain and coffee trees. We were soon at the "Centro ...

... this one is perfect!". But Yical kept bringing me to more and eventually the one I decided on really is perfect! :-) Set well away from any roads, a small coffee farm with a beautiful soothing stream, a pool, comfortable rooms and excellent food. The farm is full of orchids and other plants, as well as the coffee plantations and plantains. I really didnīt want to leave. We also found time to visit the ...

... went to a little store letting people know of the situation. A lady an her husband informed me that some friends were picking them up and going to Tamalameque, the next town, not only they gave us a ride but refuse any kind of payment, great colombians again.... The trip on a dirt road took over one hour to do do 20 km at this time was 9 pm we left San Gil at 11 am , no the best of progress really. Tamalameque was ...

... year old guy who, the day before at 6pm, had been robbed of the equivalent of $4 USD and stabbed to death . Too scared and tired to leave, we decided it was just one night and we would deal with it. The lobby with it's comfy sofas seemd a good place to read, and it would have been had it not been for the continuous int**ruptions with the steady stream of custom**s in and out with all the regularity of a ***** house ...

Today we went to the Parque del Cafe. We werenīt sure what to expect, but we ended up having a really good day. The park is about 15 minutes drive from where we are staying and Zulma and Fransisco kindly offered to drop us off at 10am. The park is known as the Disney Land of the Cafe region which we are staying in. I wouldnīt really compare it to Disney world, more like Wickstead Park, but we had a great day anyway! At the beginning of the park is the story of cafe, where you ...

... and we talked to him for a while after wards about his life. At this point it started raining and none of us wanted to start the walk back so Don Elias' family made us lunch and we waited for the rain to stop. When it finally did we set off back, Graham and I walked all the way back that took around 2 hours (uphill) but the others took the easy option and got the bus back up the hill. Back at the hostel we met Paul from Essex ...