Hotel Estelar Las Colinas Manizales

... Roasting occurs in a large oven that rotates them quickly at very high temperatures, and only lasts 40 or so minutes. It's this roasting that brings out their true flavours, and you can see them rapidly change colour from yellow to dark brown. Lastly, the warm roasted beans are ground and ready to be brewed into what's known as "Colombian Mild" across the globe. <br><br>It was really interesting to see the whole process, especially as Renee and I are coffee ...

Manizales is located approx. 3000 meters high in the Colombian Andes. The city is a sprawling metropolitan known for its University and for being the gateway to the coffee region. We followed our new travel friends, Jason and Sharon, into the city just before dusk.<br><br>On our way to the parque Los Yarumos we again experienced another example of Colombian friendliness. A motorcyclist kept on driving by and waving us over, insisting on helping us find our ...

... on the edge of the main city centre. We attempted some dialogue with a receptionist there who gave us a program of the festival de theatre, what we had come to see. We found that there was a street performance just about to start, and after some confusion eventually found out that this was actually being performed at El Cable, where we had just walked from. We then hurriedly jumped in a taxi and went immediately back up Calle 23 from where we had started an ...

We got up and left Salento today. It is only 3 hours to Manizales, so we arrived around 11. We planned to go to Rio Blanco right away, but you have to go with a guide and we weren't able to get one until 2.<br><br>So, we walked around El Centro in Manizales for a couple hours. Most of that time was spent looking for some vegetarian food, which we eventually found. This part of Manizales wasn't ...

Hola!<br><br>So, after a rather disappointing time in Medellin I headed south for the Zona Cafetera (the coffee-growing region) of Colombia. The main city is Manizales, a large and unattractive blot on the otherwise quite beautiful and dramatic landscape. However, first impressions aren't everything and I soon found that the place is a fairly modern, clean city with plenty of amenities, though few tourist attractions.<br><br>After a short time at the hostel I became excited by the prospect of ...

Last day of the coffee trip today. I'm very very sad to say goodbye to the girls and make the trip up to Medellin alone, but we've had such a good week!<br> We decided to stay in Santa Rosa for the night to break up the journey to Manizales. When we arrived it was 8 o'clock on a saturday night and the town was already in full swing. And after the peacefulness of Salento it was like stepping into a ...

Hola familia, hola prima, hola tia.....the words I have longed to say since I was a little girl. If we lived in a perfect world I would have been going to visit my 'Abuelita' for the first time but as life has it she sadly passed away during Easter time two years ago. This incident really spurred my desire to go to Colombia. Life is too short to wait around for things to happen. If you want to do something you've got to do it! So there I was.....I took a flight to ...

We traveled here to visit the coffee region of Colombia, because it would have otherwise seemed wrong to miss it. After arriving late in the evening after both of our buses broke down, we immediately set off to tour the area the following morning. My Grandpa told me that he and my Grannie really enjoyed a coffee tour they went on when they visited Colombia in 1978. I have to admit, I was a little doubtful that it could be ...

Manizales is the main jumping off point for the "coffee region" in central Colombia. We stayed in the Mountain House where i again bumped into Avel, who was departing for Medellin. There was little to do in the city itself (highest church steeple in S.Am....zzz...), but there were options for interesting day trips in the surrounding (stunning) countryside. Having heard the ...

I arrived on the nightbus into Manizales, one of the main towns in the coffee triangle. The buses here are very comfortable but for some weird reason they all turn on the AC full blast at night so it´s freezing inside the bus. Fortunately I had been warned and had my jacket, hat, towel etc. to sheild me from the cold. Met up with a local tour operator and we discussed various options for the main itinerary and for the various add-ons we ...