Centro Nacional para el Estudio del Bambu- Guadua
Trip Start
Feb 01, 2009
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3
12
Trip End
Ongoing
Armenia, Colombia
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Between Rio Verde and Cordoba is The National Center of Study of Bamboo - Guadua
We decided to travel at night in a plush Mercedes Benz, (travel bus) from Bogotá to Armenia, the cost of a one way ticket was $35,000 Colombian pesos (US$15.00); a 7 hour ride allowing us only to sleep when the highly skilled bus driver wasn't braking, passing, or swerving so as not to tumble down the side of the mountain. And 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 a hill close to the main road, has a nice swimming pool with a bridge by the middle, the view from the place down the hill is spectacular, plantain, banana trees, Bamboo and obvious coffee trees are all over, some times the fog come down, and create a different view, but still gorgeous.
People on this region are so friendly; right away we create a very nice connection with the "agregados" managers of the finca; who with we have a conversation about 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 Nacional para el Estudui del Bambu - Guadua", to have a guide and learn about this useful type of tree we paid $6,000 per person, around US$3.00... This place is very nice, people really use the bamboo or guadua a lot, they create lamps, build houses with it, musical instruments, curtains, etc. After we finish with this interesting place we walked for almost two hours to a little town call Cordoba, later on I red that in that town exist nice water falls.
