...Wake up and smell the coffee...hmmmm..
Trip Start
Mar 25, 2008
1
5
54
Trip End
Nov 22, 2008
Armenia,
Colombia
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Traffic is hectic and the usual horn blowing and tooting at everything is common. I checked into the Imperial for US$15pn...the ladies that ran it were extremmely friendly the room clean and simple...no hot water...and a window that faced a very busy road and lots of traffic noise...which was dulled by my TV....wieghing up TV v's hot water...I think I woud prefer hot water but there actually isn't a choice.
My first night I pretty much did a big walk around the streets there are alot of bakeries....and casinos...and shops...not many restaurants...finnaly I came across a brightly lit fried chicken joint and ordered a small hawian pizza...you have to love a chicken place that serves plastic gloves with their fried chicken to keep the grease off your fingers!!! hmmm....pizza please!!!
I stayed in Armenia 3 nights using it as my base to head out to the smaller town of Salento and also to the Park National Del Cafe...A kind of theme park come adventure playground and coffee demonstration mini platation.
The coffee theme park was pretty...the gardens beautiful and they have a chair lift to get you from one side to the other...and then path ways to walk back through to see old plantation houses, coffee plants from various regions in central and south america....indian burial grounds, coffee museums, resturants, oh and then rollercoasters, bumper cars etc etc...you get the picture.
Anyway once I got to the mini village replica there was a TV crew there shooting a food show...you know the type where the chefs are cooking out in the open ...I parked up on a bench and watched them for awhile...I didn't really recognise anything that was prepared but the plates looked fancy when they were finished.
Just as I was doing the walk back it poured with rain so my newly washed, by hairdresser, in hot water...for $5-...and blow dried straight do ...like all the other customers......was soon very curly again!!!! So all the Muy Bonitos (very beautifuls~!!)...from the ladies at the hotel that morning where washed away in a few minutes!!!!!! Oh well...
The theme park was ok...it was an outing and it's always nice catching the busses to and from these things as you get to see the more rural life and scenery along the way.
The coffee I bought at the end of the day there was good while I sat on the curb outside the theme park waiting for the bus to come past and take me back into town....Juan Valdez coffee is Colombia's version of Starbucks...they are on lots of street corners and the coffee is pretty good!
My other day adventure was out to Salento which I have included as a seperate entry..
Simon Bolivar, - Armenia
