Mike writes:
This was supposed to be a rest day but no one had told the local cockerel and his assorted feathered friends who began a raucous dawn chorus well ahead of schedule ignoring the fact that it was still dark. They clearly share Chris’ inability to sleep past 3AM. Colourful parrots performed an early morning fly past but annoyingly refused to pose for photos.
Not wanting to waste a non driving day, we signed up for a coffee tour at the hacienda where we are staying. While we learned a lot about coffee, such as how to pop your cherry, over the 3 hours which the tour lasted, we remain baffled by how the pickers manage to harvest the cherries as the bushes are often grown on slopes which are as steep as black runs and there is virtually no space between the rows of coffee plants anyway.
One thing we did discover about coffee is that it doesn’t smell of coffee (or at least not like the finished product). We plunged through mountains of dried beans which smelt of yeast more than coffee.
We also found a solution to the problem of lighting the cigars which we had bought in a rash moment from a dodgy street vendor in Cartagena and which hitherto had proved impervious to all attempts to ignite them (other than the quality Monte Cristo No 2s!).
Tour completed and now expert on all caffeine related matters we adjourned for lunch back at the house to allow our new found knowledge to percolate.
Chris was suffering withdrawal symptoms as it is a non driving day, so chose to drive vicariously by tuning into the F1 practice on his I-pad.
Paul & I instead rashly chose to climb up the hill behind the coffee estate to enjoy the view which was indeed spectacular although we almost ground to a halt because it was roasting. We were sufficiently strong – robust(a)? – to manage to filter our way through the bushes to the viewpoint. Glad we gave it a shot!
Back at the house we spotted a local enjoying the sunshine.
Tomorrow we are on the road again heading for the city of Buga where we are not sure what to call the inhabitants.
Our America’s Challenge Drive 