#5 Albergue Azul - Sweat Colombia ...
Que tal amigos? Our trip goes on so fast! As we achieved our last blog post, we were milking cows; we are now in Medellin after two weeks of farm work in the Colombian coffee valley. Here is the story of our last weeks.
A few weeks ago, we left the Quintanas and the Hacienda la Esperanza with sadness. Their warm welcome and the life we had there filled us with happiness. As we worked hard, tasted delicious milk and witnessed Zoe fooling around, we almost forgot we had to go and keep on travelling.
We first thought about going directly to Colombia. But thanks to a few holy days the weekend of our departure would last four days: all Ecuadorians were going crazy and preparing themselves to party. Everyone told us it will be the craziest party of all year and we didn’t want to miss it. We thus joined our friends from Guayaquil (see our last post) at Cuenca for the weekend. Those four days tired us a lot; however the following two days were even more exhausting as we travelled by bus to arrive at Pablo Escobar’s city, Medellin!
Short moment's rest
For two months people have been telling us how great Colombia is and we want to discover its beauties. Please forgot what you think you know about Colombia: violence, narcos, insecurity, FARC, etc. Medellin is not the biggest city of Colombia, but it is the most modern one. Over the last 20 years, local authorities have been making it the most modern and organized city we have seen since we stared our trip in Latin America. Located in the middle of green hills, Medellin is a crazy city where partying never stops – we took the most of it, of course without going to hard (you know us).
Let’s go back to a more rural atmosphere! We decided to work in a finca (a agricultural exploitation for those who don’t speak Spanish) in the coffee region. We took a bus towards Manizales, a city located halfway between Medellin and Cali. We would stay there two weeks. Cecilia and Pablo welcomed us at the Albergue Azul: the Blue Farmhouse, in English, is an ecological farm extremely careful about preserving biodiversity. Cecilia breeds goats, chickens and ducks, and cultivates various vegetables (tomatoes, carrots), fruits (bananas, pineapples, oranges, lemons) and aromatic herbs (oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary). We do not need to say that we took a lot from the garden to cook our own plates
Manizales, from the mecanic eggs
Perched at the heart of the coffee valley
We had a similar rhythm to the one we had in Latacunga: we woke up at 7:00 a.m. to feed the goats and the chickens, then breakfast at 8:00 a.m.; we did various works until 12:30 p.m., then we lunched and went back to work before feeding again the animals at 4:00 p.m. There is no Internet: we thus dedicate our free moments to reading, cooking and doing sport.
Our own home
Cecilia does everything in the finca: during our stay she showed great interest in learning us the ecological practices she developed in her farm. She refuses to use chemical products to grow her plants, and recycles every resource available: animals’ excrements and organic wastes are used to do compost, and water is saved thanks to dry toilets and rain water collect. Most of the food consumed came from the farm and the surpluses were sold at the monthly ecological market in Manizales.
Let's taste those chickens !
Every morning, our cooker Yvan prepared a salad – of which French chefs would be jealous – for our three goats (Cleopatra, Café and Sara). Their favorite food (buttercups, clovers and various plants) was freshly picked as the sun rose. Cecilia milked our favorite goat, Cleopatra, and prepared a wonderful goat cheese – of course we ate it with the greatest pleasure at breakfast. We also had to do a more disgusting work: picking the goat’s excrements and bringing it to the compost. Meanwhile, Tanguy provoked daily chaos amongst its Colombian chicks, feeding them. We did it again at 4:00 p.m. and then went to rest!
Our chef picking its ingredient
A tasteful garden-fresh salad for Cleopatra !
Tanguy nurturing his Colombian chicks
One of the most important product is – of course – coffee. We spent a few days harvesting it during our stay. We had to pick the ripe grains (red or yellow according to the type of coffee) through the ants, spiders, leeches and snakes living in the plants. The grains then had to be skinned, washed and dried. Cecilia sold it to a national cooperative and to a few private people.
Selfie moment as we harvest coffee
Severely monitoring coffee
The raining season is beginning. Be careful: we do talk about huge Amazonian raining. When we arrived all plants were cluttered with weeds. We put our gloves to wash the corn, yucca and coffee plants. Until then, we never did something so physical, with our back curved for hours and our hands in the soil to take out resisting weeds.
Movember for Yvan
Fortunately, we had the opportunity to do funnier things. As you may know it, we love meat; we learnt how to skin and empty three beautiful chickens – by the way we had a lot of fun chasing them through the farm. We then had the opportunity to taste them – and they sure tasted delicious. Trina, the neighbor, came every day to help Cecilia in her daily tasks. She showed us how to do home bread, butter, cheese and marmalade.
Coffee and chicken break
Those two weeks in the middle of the flourishing Colombian countryside (we have not seen more beautiful since the beginning of our trip) allowed us to rest far from the crazy life of Cuenca and Medellin. We now keep going north, towards the Caribbean coast – surfing to be expected. However we will stop for a few days in Medellin again: Maxime is waiting for us…
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