As I got an invitation to participate on a fam trip (familiarization trip = tour operators, travel agencies and journalists are invited to get to know destinations in order to promote them afterwards), it was time to travel to the coffee triangle again. For me, this region is one of the most beautiful and unique places in Colombia – not only because of the production of the best coffee in the world! Only the fact landing at the airport of Armenia surrounded by these beautiful landscapes of coffee and banana plantations as well as bamboo forests made me feel very happy to be back in this wonderful region!
Our group was picked up at the airport and went to the Finca El Horizonte where we were served a delicious typical lunch of “frijoles” – beans with rice, avocado and “chicharron”. Then the owner Don Jorge showed us the beautiful surroundings of his finca. We were passing by coffee and banana plantations arriving at the tree “caracoli” which gave us a nice shadow from the burning sun! Here they plan to have yoga classes which just seems the perfect place for it! After the walk around the finca and its surroundings, we continued our journey to the colonial town Filandia!
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Here we first went to the restaurant “Helena adentro” in Filandia. It is a mixture of art and food fusion of typical Colombian food with fresh ingredients and desserts with typical fruits – all in form of “tapas & food to share”! The decoration of paintings and photographies should also show that food is art and give the clients a tasty experience! Of course, we got to try some of the sweets and it was very delicious!
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Then we went for a walk through this beautiful little colonial town! The houses are all in different colors and with nice balconies mostly decorated with flowers! A pity that we got there so late in the evening! The little village is very famous for its handicrafts and art of weaving little baskets. In the past they were specialized in just making baskets to collect the coffee beans from the plantations but nowadays they offer much more from baskets of all sizes to lamps and all different kinds of decoration. About 25 families have been working as artists here!
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After this experience we enjoyed a dinner and coffee experience at the hotel Tucanes. A coffee expert told us everything about the process of making the best coffee of the world! Then we were brought to our hotel Pueblo Bello to get a good night sleep!
Have a look at my experiences of the following days – part 2!