Colombia 2

[ENGLISH FOLLOWS]
La primera parada del "eje cafetero" és Manizales, una ciutat on has de tenir un bon nivell per conduir per allà ja que tot són pujades i baixades empinades i amb curves on sovint t'has d'aturar al mig de la pujada amb cotxes davant i darrera. Amb l'Andrea, una de les noies austríaques decidim anar cap al nevado del ruiz, una montanya nevada de gairebé 5000m, ja que teniem mono de montanya.

No trobàvem enlloc com anar-hi sense contractar tours que eren força cars, així que decidim anar a l'aventura. Ens llevem molt d'hora i desde l'estació d'autobusos agafem un bus que ens deixa a l'encreuament amb la carretera del parc nacional. Al baixar, entrem a un restaurant a preguntar i just estava fent un café un senyor que anava a recollir llet, així que ens diu que ens porta cap amunt. Anàvem fent parades a carregar llet i fer encàrrecs fins que ens va deixar al final del seu recorregut. Continuem a peu amb un paisatge molt maco d'alta montanya i el nevat a la llunyania. De sobte, una pickup para i ens diu si volem pujar al maleter, així que pugem i ens porten fins a l'entrada del parc. Resulta que era una familia maquíssima de Santander (de Colòmbia). A l'entrada del parc ens informen que hi ha risc d'activitat volcànica desde 2010 i nomes permeten accedir 5km més i no es podia fer caminant, així que decidim fer una rutilla caminant pel voltant que ens havia recomanat el de la llet. Tothom es va oferir per portar-nos amb el seu cotxe però preferiem fer la ruta a peu. Tot el dia va ser un clar exemple de l'amabilitat típica colombiana amb els turistes, el colmo va ser quan la familia de Santander em van trucar unes hores més tard per dir-me que es disposaven a baixar fins al encreuament i que ens venien a recollir. Un cop a dins del cotxe ens diuen, "Conocen Santander? No. Pues venganse con nosotros!". No vam anar cap a Santander, estava a 8 hores i teniem que recollir a l'altra noia austríaca a Manizales.

Al dia següent, les noies anàven cap a Cali i jo continuava visitant l'eje cafetero, així que ara si que anava totalment sol. A l'eje cafetero he tingut un guia a distància, el Carlos, un noi de l'eje cafetero que viu a La Seu i parlant amb la meva mare, li va dir que el contactés per recomanacions. Va ser tota una experiència! El Carlos va contactar a un amic seu agrònom que té plantacions de café perqué m'ensenyés tot el procès del café, així que em vaig dirigir cap a Genova a trobar-lo. Genova és una població el més al sud possible de l'eje cafetero i havia sigut una zona molt afectada per la guerrilla, em van explicar històries que el rio rojo d'allà li deien així pels cadàvers i la sang que s'hi havien tirat. No em podia creure que la zona hagués sigut tant xunga quan m'ho explicàven l'Anderson i la Marcela, els amics del Carlos. Ara és un poblet molt tranquil, amb gent per tot arreu i envoltat de turons plens de cafè.

El primer que vam fer va ser prendre un cafè i he de dir que no havia probat un cafè tant bó desde que vaig sortir de casa, i això que em van ensenyar com el gra de qualitat l'exporten cap a fora del país i el dolent es queda aquí. Vam agafar un willy (un tot terreny sense sostre) i vam anar cap a la finca de cafè. L'Anderson és un crack, li apassiona el món del cafè i en sap moltíssim, així que em va explicar pas per pas com funcionava aquest mundillo. Els terrenys els cultivàven entre varies persones i com que era època de recolecta tots dormien allà encara que no estava gaire acondicionat.  Entre pitos i flautes se'ns va fer tard perquè jo tornès al poble i busquès allotjament, així que vaig parar l'hamaca i em vaig quedar a dormir amb ells. A la nit vam riure molt bevent cervesa tots plegats amb uns altres agricultors que vivien allà.

L'endemà decideixo tornar a Genova caminant perquè no haguèssin de trucar expressament a un willy que em vingués a buscar. M'acompanyen un trosset i quan portem 5min caminant para un tio amb una moto i diu "el de la mochila, le bajo?". Doncs ja em veus de paquet a una moto amb la motxilla gran i la petita als hombros per un camí de terra entre cafetals, per suposat sense casc i no em va cobrar res.

De camí a Salento se m'assenta un senyor gran a la vora, em dona un munt de recomanacions de Salento i m'explica la seva vida. Al baixar del bus em diu, "vamos, que le invito a un café", vam anar a un lloc molt autèntic a la plaça principal i em va fer provar la torta de vino, un pastís de vi amb fruits secs boníssim i típic d'allà. Visito el poblet que era molt maco amb totes les cases de colors i l'endemà vaig a la vall del Cocora, una vall on crèixen les palmeres de cera que surten enmig del paisatge verd i fan uns 40m d'altura. Em va impressionar molt el lloc. Allà vaig fer una ruta amb dos nois que vaig conéixer, un dels Estats Units i l'altre que era colombià però des dels 10 vivia als Estats Units. Resulta que aquest últim estudiava a una universitat de la Ramon Llull a Nova York, i ho feia en català. Parlava perfectament català i no havia trepitjat mai Catalunya, vaig flipar.

L'última parada de l'eje cafetero va ser Armenia, on vaig anar a sopar a casa la mare del Carlos. Em va preparar un Sancocho deliciós, és una sopa amb tubèrculs i una carn de vedella que se't desfeia a la boca, vaig sortir rodolant. D'aquí bus nocturn a Bogotà, vaig visitar la ciutat i pujar a Monserrate, i avió cap a Leticia, una població de la selva amazònica de Colòmbia on no es pot arribar per terra.

Feia 4 mesos que no agafava un avió i se'm va fer raro i tot, però vaig veure unes vistes de l'amazones espectaculars que van fer que valgués molt la pena. Des de Leticia en 5 min estàs a Brazil o a Perú, la "frontera" és el riu. A Leticia cada dia succeeix un fenòmen molt curiós, a una plaça del mig de la població cada dia hi van a dormir milers de lloros verds. Així que ens vam aixecar a les 5 del matí amb uns nois que vaig conéixer per anar a veure com milers de lloros despertaven i anaven en manada a passar el dia a la selva. Va ser un espectacle brutal, només havies de vigilar que no et caigués un dels centenars de míssils que deixàven caure.

Vaig fer un tour per la selva de tres dies on vam dormir amb hamaca al mig de la selva, vam veure serps, caimans, taràntules, perezosos, un munt d'ocells, em vaig banyar a un riu on hi havien dofins rosats, piranyes i ens van acrivillar els mosquits. Al tornar del tour agafaré un barco per creuar cap a Iquitos, Perú, pel riu amazones.

[ENGLISH]
The first stop in the coffee area is Manizales, a city where you need to have good driving skills because everything are steep ways up and down with twists. I decided with Andrea, one of the austriac girls, to go to the "nevado del ruiz", one snowed mountain of almost 5000m because we were missing the mountains.

We couldn't find anywhere how to go there without taking a tour which were quite expensive, so we decided to go on an adventure. We woke up really early and from the bus station we took a bus that left us in the junction with the national park's road. When we went down the bus, we entered the restaurant to ask and there was a man taking a coffee who was going to collect milk in the area, so he gave us a lift. We were stopping to collect milk until he left us at the end of his journey. We continued on foot with a really beautiful high mountain landscape and the snowed mountain at the end. Suddenly, a "pick up" stopped and asked if we wanted to go in the back part, so we went up and they took us to the park entrance. It was a really nice family from Santander (in Colombia). In the park entrance they told us that there was risk of volcanic activity since 2010 and they were only allowing to access 5km more and you couldn't do it walking, so we decided doing an alternative path walking which recommended us the man of the milk. Everybody offered themselves to take us with the car but we preferred walking. All the day was an example of the typical colombian kindness with the tourists, the maximum was when the family of Santander phoned me some hours later to tell me that they were going down and they could pick us up. Once in the car, they said "Do you know Santander? No. Then, come with us!". We didn't go to Santander, it was 8 hours away and we had to meet again with the other austriac girl in Manizales.

On the following day, the girls went to Cali and I continued visiting the coffee area, so now I was totally alone. In the coffee area I've had a guide in the distance, Carlos, a guy from the coffee area who lives in La Seu and, talking with my mother, he said that I should contact him for recommendations. It was such an experience! Carlos cantacted a friend of him who is farmer and has coffee plantations to show me all the process of the coffee, so I went to Genova to meet him. Genova is a town the most in the south possible in the coffee area and was so affected by the "guerrilla", they explained me stories that the name of the red river was coming for the dead bodies that were thrown there. I couldn't believe that this are had been so dangerous when Anderson and Marcela, the friends of Carlos, explained me. Now is a really quiet town, with people everywhere and surounded by hills full of coffee.

The first that we did was taking a coffee and I must say that I hadn't taken such a good coffee since I left home, even they showed me how the quality grain is exported and the bad one is staying here. We took a willy (a 4x4 without roof) and we went to the coffee farm. Anderson is a crack, he is so passioned about the coffee world and he is so knowledgeable about it, so he explained me step by step how this world works. The land was cultivated between several farmers and, as it was time for collection, they were sleeping there even it was not so well suited for that. It got late for me to go back to the town and look for acommodation, so I put the hamock and I slept there with them. At night we laughed a lot drinking beer together with other farmers who lived there.

The day after I decided coming back to Genova walking in order that they didn't have to call a willy only for picking me up. They came with me for a while and when we had been walking for five minutes a guy with a motorbike stopped and said "they guy of the backpack, do you want I take you down?". So, I went down with him in the motorbike with the big and small backpack on my shoulders through a ground way between coffee plantations, of course without helmet and for free.

On the way to Salento, an old man seated next to me, he gave me so many recommendations about Salento and he explained me his life. When we went down the bus he told me, "Let's go, I'll invite you to a coffee.", so he took me to a really authentic place next to the main square and he made me taste the "torta de vino", a delicious wine cake with dry fruits typical from there. I visited the beautiful town full of colorful houses and on the following day I went to Cocora valley, a place where the wax palms grow in the middle of the green landscape, they are around 40m high. The place is really impressive. I did a trekking over there with two guys I met, one from the US and the other one colombian but had been living in the US since he was 10 years old. This last one was studying in a university of Ramon Llull in New York, and it was in catalan. He was speaking catalan perfectly and he had never been in Catalonia, I was really amazed.

The last stop of the coffee area was Armenia, where I went for dinner to the home of Carlos' mother. She prepared a delicious "sancocho", a tubers soup with beef that was melting on your mouth. From here I took a night bus to Bogota, I visited the city, I went up to Monserrate and I took a flight to Leticia, a town in the colombian amazones where you can't reach there by land.

I hadn't been taking a plane for the last 4 months and it seemed weird for me, but I saw such an amazing views from the amazones which made it totally worthy. From Leticia in 5 min you are in Brazil or Peru, the "border" is the river. In Leticia there's everyday a curious phenomenon, in a square of the middle of the town everyday thousand of green parrots go to sleep there. So, I woke up at 5 in the morning with some guys I met, to go to how thousands of parrots were waking up and were going to spend the day in the jungle. It was a wonderful show, you only needed to be careful of one of the hundreds missiles that was not falling down on you.

I did a tour in the jungle for three days where we slept in a hamock in the middle of the jungle, we saw snakes, caimans, tarantules, sloths, many birds and I swam on a river with pink dolphins, piranyas and the mosquitos ate me. When I will come back from the tour, I will take a boat to go to Iquitos, Peru, through the Amazon river.