Café & Candy

Finally I make it to the much praised city of Medellín!  I ride in the city with only an address of the hostel I'm planning on staying in, and little more.  The GPS map I have for Colombia was pretty much useless.  After riding around aimlessly for a short time among the cars and tiny 100-400cc motos, I actually see a larger bike.  A larger V-twin Yamaha and I decide to play follow the leader for awhile, and we have a little bit of fun as he tries (not sure exactly how hard) to lose me.  Finally I pull up beside him at a light and low and behold he speaks English and then offers to lead me to my hostel!!!  Things are looking up already.

The next day the bike goes into the dealer for an oil change, tires and maintenance and I'm left feeling naked.

The typical scene of a vendor making candy on the street.

There is no admittance fee and there is some interesting things to see inside.  There was an art display when we went in.  I also should mention how much I love the two-tone bricks of this building.  You'll see what I mean in the picture down below.

The sculptures of Fernando Botero in Medellin are truly something that should not be missed.

Here's one of my favourites.

Here's the top of the Palacio De la Cultura.  It has to been seen to be appreciated.

The tires are finally on and the bike is listo (ready).  I leave Medellín after almost a week and head towards Solento.

It's a great ride and I manage to completely by-pass Cali.  If you go this way and don't feel like a large city, I suggest you take the time and plan your route to give Cali a wide berth.  The dancing and partying in Cali are supposed to be great, but I don't do either so it made sense to skip it this time.

I checked into a Hostel called the Plantation house.  A few positive and negative points on this place.  The owner was a super nice kiwi guy and let me park my bike right beside his house, but it was up the road out of my sight.  The negative things were that the kitchen was disgusting.  The garbage was overflowing all over the floor and when we mentioned it to the staff he simply shrugged his shoulders.  The other thing was it WAS very rustic to the point where you would almost be better off in a tent.  Cheaper and less insects.

Anyway, the coffee tour with them was good and it almost made it worth the stay there.

At the beginning of the tour the owner talked about coffee and the different kinds of plants.

The machine they use to skin the beans.

The different stages of coffee, including the flowers.

Roasting the coffee.

The gigantic flower in on the bottom of the banana tree and upside down,

You have to ask for them, but they do have nets and there isn't many mosquitos.