13 Sept
We went to Pilar's finca (farm) this morning. It has changed a lot since the last time I was there. She is down 4 fish tanks, due to lack of water along with losing about 25% of her coffee plants to a fungus. She has to wait another year before she can replant the infected area, because her coffee is all certified organic. This time she had some coffee on drying, as well as some on the plants, plus I'll be bringing home some of the freshly roasted and ground coffee she had ready for us. Pilar also has citrus and avocado trees. We learned that her citrus trees produce all year round, but her avocado trees only once a year and are much smaller than the lower elevation nearby trees. The difference between the two fincas that we visited is altitude and water. The Friday finca wasn't as high in altitude and has more water. Pilar's finca is located on a area called La Mesa de los Santos, and the area has been getting drier with less rain over the last five years. She also raises cabrilla, which is a member of the goat family, chickens (75) for eggs, chickens for eating (now just 6 because she axed 6 to take back to Bucaramanga), fish and six milk cows.
From the finca, we (Roger, Manuel, and I) went to Parque Nacional Chicamocha, which is a canyon that was formed by Rio Chicamocha. The canyon is 2000m deep, 227km long, (a little deeper than the Grand Canyon, but not nearly as long or wide.) We rode the 6.3 km cable car across the canyon, which happens to be one of the longest cable cars in the world. The canyon land is very arid, with lots of cacti, free range goats, and cigar tobacco plots. The river level was up some, because it had rained last night up stream. Both ends of the cable car stations have little tourist kiosks and typical tourist items. On one side the park system has also built a water park, and has adventure concessions that include zip lines and huge, over-the-canyon swings. There's also a very interesting series of bronze figures that depict the struggle of the people of Santander during the 1800s.
In Bucaramanga, there's a 10 day Feria (fair) going on, which is a variety of cultural fairs across the area. Today, outside the city in Mesa de los Santos, there was a cabalgata, which is a cavalcade of horseback riders gathering to share a common interest. We guess that there were at least 500 horseback riders. The cabalgata is not done in the city because there are animal rights groups against the ride, due to horses meeting up with cars and drunk riders. It still was very interesting to see. We even saw one horse with a tandem saddle and two small boys riding the horse. There were also ponies, mules, and burros taking part. Lots of the horses were "trotters" and the riders were making them prance (another no-no with the animal rights group.) We left the cabalgata behind, only to encounter a bad traffic accident that involved a small white car, and two large trucks on a sharp mountain curve. The rear truck had jack-knifed, but Manuel some how was able to get by without putting us over the side of the mountain. This was the first of two amazing driving tricks Manuel performed today.
In Bucaramanga, we met a traffic jam, because there was a "desfile de carros antiguos" -- antique car parade. This parade had all the major thoroughfares clogged. Manuel ended up making a u-turn on a divided street and we were driving against traffic for a while, before he could make a right hand turn. It was weird coming headlong into traffic on the wrong side of the road, but it got us started on getting around the congestion.
We stopped by to say hello to Adriana (one of Manuel's daughters), but unfortunately Sandra (another of Manuel's daughters) was working at the clinic so we didn't get to see her. From there we went to say goodbye to Marta and then started our way back across town to out hotel. The traffic was horrible, and there were lots of people out walking, which meant Manuel had to be all that much more diligent in looking out for things.
We went to Pilar's finca (farm) this morning. It has changed a lot since the last time I was there. She is down 4 fish tanks, due to lack of water along with losing about 25% of her coffee plants to a fungus. She has to wait another year before she can replant the infected area, because her coffee is all certified organic. This time she had some coffee on drying, as well as some on the plants, plus I'll be bringing home some of the freshly roasted and ground coffee she had ready for us. Pilar also has citrus and avocado trees. We learned that her citrus trees produce all year round, but her avocado trees only once a year and are much smaller than the lower elevation nearby trees. The difference between the two fincas that we visited is altitude and water. The Friday finca wasn't as high in altitude and has more water. Pilar's finca is located on a area called La Mesa de los Santos, and the area has been getting drier with less rain over the last five years. She also raises cabrilla, which is a member of the goat family, chickens (75) for eggs, chickens for eating (now just 6 because she axed 6 to take back to Bucaramanga), fish and six milk cows.
From the finca, we (Roger, Manuel, and I) went to Parque Nacional Chicamocha, which is a canyon that was formed by Rio Chicamocha. The canyon is 2000m deep, 227km long, (a little deeper than the Grand Canyon, but not nearly as long or wide.) We rode the 6.3 km cable car across the canyon, which happens to be one of the longest cable cars in the world. The canyon land is very arid, with lots of cacti, free range goats, and cigar tobacco plots. The river level was up some, because it had rained last night up stream. Both ends of the cable car stations have little tourist kiosks and typical tourist items. On one side the park system has also built a water park, and has adventure concessions that include zip lines and huge, over-the-canyon swings. There's also a very interesting series of bronze figures that depict the struggle of the people of Santander during the 1800s.
In Bucaramanga, there's a 10 day Feria (fair) going on, which is a variety of cultural fairs across the area. Today, outside the city in Mesa de los Santos, there was a cabalgata, which is a cavalcade of horseback riders gathering to share a common interest. We guess that there were at least 500 horseback riders. The cabalgata is not done in the city because there are animal rights groups against the ride, due to horses meeting up with cars and drunk riders. It still was very interesting to see. We even saw one horse with a tandem saddle and two small boys riding the horse. There were also ponies, mules, and burros taking part. Lots of the horses were "trotters" and the riders were making them prance (another no-no with the animal rights group.) We left the cabalgata behind, only to encounter a bad traffic accident that involved a small white car, and two large trucks on a sharp mountain curve. The rear truck had jack-knifed, but Manuel some how was able to get by without putting us over the side of the mountain. This was the first of two amazing driving tricks Manuel performed today.
In Bucaramanga, we met a traffic jam, because there was a "desfile de carros antiguos" -- antique car parade. This parade had all the major thoroughfares clogged. Manuel ended up making a u-turn on a divided street and we were driving against traffic for a while, before he could make a right hand turn. It was weird coming headlong into traffic on the wrong side of the road, but it got us started on getting around the congestion.
We stopped by to say hello to Adriana (one of Manuel's daughters), but unfortunately Sandra (another of Manuel's daughters) was working at the clinic so we didn't get to see her. From there we went to say goodbye to Marta and then started our way back across town to out hotel. The traffic was horrible, and there were lots of people out walking, which meant Manuel had to be all that much more diligent in looking out for things.
Will you be sharing any of the coffee you bring back? Do they have a "merienda" in Colombia? In Mexico it is an afternoon snack- kind of like a "coffe break". The horses are beautiful. I don't understand why "trotters" cannot prance. I must be missing something.
ReplyDelete