Having steeled ourselves for the prospect of another horror bus journey, the bus trip to Manizales was actually very enjoyable. Whilst the travel sickness tablets - which we had now bought a bunch of - most probably helped, the road was also in much better condition. The views were fantastic and our driver was a legend, pausing at regular intervals to allow us to take in and take pictures of the scenery en route. Amongst a half dozen locals, we were also joined in the van by another backpacker from the UK, Anna, who we were to end up spending a fair bit of time with in Manizales.
Adding to our already positive impressions of Colombians, our driver (with the help of some of the English speaking locals in the van) dropped us directly outside our hostel rather than leaving us to fend for ourselves at the bus station. We were greeted by a very excitable and slightly manic lady at our hostel, making us feel right at home. A very positive start to our time in Manizales.
Manizales is a relatively new town by Colombian standards and as such does not have the level of grand old architecture as the likes of Bogota, however, geographically, Manizales provides a bundle of fantastic outdoor opportunities with Los Nevados National Park and about a half dozen top notch nature reserves right on its doorstep. The town itself is also quite visually remarkable in that it is built on the top of a very high, steep ridgeline and has been given its own unique flavour by the construction of large brightly coloured public sculptures all around town. In short, we were immediately impressed.
We decided that whilst in Manizales, we would check out a couple of the recommended nature reserves. First on the list was Recinto del Pensamiento. Located about 15 minutes from the centre, Recinto del Pensamiento was set up by one of the large coffee syndicates and offers a taste of the vast biodiversity of the region. The reserve contains several hundred orchid varietals, is home to a large number of hummingbirds and most impressively, has a large butterfly enclosure which is home to butterflies of all different shapes, sizes and colours in such numbers that you need to watch your step. One took a liking to Simon's knee and had to be prised off when we left. Whilst the nature reserve was well worth the visit, it was also very ordered - possibly a little too much so - and we were looking forward to nature reserve number two the following day. A couple of particularly random inclusions though which are worthy of note were a bonsai tree collection, a very cute pig-like animal and the largest bamboo building in the world - fascinating!
Friday night, after a couple of hours looking around town post nature reserve, we decided head to a local Tejo hall with Anna. Tejo is a popular sport amongst the local men and involves lobbing disc shaped rocks at a clay target placed about 10 metres away (at least that was the distance we threw from!). To add a bit of excitement and Colombian flare to the game, small capsules of gunpowder are placed in the clay near the centre of the target. If you get a bulls-eye, you certainly know it - as does the rest of the Tejo hall. The alcohol options were limited to beer or aguardiente (a local spirit a bit like ouzo) and so, whilst Simon had beer, I was limited to shots - mmm. We met a couple of other foreigners there, but what was particularly cool is that we were still clearly a novelty to the locals who were very excited to have us there and giving it a go. We were pretty rubbish but managed one bulls-eye at least over the course of the evening (well...Simon did...).
The following day, we headed down to Reserva Rio Blanco, about 30 minutes away from where we were staying. Our hostel arranged a taxi to come and pick us up so we wouldn't get ripped off by being charged tourist prices. Again, our driver was extremely friendly, chatting away to us in the cab and encouraging us to take photos along the way. He even took out his own camera and excitedly showed us pictures he had recently shot. Whilst many of the photos he encouraged us to take were pretty unremarkable (e.g. someone's pot plant), we obliged and actually quite enjoyed it! Although the reserve was relatively close to town, when we were there, we felt like a million miles away. The access road was primarily a dirt track and from time to time, we were a bit worried that the taxi wouldn't make it across the streams we were driving through. The reserve provided quite a cool contrast to the previous day. The main track was more untamed and the forest through which we passed was dense virgin forest - a good test for both our walking shoes and fitness levels! The route into the reserve was a steep and constant incline for a good hour and a half of trekking. The highlights of the walk included seeing the rare Oso Andino bear and dozens of hummingbirds close up, some of which were within arms reach. Fortunately, the route out of the reserve was all downhill as we were feeling a bit on the achey side by the end of the trek [mental note: more fitness required before the Inca Trail!].
Later that afternoon, we decided to have a bit more of a look around town and so confidently jumped on a bus to 'Centro' and waited to be successfully dropped at our desired destination. After about 20 minutes though, I was pretty sure that we were heading in the wrong direction. We checked with the driver, stating that we wanted to go to Plaza Bolivar (in what we thought to be clear Spanish) and the driver replied "si, si" which we interpreted as sure, you are on the right bus. It soon became apparent however (when the bus terminated in an area we had never been before) that "si, si" meant yes, get off here. Fortunately however, in another example of Colombian's going out of their way to help, the driver got out of his bus, called over one of his friends, another bus driver, and explained that we wanted to go to Plaza Bolivar. The other driver took us on his bus for free back into the centre and told us where to go - legendary!
Our last night in Manizales itself, we went with Anna up to Chipre, a cliff side suburb facing to the west, to watch the sunset. Whilst it was a bit too overcast to get the full effect but it was still pretty spectacular and a good place to sit and have a quiet beer.
In order to get a taste of Colombian coffee at its best, we also decided to spend a night on a coffee plantation about a half an hour outside Manizales before heading to the north coast. We visited Hacienda Venecia, a 200 hectare operation which has recently opened its door to backpackers. A bit of luxury, the house itself had a large swimming pool, large ensuite rooms and an unlimited supply of top quality coffee. We did a short tour of the plantation which was pretty interesting but the highlight was certainly an afternoon in the sun, swimming and drinking coffee. A nice break before a day of travel.
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