After crepes and a bottle of wine we kicked off our first night in Manizales at a club- where we shared a little table with our little bottle of potent anis flavored Aguardiente. We smiled as friendly Colombians came over to chat with us and offer timbal lessons, which none of us completly succeeded in tapping with just enough emotion. Then we gaped at the dancers, as even the chubby men swayed just perfectly to the music. I think dancing is something you are born with in this country.
The highlight for us was when the police stormed the place, shut down the music and made the men gather in the middle of the dance floor to be searched. Elodie and I could not stop laughing (maybe it was the aguardiente) and had to bite our lips because we could see by the looks the police were giving us, this was not a laughing matter. It was just too stereotypial Colombia to be taken seriously. When the police felt they had installed enough fear, they stormed out and the party resumed within seconds, as if nothing had happened. Alrighty then.
The next day we took off in taxi, bus and another bus to Guayabal where we wanted to tour a coffee hacienda. It turned out to be a fantastic tour- well organized and we learned about Colombian methods of growing.
It is a beautiful hacienda and well worth the entire trip to Manizales. http://www.haciendaguayabal.com/
After the tour, they served us an elegant lunch in the main house and we chatted about Presidente Uribe and the FARC with a Colombiano in our group.
In the past 7 years Colombia has just opened up to tourism. It is because of Uribes strict security measures that tourists can even be in the country. Colombianos themselves were not safe traveling before then. It is apparent in Manizales, a wonderful place to visit, that they are just getting set up for tourism. Taxi drivers do not even know where the only 2 hostels in the city are located.
Our last day was spent in combat playing paintball in the local park. That night we taxied it up to a thermal bath and enjoyed our last night with Elodie and Paul.
The next day it was back to Bogota to check out the Botero museum and then off to Villa de Leyba, making our way north to the carribean coast.
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