The clue is in the name.....

Given that we were in the "Coffee Triangle" it is only right and fitting to visit a coffee plantation so we headed to La Morelua coffee farm. Most of the farms are fairly small in Colombia and sell their beans to cooperatives. They have been receiving low prices recently so generally grow at least one other crop, plantains, avocados etc.

From 5kg of coffee beans picked they end up with 1kg of roasted beans. The pickets earnt about $12 a day. A lot if the coffee trees are planted very close together on fairly steep hills, so it's not glamorous, and no machines are used.

We were then shown the process which turns the picked bean into a roasted bean! Two young lads sat at a table hand picking the best beans, meeting the expert who mixes the beans and knows how long to roast them for, showing us "cupping" - taste testing, and then the barista showing us how to make coffee. It was really interesting. Who knew that espresso is the weakest coffee in caffeine terms?!

After lunch by the river at Beunavista we headed off for a trek up the nearby hill to wander through the plantations. It was flipping hot and slow work! They are hoping to diversify into ecotourism and have built a 150m long spiral bamboo bridge. It was some feat of mathematics! It has taken them 7 years!

Next stop was Pijao, high up in the hills it was the epicentre of the 1999 earthquake. It is only a small village but has been rebuilt. We headed to one of the local bars. Tiny it just about squeezed us in. There was a table of 2 guys and a girl already there and they wanted to know who we were, so introductionswere  made. Turned out it was the girls birthday, so we sang Happy Birthday to her, one of the guys insisted on buying all of our drinks, he phoned his son in Chicago to tell him, and then he started insisting that we drank his Aguadiente. It is translated as "Firewater" which I suppose was the clue, but with a kick if anise. I couldn't get out without taking 3 shots!

The other noteworthy (or not) point of the bar was that the toilets were covered in porn! Really not what I was expecting, especially one photo of Osama doing something questionable to Mr George W Bush! Cheeky!