We left Salento with mixed feelings... regret because we never made it to the coffee plantation tour. We heard the small coffee farmer that does the local tour looks just like Juan Valdez and does a good tour.

But it rained the afternoon we were going to go, and we just decided we didn't feel like slogging thru the muddy roads (with our last remaining pair of clean shoes and socks) to get there.

But we were ready to move on... the kind of grungy surroundings at Plantation House were getting to us.

So we took a two-hop bus trip from Salento to Pereira and from there into Manizales. We got a $3 taxi from the bus station. Everything went perfectly and we were at the Mountain House by 11:30am.

After a look at our room (nice), we got a very nice local briefing by Beatrice, the manager. We also booked ourselves on an all day tour to a mountain for the next day, as recommended by our friend, Shai. We made note of this interesting sign on the 'smoking porch'. I guess people are obeying the rules, we never smelled anything funny while we were there.

We then set off on foot to see what we could of Manizales in an afternoon. We walked up to the Cable Mall (just a few blocks away) and did a little sightseeing in a 3 story mall. We had lunch in the food court (a Colombian 'Ejecutivo Lunch Special', though, not McDonalds).

Then we caught a local bus headed for 'Chipre'. Chipre is an area in Manizales that runs along a ridge with a great view over one of the valleys. There are two parks and some more beautiful scenery.

View from Chipre
One of the parks has a really interesting sculpture that is a tribute to the founders of the city. Unfortunately, the writeup about the scene is all in Spanish and we didn't take the time to translate it. But it looks like an interesting story.

Monument to Early Settlers
Then we walked down into the center of Manizales, to look at the 'historical center'. We found a church that the locals claim to be the 3rd highest in the world.



We went into another church that had all the big arches and the altar made completely of cedar (no stone).



We just enjoyed strolling the streets. Manizales has 10 colleges and a total college student population of about 50,000, so it's a pretty lively town.

When we got tired, we hopped another bus heading back to 'Cable'. As everywhere in Colombia, the buses are plentiful and cost only about 75 cents to ride.

More Manizales City Pictures

Labels: Colombia Inland