Our Stay on a Coffee Farm in Colombia

We walked off the bus in Salento, Colombia into a coffee commercial. This town was as quintessential a coffee town as I could dream up. Colorful buildings lined the downtown square, rolling green hills surrounded the town, and cowboy hat wearing men slowly walked in every direction. I was expecting Juan Valdez around every corner.

We made our way to our hostel room. Our very unique hostel room. We heard from some friends on the road that a trip to Salento is not complete without staying at “The Plantation House.” This place was a combination hostel and coffee plantation. We could stay in the plantation house, or a short walk from the house was the actual coffee farmhouse. That was a no-brainer: farmhouse all the way. The walk to the farmhouse wasn’t as short as advertised, and we were passed by a couple of coffee carting mules on the way, which only added to the authenticity of the experience. The walkway was basically a wide, dirt, horse-path. A couple nearly sprained ankles and 15 minutes later we arrived at our destination.

A young, Colombian guy was working at the farmhouse’s premier room was vacant. We splurged and spent $20 a night for the room. We walked up a bamboo staircase to a balcony and bedroom combo playfully called the “Penthouse Suite.” The structure might not have been penthouse caliber, but the panoramic view was. The coffee valley in its entirety was within view from the balcony.

Leah said it looked like the scene on a bottle of Hidden Ranch Salad Dressing. The coffee plantation itself was beautiful. Flowers of every size, shape and color had poked up around the house.

After settling into our room we went for a hike in the nearby hills. We hiked past fields of 100 foot tall palm trees and across a couple rickity bridges as we followed a stream to a few small waterfalls.

At nightfall the cicadas were deafeningly loud for one hour. One hour after nightfall, with the accuracy of a Swiss watch, all the cicadas were simultaneously silent. It was eerie, but considerate of the cicadas because we were exhausted from our hike .

There was a huge bowl full of coffee beans from the plantation. Every morning we’ed grind up beans for our morning coffee. I’m sure it doesn’t add any flavor, but there is something special about drinking coffee on the plantation where it was grown, with the guys that harvested the beans.

 

Here is some coffee bean processing equipment which was below our room. This piece of machinery removes the coffee bean from its red pod.

Our trip to Salento was everything we envisioned a trip to a coffee town being. The scenery was tranquil and the atmosphere laid back. If you’re headed to Colombia, Salento is the perfect town to lay back, relax, and enjoy the coffee Colombia is famous for.

 

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