Colombia: trout, desert and coffee

Within a few hunderd kilometers we camp at a trout farm, encounter the high, humid and cold Paramo, camp in Colombias only desert and drink coffee till we drop in Salento.

After Popayan we decided to take another detour and soon we find ourselves on a low traffic road to Tierradentro to cross the Paramo one more time. There are not a lot of villages here and the first night we camp on a grassy spot at a Trout farm. We see trout in all sizes and Elmar helps the other workers with catching the young ones. As soon as it gets dark, we enter our tent and have an early night. So do the workers, they also sleep in a tent in an open house next to the trout baths.

Trout farm

Tatacoa Desert
As soon as we drop down from the Paramo, it’s getting hotter and hotter. North of Ibarra there’s a part with little rainfall and for some reason a dry desert has been formed: the Tatacoa Desert. We cycle towards the desert and find a campsite behind the star gazing building. In the afternoon we walk around to see the arid landscape. It’s nice, but smaller than we thought and not so impressive, but maybe that’s because we’ve already seen other deserts, such as Atacama in Chile or Death Valley in the US. We’re spoiled! No worries, the main reason for our visit are the clear skies, we want to take pictures of our tent at night with startrails. Photogear is ready, we hit the ‘very hot’ sack and wait… to only hear thunder roar! Incredible, the one night we are here, the sky is lit by lightning! So, no startrails for us…

Tatacoa Desert

It’s coffee time!
We are in Solento to visit a coffee plantation. The off road climbs up to the picturesque village is a steep one! We find ourselves amidst fields of coffee beans and we can’t wait to have a taste. We check in in one of the cheaper hostels and head for a coffee shop. By the end of the day, our eyes are popping out of our heads because of all the coffee. “But it’s just so nice to sit in a little cafe and hear the sounds of crushing beans and then smell the coffee…” 🙂
In a Jeep Willy (brought here by the US in the 1950’s) we get a ride to an organic coffee plantations where we have a private tour and of course we finish the tour with… guess what… another coffee! That night we have little sleep… 

Coffee farm near Salento