Weeks 14, 15, and 16: Eje Cafetero, Sunny Buenos Aires, and Uruguay
I write to you now from the very lap of luxury. Not an extravagant hotel, not an opulent mountain lodge, nor a mansion, or anywhere else so common. Rather, this post is penned from my throne atop an overnight bus.
You think I kid. You think I jest. Nay. I introduce to you Suite Class aboard Argentina’s Chevallier.
With a plush, black leather seat wide enough to comfortably hold any Mc-merican booty; fully reclining to a bed; personal flatscreen TV with dozens of recent movies; and Mendozan wine on-demand, this is the king of public transport. 13 hours to go. Make it 20.
In the last three weeks, we’ve covered more ground than Simon Bolivar — though more comfortably than on the back of a horse.
Ok ok. Enough Latin American History jokes and going on and on about this bus. What have we been up to:
Week 14: Eje Cafetero
We left Bogotá for a week in Eje Cafetero, Colombia’s coffee growing region. In sum, this was the aesthetic highlight of our trip thus far and one of the top 5 most extraordinary places either of us have ever visited.
The region is a sea of rolling green hills, a patchwork of coffee farms and other smallholder land. At an average elevation of above 6000ft, the weather is pretty much flawless year-round (50s at night, 70s during the day). And, when the clouds lift high enough, you are offered a glimpse of the truly spectacular. Parque Los Nevados hovers just behind the last green hill; one of just a handful of places in the world where you can find snowcapped peaks at the Equator. However, the real winners here are the towns. Gorgeous Spanish colonial architecture; cobblestone streets; classic Colombian friendliness. And there is just enough tourism where you can find a massive diversity of food alongside delicious Colombian staples. From our perspective, this is about as good as it gets in terms of travel in Latin America.
We flew in and out of Pereira and spent our first and last nights in the little town of Filandia. The city square was full of coffee shops, each serving beans from a single farm. We visited most of them and got a little jittery in the process!
Filandia is a small town with only a small tourist presence. So, we were surprised (and delighted) to stumble upon Helena Adentro. Randomly, one of the best restaurants in the country happens to be located here and for the price of Chipotle back in the states, we were totally blown away. So much so that we returned 4 times over the course of our two days in Filandia.
Little Filandia is also home to some terrific craftsmen and we acquired some beautiful woven light fixtures for which we have literally no credible plan to get back to the states. But, at least we made this guy happy.
Filandia is one of the lesser known adorable towns in the region and we fell in love. However, we eventually had to head to Salento, the areas most popular attraction (and as we found out, the second most visited place in Colombia — after Cartagena). Salento is also a very nice town, though a bit more geared to tourism. Its primary advantage is its geographic perfection. It sits perched on a small hill, overlooking the famous Valle de Cocora and is the best point of egress if you are hoping to see (or perhaps climb) the ominous Nevados. Salento also has its fair share of delicious Colombian/International fusion cuisine.
While in Salento, we:
1. hiked the Valle of Cocora with its Seuss-esque 200 foot tall palm trees;
2. drank a lot more coffee and ate a lot more good food;
3. toured a coffee ‘finca’ and learned a ton about how coffee is produced from ‘Don Eduardo’ who actually turned out to be a transplanted Brit, somewhat reminiscent to Santa Claus;
4. went for a wild mountain-bike ride which took us over 3000ft downhill over about 30 miles.
Getting place to place in Eje Cafetero is also a blast. Back in the day, farmers used old Jeep ‘Willys’ to get their product to market. Today, the coffee supply chain is a bit more modern. However, lucky for us, they’ve converted the old Jeep’s into a (surprisingly organized) system of public transportation.
Sadly, we eventually had to leave Eje Cafetero. I think we’ll be back. We would highly recommend this as a first port of call to anyone considering travel to South America or really, anywhere awesome.
Week 15 & 16 Buenos Aires:
From the coffee region, we hopped on a red-eye (the only direct flight) and headed for the next phase of our journey: Argentina.
Buenos Aires is frequently cited as the ‘Paris of the South’ and for good reason. Though not quite a Paris-level destination, this is truly the closest you can get to a quintessential European experience at quintessentially Latin American prices. Argentina is in a bit of a fiscal freefall at the moment and it is certainly sad to see a country in decline. Back in the 30s and 40s Argentina had a GDP per capita on par with the US. It is now around 40%. Kind of goes to show that strong fiscal management really is important.
Anyways…the city really is beautiful and the food was outstanding. Unbelievable steak, savory and innovative Hamburger labs ala Breaking Bad, big-time get-fat-on-it ice cream (yes, including dulce de leche flavored) Italian-style homemade pasta; and world class wine. If this is what descending into Mike Klos levels of fitness feels like, I can be okay with my new body.
Speaking of fitness…Jake decided to run in the Buenos Aires Marathon shortly after arriving in town and after running only sporadically since March. Things could have gone a lot worse and he was happy to finish without walking or in too much pain, if not particularly fast.
During the week, Jake was speaking at a conference and had a few colleagues in town. Rachel worked, drank a lot of coffee, and explored the city. We found time in the evenings and on the weekend for some lovely dinners, delightful walks, and a somewhat disappointing trip to Buenos Aires’ renowned Galileo Galilei Planetarium (save your pesos folks, the one in the Smithsonian is way better).
Also, Empanadas in Argentina are better than in all other Latin American countries combined. They are lovingly baked and lovingly not made of tasteless corn starch and lovingly fattening. That needed to be said and is so much true that it deserved its own paragraph.
Week 16: Uruguay
Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay is a one-hour ferry ride from downtown Buenos Aires. We decided to make a day trip out of it…because, why not?
Colonia is the oldest town in Uruguay and the historic centre overlooking the enormous, 28-mile wide Rio Plata is stunning. Now, Colonia is awesome. Don’t get me wrong. But, the thing about Colonia is, they know they are awesome. If Buenos Aires felt like Europe at Latin American prices, Uruguay felt like Europe at European prices. We had our smallest, most expensive breakfast of the trip and got totally ripped off on the exchange rates.
That said, we would have loved to explore Uruguay further if time had permitted. If you are ever in Buenos Aires, we’d highly recommend a day trip to Colonia. Just pack a lunch!
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The evening after arriving back from our day trip to Uruguay, we got ditched by an Uber and decided to walk home. In the span of a 22-minute walk through a decent part of town, Rachel saw two guys smash a car window and steal stuff; Jake almost had to beat the crap out of a drunk guy who tried to grab Rachel; and we saw countless people peeing and vomiting in the street. And everyone said Colombia was the rough country…It was all a bit unsettling so we decided to leave the city and not return to any more big cities if we can help it the rest of the trip.
Well, that is not exactly how we decided. Nonetheless, we are on the world’s nicest bus en route to Mendoza…wine country here we come.
All images © 2018 Rachel Sims. All rights reserved.
