Eje Cafetero is the coffee region of Colombia, a top coffee producer in the world. We enjoyed visiting Salento, Filandia, the Valle de Cocora, and Finca Ocaso in this beautiful region.
Best Thing I Ate This Week
Posta Estofada at Helena Adentro
While researching best restaurants in Eje Cafetero, Helena Adentro in Filandia continued to come up as a top option. When we decided to visit Filandia, someone we met who grew up in the area also highly recommended it as a great spot for a delicious meal. We arrived in Filandia around midday and decided to see if we could get a walk-in table for lunch. Luckily the restaurant had just opened and the host told us that the benefit of coming early is a great table. We were sat at a table on their open air patio with a beautiful view of the rolling green hills below.
The restaurant focuses on Colombia regions, flavors, cultures and emphasizes local farmers and products. Their menu was only two pages, but so many of the dishes sounded good that it was difficult to choose. With the help of the server, we were able to narrow down our initial list to a somewhat reasonable amount of plates.
Each item could easily have been the best thing I ate this week, including the Croquetas de Yuca (Yuca Croquettes filled with Cheese) , Cuatro Costillas (Soy glazed ribs on arepas), and Sandwich de Conejo (Rabbit sandwich). They each were a beautiful presentation but also an amazing flavor combination. However, the Posta Estofada stood out as the top item, which was a beef dish slow cooked in beer and vegetables that was then tossed in soy glaze and served over rice. It was an incredible combination of flavors and the beef was so tender. We would have loved to try dessert, but the dishes we ordered were more than enough. As we left the restaurant, we passed by a line of people waiting for a table and felt lucky to have come right at opening.
An Interesting Fact I Learned
Colombia is the 3rd largest producer of coffee in the world in the Eje Cafetero region
While spending time in Eje Cafetero, one of the most popular activities is to visit a local finca (coffee farm) to learn more about the production of coffee from one of the best coffee producing countries in the world. Throughout the region, there are countless fincas lining the beautiful hilly landscape that falls within the perfect climate to produce coffee. Many of the most popular fincas for tourist visits are located along the Ruta Cafetera which is a road just outside of Salento. We decided to visit Finca El Ocaso to learn more about coffee production in Colombia.
Finca El Ocaso offers a 1.5 hour traditional tour and a 3 hour premium tour. Our initial plan was to visit two fincas, so we decided to do the 1.5 hour traditional tour. In the town of Salento you can buy the tour and roundtrip transportation to the finca at the Willy Jeep ticket booth in Plaza de Bolivar.
Upon arriving at Finca Ocaso, we were immediately impressed by the beautiful landscape and quaint looking buildings on the property. Our tour guide, Pedro, greeted us and began our coffee educational experience. We learned that Colombia produces 14 million 60 kg sacks a year, making it the 3rd largest coffee producer behind only Vietnam (27.5 million) and Brazil (43 million). Additionally, he explained the coffee harvesting process. which starts with picking the fruit from the trees and concludes with the drying of the seeds. We were even able to harvest a few of the ripe red and yellow cherry-like coffee fruit from the trees ourselves and then watch demonstrations of the processing machines at various points throughout the property. Overall the tour was so educational that we did not feel it was necessary to go to a second finca.
A bonus of the experience was that at the end of our tour we were able to try the coffee produced from the El Ocaso beans. While many of the people on the tour loved the end coffee product, my favorite item I tried was a piece of cake after the tour at El Ocaso’s on-site coffee house. Not only was the cake tasty, but the coffee house had a great balcony with amazing views of the rolling green hills and fincas below.
My Travel Tip of the Week
Arrive early and hike the Cocora Valley Loop counter clockwise
The Valle de Cocora is one of the top tourist activities in Eje Cafetero. The Parque Natural Bosque de Palmas is the biggest draw of the valley and is so impressive that it inspired the setting for the Disney movie Encanto. Since it is so popular, we were told that it fills up with visitors, especially on the weekends. To enjoy the park without the crowds of people, we decided to start our visit by taking the first Willy Jeep to the trailhead at 6:30am. Our strategy worked as we were the first people to arrive at the park and it was incredibly peaceful. We almost missed the trail start because there was no one to confirm the starting point but eventually a man passed by us on his way to work to sell entrances to the trail and confirmed that we were headed in the right direction.
We read on many blogs that the best way to enjoy the 5 hour hike of Valle Cocora is to do the loop in a counterclockwise direction. The reason for this recommendation is because you will end your hike in the impressive Palm Forest rather than finishing the day in a less photogenic area in the other direction. One consideration is that, if you choose the counterclockwise hike early in the morning, you will likely have the entire first part of the trail to yourselves but then finish the trail around midday when there are large groups of people visiting the Palm Forest. If your goal is to go to the photo locations in the Palm Forest without people, then it actually might be better for you to do the hike clockwise.
For us, we enjoyed having the first part of the trail counterclockwise to ourselves with the exception of occasional grazing cows and farmers working the land. We also stopped by the Acaime Hummingbird House to watch the brilliantly colored birds feeding and enjoyed listening to them buzz around us. The uphill push to the end of the Morrogacho trail was the toughest part but it was nice knowing the rest of the day would be downhill into the Palm Forest.
Views in the final part of the trail in the Palm Forest were the most impressive and the only slightly disappointing part was that it rained pretty heavily after having been the perfect morning during the other portions of the hike. We were prepared with water proof clothing and still found the views to be awesome even in the rain. When the rain did stop, the clouds and mist above the Palm Forest made for spectacular views. Even with the rain, we still loved the experience and would recommend a similar arrival and hiking plan for anyone looking to get the most out of a hiking trip to Valle Cocora.
My Additional Anecdote This Week
Salento and Filandia are picturesque towns worth a visit in the Eje Cafetero region
When researching places to visit in Colombia, the Eje Cafetero region kept coming up. The region is known as the Coffee Axis because three small cities anchor the region and within the triangle shape between them there are numerous small towns with fincas that produce famous Colombian Arabica coffee. The 3 cities are Armenia, Pereira, and Manziales which can make good bases to explore the region. In addition Pereira has a fairly big airport and both Armenia/Manziales have small airports if you don’t want to bus to the region. However, we read that Salento is a better town to stay in than the cities given it is ideally located by Valle de Cocora and Ruta Cafetera. We chose to stay in Salento during our visit and immediately saw that it was immensely popular with South American and European tourists. Although today it is a tourist town, it still was incredibly enjoyable to stroll around its small streets taking in the picturesque colorful buildings. Calle Real is the most famous street where the majority of all buildings are painted in vibrant colors, but walking away from Calle Real many buildings still are painted and there are less people around. It was especially nice to walk around Salento in the morning and at night when many of the day visitors had left. Salento’s central location was very helpful for arriving at popular attractions early and not spending as much time in transit between destinations.
We were also told that Filandia was worth a visit and still retained a little more of the local charm that had been eroded by the massive popularity of Salento with international visitors. When we visited Filandia, it definitely appeared to have more locals and Colombian visitors in comparison to Salento. In Filandia, it felt like even more buildings were painted in incredible colors and the main street of Calle 7 (Calle del Tiempo Detenido) was one of the best decorated I have ever walked on. Similar to Salento, if you walked away from the main street, there were more quaint streets in most directions that still had colorful houses. Although we didn’t have time to visit, locals said the Barbas Bremen nature area outside of town was great for hiking and wildlife spotting.
Both Salento and Filandia are well worth the visit and hours could be spent strolling through them while stopping at the shops along the way. Today the towns cater to tourists and there may be other more traditional small towns in the region. However, they are worth the visit to take in the charm of Eje Cafetero and easily visit the most popular nearby sites.
