RVentures with Doug and Chris: Armenia, Colombia: Parques del Café and Butterfly Gardens

A cup of Colombian coffee shared with a friend is happiness tasted and time well spent

Eje Cafetero, or the coffee axis, is a group of three small departments (like our ''states'') that are famous because they grow and produce the majority of Colombian coffee. The capital cities of each of these departments, Pereira, Manizales, and Armenia, serve as the major urban centers within this coffee region and support the surrounding pueblos and fincas.

Near perfect year-round temperatures between 8 - 24 degrees C (48 - 75 degrees F), higher mountain altitudes, and abundant rainfall and sunshine produce excellent coffee beans year-round.

It was recommended that we choose one of the major cities in which to start our Eje Cafetero explorations. A couple of our friends spoke highly of Armenia. Since the temperatures tend to be slightly warmer and the population is slightly less (only 300,000 people), Armenia became our first Eje Cafetero destination. During our five days there we discovered a city alive with activity; with parks and gardens that emphasized its proud coffee heritage.

Our Airbnb apartment was located near Parque Sucré which is at the beginning of a nine block long pedestrian walkway leading to the main town square, Plaza de Bolivar. During our walks in this area, we found modern restaurants, shops, government buildings, and churches. While nice, the architecture seemed slightly ''off'' to us as we have grown accustomed to seeing more ''traditional'' building styles in Colombia's cities. We found out that this area is prone to frequent earthquakes, and unfortunately, a strong, devastating one hit Armenia in 1999 destroying most of the downtown area. But the city has since rebuilt stronger and with a very ''modern'' feel that is reflected in the Catadral la Inmaculada Concepción, as well as all the other buildings that surround the town square.

Even though it is a large city, Armenia can probably be explored in a couple of days. The top-rated Museo del Oro Quimbaya was currently closed for renovations, but thanks to our Airbnb host, we found a number of attractions that gave us a wonderful feel for the area.

Parque del Café

Since we love amusement parks, we couldn't turn down the chance to experience a Colombian version of thrills. Parque de Café is located about an hour outside of Armenia, and sings the praises to Colombia's all-important coffee crop. Their website didn't give us a lot of information, but what the heck! We decided to take a $12 taxi ride out into the countryside and check it out. Once we got dropped off, we realized that, because it was still the busy Christmas vacation season, we should have purchased advanced tickets on-line beforehand. Now that was going to be a problem! Luckily, Doug's ''excellent'' Spanish saved the day. While on-line is best, the park employee happily directed us to where we could show our vaccination cards and pay our 75,000 cop ($19) each admission fee to get in.

The gondola took us down the hillside to a huge open area where restaurants, shops, rides, and a coffee museum were interspersed along a beautiful walking path through endless gardens of natural vegetation.

There were two roller coasters that met Doug's ''dare devil'' personality, so we waited about a half hour to get on each ride ... not bad considering that it was a ''busy'' day. With the warm Colombian sun starting to peak through, the ''you're gonna get soaked'' water rides seemed more popular, but we opted to stay dry. There also seemed to be a lot of rides geared towards younger children.

We spent the rest of our afternoon walking around the beautiful grounds and observing the similarities and differences between this amusement park and ones that we have visited in the United States. This Colombian version had ...

Very few ''thrill seekers'' rides
Abundance of children and family-oriented activities
Is only open during daylight hours, so it closes at 6 pm
Currently didn't have their live shows or musical entertainment running
Very few souvenir stores to tempt young children with things that they don't really need ... like stuffed animals and magic wands
Plenty of places to eat with reasonable prices (especially for an amusement park)

This chicken dinner (with soup and a drink) in one of the nicer restaurants came to about $8 including tip.

After our late afternoon lunch, the clouds started rolling into the valley. The arrival of this ''typical'' afternoon shower signaled an end to our day. Time to figure out where to catch the bus back to Armenia. Surprisingly, my Spanish was good enough this time to figure out which bus to get on, and as the saying goes ...

Bus fare for both of us ... $2
Short taxi ride from the end-of-the-line bus station to our apartment because one of us messed up on where we needed to get off ... $2
Spanish conversation with a new friend and people-watching experience ... priceless

A Visit to Circasia

One of the special blessings of our time in Colombia is all the new friendships that we have formed. A few weeks ago we met Miller at a Christmas gathering at our friend, Somni's home. What a joy to find out that Miller was currently visiting Armenia and wanted to show us a few of the ''hidden treasures'' of the area. One morning he picked us up for a ''pueblo excursion''. We rode to the small village of Circasia which is about ten miles north of Armenia.

There we found a village square full of activity as well as ...

... new foods to try,

... homes and businesses bursting with color and personality,

... A panadería (bakery) that made it difficult to choose what pastry to have with our perfect cup of Colombian coffee shared with a friend,

One of each, por favor!

... and another friendship that transcends language differences.

Jardín Botánico Quindio and Mariposario

Our new friend Miller highly recommended a visit to the Quindio Botanical Garden and Butterfly Garden just outside of the city. Sounded pretty great to me, but I didn't think that I could convince Doug because he is not a big ''garden'' kind of guy ... probably why we have no house with a yard to maintain. Miller offered to drop us off and gave us easy instructions on where to catch the bus for the ride back (all right ... another bus adventure!). Much to my delight, Doug agreed to check it out. Admission was 50,000 cop ($12) each, which much to our surprise, included a guided tour.

What started out as a beautiful walk under the canopy of tropical palms and plants,

... turned into a four hour botany and Spanish lesson! Our excellent guide, Ángel David, talked slowly and clearly enough for me to understand about 50% of the information ... which is pretty good for me! Of course, the other 50% of the information was probably lost due to the fact that I was busy trying to capture in photos all the unique beauty that surrounded us.