the zona cafetera: Manizales

From Medellin I travelled to Manizales, a city of about 400.000 inhabitants, built on a lot of hills and surrounded by high mountains. 

My first excursion in Manizales was ro the Reserva Rio Blanco, where you have to get an extra permit to visit and can go only with a guide. as it is off season now, I had the guide Nelson all to myself. We walked up in the forest from about 2250 m. to 2700. There are about 370 kinds of birds living in that reserve but I only got to see a few of them. in the forest he showed me wild growing orchids 

and beautiful wild growing flowers in the forest

When we reached about 2600 m. he showed me the house where he lives. He has a colibri feeding place so you can see lots of colibris there.

In the reserve they also have an Andean bear, whoo is in danger of extinction. This one was raised in captivity after it was taken away from someone who had cought him. His name is Chicho. Nelson brought him some carrots and when he called Chicho he came running. Doesn't he have a lovely face?

It was fun watching him eat carrots.

I thought there was not much interesting to see in Menizales except for the beautiful scenery until I met Diana. Diana works at the reception of the park called Recinto de Pensamiento. It is a very beautiful park with a gorgeous lake, a pretty butterfly house, an orchid forest , a feeding place for colibris and an area where they cultivate pretty bonsais. First some impressions:

Isn't that orchid special?

I was fascinated by this lake with its so special vegetation. The red are tiny plants, that the fish in the lake eat.

The scenery is fantastic, unfortunately it was hazy so you hardly see the mountains in the background.

and the perfect tree for Tarzan

the orchids growing wild on the trees are fantastic

In the lake there were a lot of hungry fish and someone was feeding them. 

they were fighting to get the food. This one looks quite desperate, doesn't he?

I was so fascinated by that lake

I think I spent at least an hour just sitting there and looking at it.

doesn't this look like an impressionistic drawing? Could it be Monet?

Diana works at the reception of the park and when she heard I am from Austria she got all excited, as she had been there 23 years ago. She asked me if I would like to meet her for a coffee after she finished working, and suggested the coffee at the cathedral. i asked where next to the cathedral there was a coffee and she said- no, it is IN the cathedral. I suppose Manizales has the only cathedral in the world with a coffee inside. You tale the elevator to the second floor, sit at one of the pretty tables and , if there is a missa going on, you can hear it. And as the priest talks intto a microphone, you can hear it so loud that you can't hear your own voice. 

You can sit on the balcony of the coffee and look at the view

or you can look down on the church

We heard that there was a guided tour where you could go up 370 steps until the tip of the tower so we decided to do that. Forst the guide explained us about the church, and among other things showed us the bells

I just couldn't believe it. The church has "digital" bells, that means, no bells at all. It is this "stereo" that plays the sound of bells when needed. and this already avout 50 years! 

we slowly walked towards the tip of the tower. it was already getting dark and there was a beautiful atmosphere

can you see the little round balcony on the top of the tower? 

these are some of the stairs going up.

and this is Manizales as seen from up there. In the background the Nevado de Ruiz, almost 6000 m. high

They told us there was going to be a concert in the cafe in the evening, so we decided to stay. Then came this man, and I never in my life heard someone play so horribly. It was so terrible, that it was almost funny. 

Then Diana showed me one more beautiful place, the torre de Chipre, from where you have a beautiful 360 degrees view of the whole city. I went there next morning, but unfortunately the air is never clear. just some impressions:

and here the cathedral with the tower and the little balcony on top.

There are some professions in Colombia which we don't have in Austria. Like this man, standing there with several cellphones and selling minutes. If you want to make a phone call he will give you the cellphone from the company with which it is cheapest and you pay him by minutes. 

And in Manizales you also see, as in La Paz or Cartagena, people itting on the street with typewriters waiting for clients

Most of the streets are so steep, that it is not easy to walk up there.

just one more of my favorite coffee in Manizales. I returned there on my last day for a second breakfast.

and this is the entrance to the cafe:

have a good night!