Manizales, Colombia
Eight happy hours on a curvy road in a big bus brings us to the North part of the "coffee triangle." The area of Colombia known for the most coffee production. Havent seem much of it yet, but very pretty area.
Ive been in much of the US Rockies where roads are built in the valley or along rivers and every once in awhile we climb over a pass to the next valley. Here it appears that small settlements were built high near the ridgeline....so the road follows near the ridgeline. Lots of back and forth driving with limited passing opportunities. But then hard to get more that 60 kph speed when you have to do a 90 degree turn every 100 yards.
Manizales is a town of about 300,000 souls also built on a ridge. Bus station is a bottom and two enclosed ski lifts (my term) will take you to the top of two separate towns...Manizales or MariaSomething. Ride cost about US$.45.
This is also a University town so lots of young people around. Here are some more observations.
Cell phones are everywhere...but apparently not everyone has one. Here is a phone booth for calling other cell phones....100 pesos per minute in country, 200 pesos per minute to call US or Canada, 300 pesos per minute for anywhere else.
But dont see many of these being used. What we do see is vendors offering the same service, often with two cell phones chained to their booth that is otherwise selling juice, snacks or whatever. Same price.
I know, hard to see the chain.
Also I ran into lots of used motorcycles shops....no need for a parking lot for that.
Here in Manizales altitude is about 7,000 ft, skies are mostly party cloudy but morning fog seems to be common. Temperature year round is a high in the 70s to 80s and low of about 50 degrees. Fairly high humidity.
Oh, and I found a hat for 14,500 cop or $US 5.00. Street vendors offered the same for 55,000 cop in Bogota.
Next stop is Cali, Colombia going for a hostel instead of AIRbnb for a couple days.
Ive been in much of the US Rockies where roads are built in the valley or along rivers and every once in awhile we climb over a pass to the next valley. Here it appears that small settlements were built high near the ridgeline....so the road follows near the ridgeline. Lots of back and forth driving with limited passing opportunities. But then hard to get more that 60 kph speed when you have to do a 90 degree turn every 100 yards.
Manizales is a town of about 300,000 souls also built on a ridge. Bus station is a bottom and two enclosed ski lifts (my term) will take you to the top of two separate towns...Manizales or MariaSomething. Ride cost about US$.45.
This is also a University town so lots of young people around. Here are some more observations.
Cell phones are everywhere...but apparently not everyone has one. Here is a phone booth for calling other cell phones....100 pesos per minute in country, 200 pesos per minute to call US or Canada, 300 pesos per minute for anywhere else.
But dont see many of these being used. What we do see is vendors offering the same service, often with two cell phones chained to their booth that is otherwise selling juice, snacks or whatever. Same price.
I know, hard to see the chain.
Also I ran into lots of used motorcycles shops....no need for a parking lot for that.
Here in Manizales altitude is about 7,000 ft, skies are mostly party cloudy but morning fog seems to be common. Temperature year round is a high in the 70s to 80s and low of about 50 degrees. Fairly high humidity.
Oh, and I found a hat for 14,500 cop or $US 5.00. Street vendors offered the same for 55,000 cop in Bogota.
Next stop is Cali, Colombia going for a hostel instead of AIRbnb for a couple days.
Comments
Enjoy your blog, thank you
Zena