Lists.

Only two and half weeks until we fly back to Vancouver to start our next adventure: settling down. After five months of travel I worked out that we have slept in 34 different cities, and seen even more. It’s almost impossible to say which was (or were) my favourite since almost all had something great going for them. Since there are so few, it’s much easier to say which were my least favourites. It’s not to say we didn’t enjoy our time in these places, since for the most part we did. This is simply a list of places I don’t really want to revisit, in order of travel.

Arusha, Tanzania: The big draw to go to Arusha is to quickly leave Arusha on safari or treks to Kilimanjaro or Meru. While we had good experiences there with a local who is a friend of Jamu’s uncle, the security issues push it onto the least favourite list. Walking two blocks back to our lodging was basically out of the question after dark, we took a cab two blocks, this is so foreign to me.

Las Vegas, USA: It’s Vegas, what can I say, you either love it or hate it. Our time there was really enjoyable due to great company and seeing good friends get married but I don’t ever need to re-visit the Las Vegas Strip.

Chetumal, Mexico: A border town with Belize, the only reason to spend the night is if you can’t make your bus connection. We ended up at a shopping centre and opted to see a movie.

Orange Walk, Belize: Our purpose here was to visit Lamanai, a Mayan site which was quite amazing. The other experiences left a lot to be desired. Aside from being dirty and run down, there was a general feeling of aggression and insecurity in the streets. While eating dinner in a small restaurant the power went out. Within seconds the cook ran out from the kitchen and rescued the one other customer’s bike from out front before slamming shut the exterior metal door, locking us safely inside to avoid a robbery of convenience. Events like this leave a lasting impression.

Armenia, Colombia: The only place we staying in Colombia that felt markedly unfriendly. Granted, we arrived at night in a storm and spent one night here on the way to Salento. We already knew that right downtown is generally not where one wants to stay in a Colombian city.

That means of the 34 places we’ve stayed, I would happily and readily revisit 29 of them, a pretty great ratio really. If I had to choose where to go back to first… I couldn’t. Instead I’ll list the cities that most surprised me by their awesomeness.

Mexico City, Mexico: Man, that city doesn’t get enough accolade. Yeah it’s big and there are literally millions of people, but outside the center, you don’t really feel the crush of it. There are many distinct and interesting neighbourhoods and enough tourist infrastructure to keep you busy for weeks. We spent only 2 days here and I would love to have at least a week next time.

Bogotá, Colombia: Colombia in general is still struggling to lose it’s reputation as a country reeling from drug wars and shoot outs in the streets. Medellín has probably been the most successful at rebranding itself, but Bogotá is quite amazing in its own right. Transport is a but of a nuissance but the people are friendly, the mix of architecture is outstanding and there is a life and style to it that was for me, unexpected. Again, we spent too little time here and I look forward to really discovering what it has to offer, maybe with a slightly larger budget that this time around 🙂

Updates

I was curious to see how much we have traveled in the past few months so started doing the math, it’s a bit mind boggling.  Next maybe I’ll add up the hours spent in transit, but then again, maybe it’s best not to think about that, especially considering in the past 5 days we’ve spent 25+ hours sitting on multiple forms of vehicular transit (microbus, luxury bus, pickup trucks in the back and front, chiva, van, and mototaxi).

If you’re curious, you can see it on the Stats page.

An end to the silence to talk about coffee

It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything here.  I was sure that while travelling I would eager to sit and write about places, people and events as they unfolded.  It turns out the minutiae of actually sitting down to write a post has deterred me from doing so, until now.  You might wonder what has aroused me from my laziness?  To those who know me well it will come as no surprise that it is to talk about coffee.

I was (am) a coffee snob.  I love coffee but I want it a certain way, in short, strong espresso with just the right amount of steamed milk, thoughtfully prepared.  My coffee should taste like coffee, not milk, not sugar, not really anything else.  Travelling has greatly reduced my snobbery but I still appreciate a proper macchiato when I can find one.  As it so happens, many countries we have traveled through so far are major coffee producers (Tanzania, Guatemala, Mexico).  Colombia, where we are at the moment is the fourth largest coffee producer in the world, after Brazil, Vietnam and Ethiopia or Indonesia (depending where you get your stats).  In Colombia, as in Tanzania, Guatemala etc, coffee is a cash crop, meaning the farmers grow it in order to make enough money to buy the things they can’t grow.  In Colombia, the local grower (of which there are 550,000) cannot set the price as he wishes but can only sell to the state which sets the price twice every working day, the price a couple days ago was $45 USD for 12.5kilos that costs $30 USD to produce, meaning the farmer earns about $15 for said amount.  You can see that this is not really an avenue for getting rich and putting the money into the farmers’ pockets.

Enter Jesús Bedoya into the picture.  A trained lawyer but a 4th generation agriculturist, a man passionate about coffee and the effect it can have locally.  About four years ago he started experimenting with local roasting of local coffee, a novelty since traditionally the only coffee that stays in Colombia is of poor quality that can’t be sold.  Three years ago he opened a cafe (Café Jesús Martín) where he sells coffee grown on his father’s land and a few other local fincas (coffee farms) that he roasts to perfection in small batches.  It’s a small start but one that he is committed to making.

We had the pleasure of taking a tour with him through his toasting factory and being initiated into the art of “catacion” or cupping.  I was like a kid in candy shop.  I love hearing about coffee, how it’s grown, how it roasted, how best to prepare it, etc etc.  Jesús is a man passionate about what he does and making  change locally.  Should you ever make it to Colombia, get yourself to the coffee region, or better yet, Salento (a lovely town in its own right), where one of the cafes is located.  Do your part by ordering a coffee, or three, and enjoying the slow life knowing you’re contributing to the local economy.

A few more shots of our tour can be seen here.  Also, there are plenty more photos of our trip so far that can once again be reached by clicking the “Photos” link on the main page, it’s now fixed.