Day 13 - Quindío-Jaime the brother of Hessi-James, our ears are bleeding!

Do you remember Hessi-James from Badesalz? Today we got to know his Colombian brother. Our ears are bleeding, but let's start from the beginning.

We have rearranged our travel plan again. Between our fixed routes with flights, we are flexible.

We couldn't leave the country of coffee without visiting a coffee farm. So this morning we booked a tour with Marta from the local "travel agency". Just for the two of us (we are the only tourists here) with a coffee farmer from the region. Jaime was on time, about 1.60 meters tall, around 50 years old, and very friendly.

As always, we arrived by village bus and on the way there, we realized that it would be exhausting. He really talked non-stop! 😜

When we arrived in his village - it really was a small town - he showed us everything, the village shop, the school, the village square, and in the end, he introduced us to the mayor. Jaime showed us everything with great pride, which is good.

After that, we went to his own farm and learned about the process of coffee production from planting to the cup in real time 😊. And all the while, Jaime kept up his constant commentary. If he wasn't talking, he was singing (and not even bad) or whistling. You could tell that he loves his profession and his country, which was exhausting but still very interesting.

Of course, we also had a cup of coffee. He also made us a glass of water with lemon and honey because Julia has a slight cold. Then he gave us a tip as a specialist: if there's leftover cold coffee from the morning, add lemon or lime juice to it and you have a refreshing drink - try it out.

Then we sat in his totally chaotic kitchen and Jaime lectured us about a Colombian singer from the area as well as a soap opera star from Filandia. Everything was backed up with newspaper clippings. Phew, really tough, but also authentic and incredibly likable.

After that, we went to his plantation, where there were also bananas 🍌. Every visitor is allowed to plant a coffee plant seedling. We did it - in 24 months, we can harvest.

The whole tour was supposed to last 2 hours. 3 hours had already passed when Jaime said, "now let's go into more detail" - we could only laugh. Eventually, it was over and we politely declined the offer to camp on his farm.

Getting back to Filandia wasn't that easy either. The bus 🚌 only runs every 3 hours. But we were told to sit by the roadside - with some luck, a car would come within the next hour 👍

Jaime organized 3 plastic chairs, which he placed in front of the village shop - and we waited. Jaime is naturally polite and kept us company. Of course, no car came, which was not a problem - Jaime had plenty to talk about 🤣. After waiting for 90 minutes without a car, the bus finally arrived.

A tough day, which we ended at the local Christmas market.