CAFFEINE BUZZ
Bikes and coffee are a great mix, and where better to combine the two than in Colombia? We sample life on the hacienda
Small windows in the cloud cover allowed us a glimpse of our surroundings, then the thick jungle swallowed us whole, saturating our senses. We shivered as drops of rain hit our skin and breathed the smells in deep. Earth, vanilla, tobacco – an infinite combination of aromas that brought back memories and created new ones. What a place!
We'd come to Colombia with pretty straightforward intentions – to relax to the max, enjoy our surroundings, drink lots of coffee and ride bikes. My travelling companions were Anita and Carolin Gehrig, two Swiss sisters who race enduro under the Norco Twins Racing banner. Our base was the beautiful Hacienda Venecia, a 100-year-old traditional plantation house 40 minutes from Manizales city. Upon arriving, we’d settled into hammocks, espressos in hand. Gazing out over the magnificent gardens and lush green coffee plantations, to a soundtrack of warring insect and bird chatter, we were in paradise.
Days lingered at the hacienda and we soon fell into a relaxing routine. Every morning we’d go straight to the coffee machine and make a fresh brew, before lying in the hammocks listening to the sounds around us. Anita and Caro are serious coffee drinkers and got to see the whole complicated and delicate process the beans go through, from picking fruit all the way to roasting their own batch to take home.
Riding through the coffee fields, it didn’t take long to spot some sweet-looking trails. We pedalled and pushed along steep access roads, watching as mountains appeared through the cloud before rapidly disappearing again. In the jungle, the air felt dense and humid, the lush vegetation engulfed us and the sky threatened to open at any moment. After a long climb, we got to the top of the highest peak and could see the entire plantation — what a view! Since time wasn’t an issue, we took our time to admire the panorama before dropping in.
The trails here link the coffee plantations. In places, they take the form of narrow singletrack flowing between coffee plants. We charged down, hoping the branches didn’t hide any unexpected obstacles. From time to time, the tracks opened up and traversed valleys of young coffee plants or headed through large guadua bamboo forests. As we descended, we encountered some of the workers, who waved to us, excited to see strangers charging along their trails.
On one of our rides, we were exploring this amazing network of paths when we heard a loud horn echo across the plantation. As we approached, we could see a crowd begin to form as a little truck climbed the steep roads from the hacienda. It was time for the workers to weigh their pick. There can be up to 450 people at a time working these fields, each collecting up to 300kg of coffee ‘cherries’ a day. It was an incredible sight watching all these people gather with their sacks, right in the middle of the Colombian mountains at sunset.
Just as every cup of coffee comes to an end, every trip must too. We left Manizales and the hacienda recharged – not to mention buzzing from all the caffeine – ready to face our daily lives and eager to seek out even more exciting new trails.