This past week has hard. Don’t think that because I’m posting vacay photos of a coffee farm in Colombia, that I’m not spending most of my time, back here in Jerusalem, reading and thinking about what the recent presidential election means for America, and then trying to forget all that by watching unhealthy amounts of Gilmore Girls and tearing through a novel about starvation and religious zealotry in Victorian-era Ireland. But still, I wrote this blog post last week, and I figured I might as well hit “publish” and be transported to a lovely day I had a few weeks ago at a lush Colombian coffee farm.
On the last day of our trip in Colombia, Mr. Em in Jerusalem and I toured a gorgeous coffee farm two hours from Medellin. The drive took us out of the crowded city and into small windy roads, some of which were partially blocked by fallen tree branches or boulders, but our guide Andrés of LandVenture Travel, knows the area like the back of his hand, and, thanks in large part to a motion sickness pill I took before, I really enjoyed the drive. At one point, we passed an old man selling hand carved cedar bowls on the side of the road and we rolled down our window and bought a beautiful serving bowl with a handle. Shopping without even leaving the car.
We arrived to the Concordia coffee farm and saw how the coffee “cherries” (the red beans picked from the fields) are processed to green beans, then to roasted beans. I was permitted to fall backwards and snow angel in a pile of coffee beans and then two lil dogs jumped in and licked my face. Life doesn’t get much better than that, my friends.
Then, we stood in a back of a pickup truck as Andrés tore up a mountain to give us a bird’s eye view of the breathtaking surrounds of the area, which is located in the Andes mountain range.
The views were some of the best I’d ever laid eyes on, and learning about the whole coffee process from start to finish really made me appreciate what goes into my daily brew.
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It was a gorgeous day, and the highlight of the entire Colombia trip for me. And I get to savor it for weeks to come ever morning when I have a cup of Colombian coffee.
To coffee,
Em in Jerusalem
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