Viva Colombia Day 5 - Clase de Colombian coffee (8/2/16)

Had another delicious breakfast at the hostel and then our new dutch friends and us wait at the hostel for Aly (the girl who is traveling for months on end) to finish with her chores so we can head to our coffee class which is directly south from us, but since we live in the mountains, we have to go into town, take the cable cars to the bus terminal, and then get a bus heading out of town in a different direction to get there - makes for a long trek.

Mountains as far as the eye can see.

Looking out at downtown Manizales.

Going down the hill on the gondola and see how the city bends with the hills.

City nestled among the hills.

Getting on/off the gondola looking back at the city.

Tell the bus where to stop (hoping I read the instructions correctly), dont see the shuttle to Hacienda Venecia, so we have lunch on the side of the road at Las Palmas. As we are eating shuttle shows up so we have to scarf down our food/drink before he leaves us, then get in the shuttle and get to the finca so we can take our classes. First one is the taste/sensory profiles of coffee class where we start with flavor extracts before moving on to dry grounds, wet grounds, then stirring the grounds in hot water. Smells in each of the stages is different and its interesting to chronicle this change. Its a quick class but fun. Then for the big kahuna - the barista class. They show you the different coffees made with a espresso machine (latte, cappuccino, americano, etc.) while giving you a chance to handle the machine (not as much hands on as I expected but still a load of coffee). Best part - our group, including our amazing instructors, was just constantly cracking up and having a great time.

Lets follow this guy into his van. There are many great stories that start off this way.

Entrance of the finca. Good idea me thinks!

Clouds dont look promising. 

Surrounded by nature.

Different aspects of perceiving aroma in coffee on the wall.

Maybe we should rethink drinking this coffee?

One of the wall decorations. Now we know what to look for.

First instructor explaining the set up and welcoming us to the classroom.

Happy to be learning about coffee.

Trying to get all the grounds out of there. Harder than it looks.

Working on our coffee senses. 

Lets get this started.

Starting to stamp the grounds.

Tre SMASH! 

So many steps. This is why people go to coffee shops to have this done for them.

Watching it drip out. Why doesnt this go any faster?

My handmade espresso. Like a boss!

Look what I did. Nah jk I would need much more practice for that :)

So much coffee; everything is becoming a blur.

Our group with one of the instructors once everything else was said and done.

Our group with the other instructor.

We go to the main area to pay and it takes a little longer than expected and they are about to have a bus of employees going back to town so they offer to just take us back to the bus terminal near our place which saved us probably an hour (maybe more) of commute time which was incredible of them. We realized as we were heading back we were going to miss the sunset tonight :(, but we get back and have dinner then hang out a bit more with our awesome group before going to bed.

The Finca had a pool. Seems inviting.

Bird feeder being good at its job.

Lots of birds around.

Beautiful day for a walk eh?

Looks like a jungle out there.

Saw this hummingbird flying around and it finally settled down. Beautiful little creature :)

Went to go look out over the field. Not sure where the smoke is from but not a bad view.

My little dude was still around. Love hummingbirds.