A trip to Minca in the mountains

Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Sun 29 Dec 2013 13:40
For a change of scene and a 'run out' we decided to take a trip out to Minca, a village in the mountains near Santa Marta. We had been recommended to take this trip by another boat in the marina.
The first challenge was getting the bus there. The correct thing to ask for, or so we were told, was the 'omnibus para Minca' at the 'esatcione' on the cross roads between carrera 11 and calle 11. The streets here are helpfully organised on a grid system with the 'calles' going one way and the 'carerras' going the other way, much like in NYC. We took the easiest route there and got in a local taxi to the omnibus parc. The cost was 5,000 Colombian pesos, the time it would have taken to walk there was about an hour, for £1.60, it was well worth it.
Once we eventually found the bus stop, after asking directions from a few local stall holders, we were told to get in a small yellow cab - we had been expecting a jeep. This cab was tiny, David opted for the front seat, being the tallest, but actually couldn't fit in the seat at all! A bit of negotiation later, and we changed to a jeep, much more comfortable especially as the journey was about an hour or so. Once settled, we decided to try an book the taxi for the whole day, so we could see the coffee plantation, which was a bit out of town, the waterfall, and stop off for a spot of lunch. The internet came to our rescue via 'Google translate' and once we had the necessary phrases we set about trying to negotiate a rate for the whole day. Between our Spanglish and the drivers Colombian Spanish we somehow managed to get what we wanted for the princely sum of 180,000 pesos (£60).
The route up to Minca was certainly a challenge even for a four wheel drive vehicle. The road was very twisty and bendy, steep and in places half of it was missing and full of huge holes, not a place for your own car or a rental!

JPEG image


The view from half way - you can see Santa Marta in the distance, and the lighthouse on the island as well, just outside the bay.

The first stop was the coffee plantation, the Victoria, the most famous Finca in the area. It was set up in 1892 with machines from the UK and is largely run in exactly the same way today, using those same machines. The coffee is picked by hand, between November and March, sorted, and dried by machine, then bagged up and dried before being shipped out of the country. All the coffee is then roasted where it ends up, in England or wherever, as this keeps it fresher for longer.

JPEG image




JPEG image



The boxes in the front are used to weigh the coffee beans and determine the wages of the pickets who work on a piecemeal basis. The smallest box is worth 5,000 pesos, the middle two, 10,000 pesos and the largest, 20,000 pesos. Bear in mind that there are currently 3,000 pesos to the UK pound and that gives you an idea of what these people earn. The beans are then washed in the water behind, the unripe beans float and are skimmed off and used as compost on the estate.

JPEG image



Once washed and graded the beans are left out to dry. The premium beans are dried inside. The second grade beans are air dried on the floor and covered by a tarpaulin at night, while the third grade beans are under the plastic covers.

JPEG image


Suzanne and I enjoying a cup of Colombia's finest coffee.

After boiling at the plantation, despite the height, and being eaten alive by bugs as we stood by the compost heap, a necessary part of the tour, I am told, we headed of for a cool down in the waterfalls. We had been warned that these were very cold, but brought our swimming gear just in case. It was a 20 minute walk through rain forest to the falls which was lovely and cool after the sticky, humidity of the day.

JPEG image




JPEG image



John bravely getting his feet wet

JPEG image



I managed to go as far as my knees but swimming was out of the question!

After this it was definitely time for lunch. We had stopped of at a local restaurant on the way up to the plantation with a wood burning oven outside, and reserved a table for 4 people and ordered 'carne' (meat) which seemed to be the only option. When we arrived, they were serving another table, so we tried what they were having, a selection of two meats and chorizo, not sure what exactly, and ordered that.
Another group from the marina had also arrived by this time and again ordered the same. No matter what question we asked to find out what the meat was, the answer was always the same, just 'carne'. It was however delicious, we did somewhat better than the others in some ways, whilst we had to share one fork between us, tricky when you need to cut meat, we at least had a plate each, they had just one large plate between them, the restaurant was clearly not up to serving large groups of people!

JPEG image



David and John sitting expectantly in front of the open kitchen.

JPEG image


The chef at work removing meat from the wood skewers.

JPEG image



The finished product, beef, possibly pork, chorizo sausage, fried yucca and rice.

After lunch we had a short stop in Minca village for a walk and an ice cream. It seems quite touristy in some ways, advertising pizza restaurants, burger bars etc, but I am not sure exactly what is behind the store fronts, possibly not quite what you might expect!

JPEG image



The main square in Minca.

Then it was time to return home again. We had been learned that there had been some pretty high winds over the previous weeks, but we had seen nothing like it until this evening when we had over 45 knots blowing over the deck! We were being blown off the pontoon and towards Suzie Too next door and, as we were both way too long for the jetties we were on, the boats were swinging together which was a bit disconcerting and we all ended up on deck tightening lines and sitting up until the storm passed hoping the cleats fastened to the docks would hold - not much fun, and the good news is, it is going to happen all over again tonight! We will be more prepared this time though, last night it caught us off guard and it was too windy to remove some things like biminis etc, but they are now down and stowed, cushions and loose items are put away etc. Hopefully it will not be too bad - fingers crossed!
Tomorrow we head out to Cartegena for New Year which should be fabulous, lots of parties etc. We are there for three nights and when we return, more food shopping needs to be done before we head to the San Blas islands for a couple of weeks.

Sent from my iPad