Tag: cafes

Coffee Tasting at Toucan Café Medellin

It’s almost the end of our trip to Colombia, and we had another “Must do” to cross of our list: a coffee tasting! Fortunately, we found a great place to sample and learn more about coffee in Medellin.  Toucan Café and Tours, only a 5 minute walk from our hotel in Poblado, hosts coffee tastings every weekday at 4PM. Here’s our experience at a coffee tasting at Toucan Café.

Coffee Tasting overview

We not only got a coffee tasting from our guide Juan (Not Valdez!), we got a master class in coffee origins, preparation, and the smells and flavors of coffee! We also got lucky and had a private class of just the the 2 of us! Both David, who organizes all the tours offered by the company, and Juan speak perfect English, so it was an easy and fun experience for us from the booking to the class.

After the history of coffee and coffee growing briefing, which Juan adjusted when he heard we had done the coffee farm tour in Manizales, we moved from the classroom to the café.

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Loving Cali Colombia

So I got to Cali late last night – too late for me to go out, I was beat – and woke up early today to see the town. From my searches online and with my trusty Lonely Planet guidebook, I found a lot of good things to see and do! Here’s a travelogue of my first day here and why I am loving Cali Colombia.

The Hostel

I started with a taxi from my hostel, Pelican Larry. I have a private room and access to a shared bathroom, which is all I need. Clean and with hot water! My room has a fan which had the dual purpose of keeping me cool and drowning out outside noise.

Getting Out of the Hostel

The taxi to downtown was quick and cheap and I got dropped off at the Modern Art Museum, which wasn’t open until 10am (it was 9:30am) so I went in search of a café. I found a good one thanks to Google Maps!

Downtown Cali

Let me explain downtown Cali first. It’s dominated by the Rio Cali, which has walkways on both sides, and a lot of the tourist sites are there or nearby. This walking route is great with lots of scenery, and compared to Cartagena, the weather here is GORGEOUS! Warm but with little humidity. Heaven after almost two weeks of non-stop sweating.

Cute Cafe in Cali

Cute Cafe Mulato was on a side street and full of locals. I was the only tourist and it was nice and homey. The waitress had a list with everyone’s name on it and what they ordered, that’s how local a joint this was.

Cafe Mulato in Cali Colombia
Cafe Mulato in Cali
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