Santa Rosa de Cabal

 Santa Rosa de Cabal

The traditional tourist trail would have us heading straight to Medellin next, but as we have the benefit of time we chose to have a few more days in the coffee region and head to the town of Santa Rosa de Cabal. We took the bus to Pereira from Solento, which was remarkably simple with the help of the local staff, and then a taxi over to our finca accommodation in the countryside around the town. We’d found a place with a pool for the kids that was famous for a spectacular view point, and that most certainly did not disappoint.

Finca Villa del Campo was offered basic rooms, but great value with the pool, the use of the outside kitchen and a traditional Columbian breakfast (I’ve never eaten so many eggs as I have in the past few weeks). The owners were very friendly and helpful and it's well placed for a short walk up the hill to the Finca Del Cafe which offers tours of the coffee farm, a more upmarket restaurant and a bamboo lookout point.

The main reason for us taking a stop off at Santa Rosa de Cabal was to be able to visit the famous hot springs about half an hour out of town, as well as continuing to enjoy the laid back lifestyle in the Colombian countryside.

The soil around this region is so rich from the nearby volcano, and the climate is ideal for growing crops the whole year round. While we were there we experienced balmy days in the mid-high 20s, with spectacular thunder storms through the night (one of which shook the building we were staying in waking us all up). It really looked like you could grow anything here, quite a contrast to my attempts on my little kitchen garden patch back home in Horbury.

We were also amazed to see hummingbirds visiting the lookout at the accommodation everyday, one day there were seven pecking at the feeders.

This was a great place for us to have quiet few days (including one lazy day around the pool).

Santa Rosa highlights:

Finca del Cafe:

There are loads of options for coffee tours across Colombia, and we’ve heard of people really enjoying the options around Solento. We didn’t have time during our stay, but knew that we would have more options to come. Finca del Cafe was definitely a more premium option, it was extra for us to have it in English, but it also meant it became a private tour. As we were staying so close and didn’t need transport we thought it was worth it, and we didn’t regret it.

As well as touring the coffee farm and the copse of bamboo planted for construction materials, we picked some beans, tasted freshly roasted coffee and the locally made coffee yoghurt. It was over two hours in total and very informative (counting it towards home schooling, definitely a bit of biology and history ticked off).

Chatting to the guide it was interesting to hear a little about the history or the finca itself. It had been producing coffee for around fifty years before being sold to a family from Bogota a decade ago. This had brought the big developments, the beginning of the tours, the lookout point and restaurant complex. While we were there the local authority was paving the road up to the site and there were a number of houses set up to offer accommodation similar to the one we stayed in. The combination of political stability and investment from the capital was clearly having a significant impact on the area. Indeed, the local area is now making more from tourism than coffee production.

Termales:

This were the main reason we opted for a stop off at Santa Rosa de Cabal, having read about them before arriving and wanting to take the opportunity to have an affordable and family friendly visit to natural hot springs. Some of the reviews we had read were mixed, but honestly, I don’t know what some people expect, it was stunning.

We took a taxi from our accomodation up out of the town into the hills and dense forest. As we came closer more and more hotels and restaurants appeared and then we got to another bit of road that was being formally paved to support the growing tourist trade.

We arrived at around 11, paid the mid-season rate of around £18 a head (steep for Colombia, very cheap for Europe) and entered the complex. There is a short walk along the babbling river up to the thermal spa itself, and as you wind your way up the amazing waterfall comes into view.

There are four pools, all of them at least as warm as a hot bath. It was hard to stay in the hottest one for more than ten minutes, and the guidance was that you should take a cold shower every twenty minutes or so to make sure you didn’t over heat - the most refreshing way to do this was in the waterfall itself.

The staff were strict on bringing food into the site, so we ate our lunch on the wall at the ticket office so that we didn’t need to make use of the fast food outlets inside. We did stump up for an ice cream for the kids though as it was a warm day.

We were lucky as we left that we were able to jump onto a 'willy' jeep to take us back to town, way cheaper than a taxi and the kids were excited to ride one again after their experience in Solento.

We loved our day at the Santa Rosa Termales and would absolutely recommend it to anyone visiting the area.

Santa Rosa de Cabal:

The town itself is fairly unremarkable, but the main square where the jeeps depart from is very nice with large and colourful statues of birds around it and a nice selection of local stalls, crafts and restaurants. As with many of the Colombian towns we have seen so far, it is more of a jumping off point to the local countryside, rather than an attraction in and of itself, but we had some tasty and good value food as well as being able to pick up groceries to make a couple of our own dinners.