Minca: The Trip that Nearly Ended Before it Started

“Why would they do this to us?!?” I yelled back to Gabe. “SERIOUSLY! I can’t do this anymore!” I whined.

We were about an hour in to what we were told would be a 45 minute hike, after the mule that was supposed to meet us never arrived,  to reach La Finca Candelaria, a working coffee farm and our accommodation for the next couple of nights. We were supposed to be heading up to the mountain side town of Minca to decompress and chill for a couple of days. Some chilling this is!! 

We were both dripping sweat and covered in dirt as we attempted to reach La Candelaria, a steep 400 meter continual ascencion  into the Sierra Nevada Mountains in 100 degree heat with ALL of our possessions strapped to our backs and fronts.   

Finally at the top

After another 45 minutes, we finally reached the sign reading La Candelaria. After  another 15 minutes uphill on the property, we finally decided to leave our large backpacks on the ground and come back for them later. Not since my college preseason 2-3-a-days have I been that exhausted!!  FINALLY, we reached the top of our climb and arrived!

After a refreshing limonada(lime, water and sugar drink), we went back and retrieved our bags. That is when the nightmare ended and our vision of Minca started. We watched a beautiful sunset and ate a delicious, home-cooked dinner by Ana, one of the owners.  

Being that this is a working coffee farm, we awake early to a crowing rooster. After another delicious home-cooked meal and some fresh, organic coffee, we set out with Eugenio(the other owner) and Soleil and Fernando(a lovely Aussie couple volunteering there) to learn about the entire coffee making process.

Coffee Picking

We picked coffee cherries off the trees growing in the mountains, gathered them in our buckets and headed back to the farm. From there we put the cherries into a machine which separates the skin from the bean. From there, the beans were washed, sorted according to quality, dried, sifted and finally we removed any “bad” beans. Then the boys took turns roasting the coffee beans. Since we like our coffee strong(like our drinks) we opted for a dark roast. After the coffee beans cooled, they were ready to be ground.

Eugenio Sifting the Coffee Beans

Dark Roast Coffee

Grinding the Beans

The really ironic thing about the coffee farmers that we met in Minca is that they are super passionate about growing the coffee, but they don’t really know how to prepare it for consumption! Imagine that! So we used a coffee grinder which looked to have been produced during the industrial revolution to grind our beans. Fernando, who has extensive experience as a barista, hand-filtered our coffee. Finally,  it was time to enjoy the fruits of our labor. The coffee was among the best we have ever had.

Sunset from the Finca La Candelaria

The next couple of days were spent getting back to basics. We enjoyed our home-cooked meals, freshly prepared coffees, good books, great company and AMAZING mountain sunsets. Our stay as the first guests, not volunteers, was perfect. It was the authentic Colombia experience we have been craving. 

Thanks Eugenio, Ana and Luna

 After all of the relaxing, it was time to head back to Santa Marta for the New Year…but not before hiking back down that mountain that nearly killed us the first time! Going down was much easier, and only took us an hour from start to finish. Our resolution for this New Year, get rid of some of our 

**Travel tip: to get to Minca, you need to go to the market on Calle 11/Cra. 12, to catch a rideshare in an old car or jeep. It will cost 7,000CP per person and will not leave until there are 4 people. Since we were staying closer to Minca, we thought we could catch a collective to Minca and avoid backtracking. No such collective exists. We ended up having to hail a taxi halfway to Minca for $30,000CP.**