Riosucio is a town that is part of the UNESCO World Heritage listed Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia. It is better known for its biennial carnival, the Carnival of the Devil (Carnaval del Diablo). It’s one of the most popular and important carnivals in all of Colombia and takes place every January of odd-numbered years.
Covering 519 km² of area of Colombia’s western Andes Mountains is Tatamá National Park (Parque Nacional Natural Tatamá). This lesser-known park is spread out over the departments of Risaralda, Chocó, and Valle del Cauca and is one of the more inaccessible national parks in the country.
The small town of Pueblo Rico, located about three hours from Pereira, has almost nothing to offer. I visited on a short trip with my girlfriend Marisol and spent about an hour there.
Several Colombian friends had suggested I visit the town of Quimbaya, about 40 minutes from Armenia. I decided to take their advice and visit this town that’s part of the UNESCO World Heritage listed Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia one afternoon.
If you find yourself in Pereira with extra time to kill, head across the bridge to the suburb of Dosquebradas. This city is part of the UNESCO World Heritage listed Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia.
I didn’t know much about bachata music until I met Marisol. When her favorite artist, Romeo Santos, announced a concert in Pereira, she asked me to come with her and her group of friends. In the weeks leading up to the concert, Marisol taught me how to dance bachata. She told me I can’t go to the concert unless I can dance.
My last week of school in Belén de Umbría was actually just three days long. The first day of the week at Nuestra Señora del Rosario started on a Tuesday because of a holiday on Monday.
All of the students from my high school in Taparcal walked nearly 5km to nearby Belén de Umbría to honor a student who was murdered in 2011. 16 year old Andrés Felipe Espinosa and another man, Wilder de Jesús López Valencia, 31, were killed for a cell phone and COP$10,000 pesos when their jeep was attacked by two armed men one Sunday evening.
The schools in Belén de Umbría had one of the biggest weeks of the school year with their annual parade and science fair. Students in 1st through 10th grade participated in the parade while 11th graders worked very hard on the science fair, which was actually a business fair.