Friday, 22 February 2019
Pereira, Colombia
Am in need of a long, cold beer tonight after I’ve typed this blog. Itinerary says, ‘Take a walk into the cloud forest by the river.’
Reality is an hour’s climb up a chuffing steep hillside to a view point.
Having previously stopped at Filandia and climbed a 27m high viewing platform I’m rather hoping for an easy day. Am recognised by Welsh couple who remember me from the hotel in Villa de Leyva a few days ago.
Filandia is a brightly coloured small town. During the civil war in the 1960s you painted your house blue if conservative and red if liberal. This obviously led to recriminations and shootings and after the war it was decreed that all the houses should be multi-coloured to avoid further agro. And that’s how it stands today. Lots of brightly coloured houses. Stop for an avocado ice cream. Ever had avocado ice cream? Quite nice but we decide it needs a smidgeon of salt to bring out the flavour. We is me and my 21 year old female guide who is from Belgium. Good English and a sense of humour, which is necessary for my lame jokes.
In the Cocora Valley, see hundreds of wax palms. They grow to 60m and can be 300-500 years old but are now an endangered species. Walk up the hillside to a viewing point. Well worth the huff and puff as the view is stunning. A very large bird is soaring beneath us is and I think it looks like a condor. Miss Belgium texts a friend who knows about such things and pleased to report that it is a condor.
Walking back to the start necessitates a really steep climb down a field which must be at 60 deg angle it’s that steep.
After lunch, invited to plant a wax palm seedling. It’s taken two years to grow about 6 inches. Walk up yet another chuffing hill to plant in the nursery. Doing my bit for the environment and saving the planet.
That’s me through and through.
Walk through an avocado plantation. The trees are quite large and bushy and laden with fresh avocados.
The word avocado is derived from the Aztec word ‘ahuacti’.
Which means testicle.
So.
Just bear that in mind next time you go to the supermarket and start fondling avocados to see how ripe they are.
One response to “62. The testicle tree”
You learn something new every day. I don’t think I will look at an avocado, my favourite salad item, in the same way again.