On our second day in the coffee region, we set out towards Filandia and Cocora Valley. Along the way, we learned again how many different shades of green can be.
Cocora's most impressive sight was the wax palms rising skyward from within the valley. These palm trees, the national tree of Colombia, change the scale of the landscape with their thin trunks reaching among the clouds. People look tiny compared to them.
Throughout the walk, we saw how plants live on and next to each other and how the moist forest utilizes every space. Ferns, mosses and other plants clinging to tree trunks were turning the forest into a large common living space rather than individual trees.
The fragility of nature as well as its richness was very visible here. We thought about how important the balance between coffee production, tourism and conservation is for the future of this valley. At the end of the day, all we remember is the little break we took together under the palm trees reaching into the sky.
Colombia is one of the countries with the highest biodiversity in the world, thanks to its topography and climate. There is a huge difference in altitude, from sea level to snow-covered peaks above 5,000 metres. Within the same country, there are Caribbean coasts, Pacific coasts, deserts, Amazon rainforests, volcanic mountains, plateaus and plains. It is the only country in South America that has coasts on both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
One of the most interesting plants of the páramo ecosystem in the high parts of the Andes is the frailejón. From afar it resembles a short palm tree. Its hairy leaves retain water from fog and rain and slowly release it to the soil. Thus, it helps maintain the water cycle in the high mountains.
Many different creatures live in these different ecosystems, such as tapirs, pumas, jaguars, sloths, howler monkeys, poison dart frogs and glass frogs with visible internal organs. The sounds of some howler monkeys can be heard from miles away. The bird diversity is also incredible; we especially remembered the manakin bird, which our guide described as appearing to do a "moonwalk" with its feet while dancing.
The symbol of Cocora Valley is the wax palm. This palm, which is the national tree of Colombia, can reach up to 60 meters tall. Their thin trunks rising towards the sky in the valley make everything around them look tiny.
In this geography, not only coffee but also avocados grow at high altitudes. Seeing avocado gardens even at an altitude of approximately 2,200 meters allowed us to better understand the climate and altitude diversity of Colombia.