I definitely have a new respect for that steaming goodness and I will probably never look at a cup of tinto (black coffee) the same again. My tour guide told me how the campesinos who work on the farm make 300 pesos for each kilogram of beans they collect – that’s about 17 U.S. cents.

Luckily for me, the climate here in Manizales has a bipolar personality, and it wasn’t long before I was peeling off my jacket and closing my umbrella. I took an easy bus to Chipre, a suburb in Manizales, to lounge in the sun and admire the beauty of the Andes.

I thought it would be interesting to try a birthday alone. I imagined myself wandering through the cobble-stoned streets of a cute village, being stared at by the townspeople like I just hopped out of the mother ship…