Somewhat of a caffeine addict, I was beyond excited to visit the third-largest coffee producer on the planet. If that were not enough, we even got to stay two whole nights at a working coffee farm! Having made our way up the central range of the Colombian Andes, it was dark by the time we were meandering along the dirt track to Hacienda Venecia. Emerging from the dense vegetation was our brightly lit, quaint Coffee Lodge with its deep red verandas. I felt like I was in a telenovela stepping out of our… 17-seater minibus, but that aside I was not too far off. A Netflix remake of Café con Aroma de Mujer was filmed here, and it doesn’t take more than a minute in this idyll to understand why.

Cue sunrise! As much as I love coffee, it certainly isn’t my evening drink of choice if I want to get some shuteye and we had a jam-packed day ahead of us on the premises. My morning coffee was well worth the wait though, oh so smooth and without the bitter aftertaste. It is all in the roasting apparently. Our guide, Andres, took us for a wander around the coffee plantation and explained the process from planting to pouring it into your cup. We visited the workshop and, of course, tasted more of the goods. If I have one piece of advice for you it is to pack lightly as you cannot leave the property without at least a couple of bags of these beans; She says, sipping her Colombian coffee back home.

With six sections climbing some 384 metres in total, you don’t need to take the stairs to get a sense of why they played such an integral role in connecting the community with the wider city. The viewpoints afford a spectacular panorama over the sprawl of colourful dwellings set amongst the lush, green mountains. It was quite something, as was meeting none other than Don Ivan along the way – one of Comuna 13’s founders and right by the mural that celebrates his contribution to social change, though his beaming smile remained very much the same.

Whilst none of us wanted to leave, the tour must go on with the Caribbean coast a-calling. Also, let’s face it, no trip to Colombia would be complete without a visit to Cartagena. This port city’s popularity dates back centuries, hotly contested in the race to take control of the New World due to its strategic positioning. Mooching around the cobbled streets in the company of our local guide, Carlos, we were privy to some of the most extensive and best-preserved fortresses in all of South America to this day.