Coffee Region (III) - Nature Reserve, Colombia (November 2019)

In Manizales, we stayed at a hotel called Estelar. It was part of a natural reserve complex. Because of our stay at this hotel facility, we had an unexpected morning activity of touring the nature reserves around the hotel. There was one more incident at this hotel and it will be introduced at the end.

The backyard of the hotel had a big gazebo that could host a banquet or a large gathering. It appeared beautiful with a pond covered with water plants.

As the local guide, Paula, was leading us to the nature reserve, the first one that came to our attention was the largest orchid that was growing on a tree.

Both Paula and Yohany were showing us big-leaf plants, explaining that Adam and Eve probably used these leaves to cover their body after the fall. Oh well...

Colombian bamboos were different from Asian bamboos. They were far more flexible and appear to be growing a lot faster. We were told that they could grow 12 cm a night after rain. Wow...!

We saw a Lulu tree bearing the Colombian traditional fruit of Lulu.

We were supposed to take a lift to the high point, but its operation was suspended due to heavy rain.

There were numerous flowers and plants which I could not remember all.

We visited a humming bird watching station.

We passed by the bonsai garden which was donated by the Japanese government. A white iglet was greeting us at the entrance.

The bonsai on the right hand side below is 75 years old. Can you believe it?

We then passed through a butterfly pavilion.

A bunch of caterpillars were at a particular tree because they like the leaves of this tree.

After the butterfly pavilion, we moved to a rain forest where we saw a variety of orchids along with other plants, many of which were quite unique.

There were some mushrooms also.

This one looks like a monkey's face.

And, this one looks like a buffalo.

This one looks like a cockroach and was named as such. Indeed.

This unplanned morning activity of touring the nature reserve was a pleasant surprise.

There was an unpleasant happening at night. 

At around 11:20pm, in the middle of the night and sleep, I heard knocking at the door. I woke up and tried to figure out what that was for. But as I was approaching the door, the knocking stopped. So I thought I misheard the knocking made else where.

As I was getting back to the bed and the sleep, the phone rang. It was Alejandra and she said she would explain to me a critical situation in person. When I went out, she was telling me that a burglar has entered into many rooms and the police is now investing what has been stolen. She was asking if I have lost anything. Apparently, one of the hotel staff got into some rooms, including ours, to steal money and jewelry, primarily from safes. Thankfully, we did not get anything stolen, but at least four members got something stolen. Hotel safes are not safe at all, folks!

I was awaken at 11:20pm and some were awaken as late as 2am. Naturally, we could not leave as scheduled originally for 6:30am. We ended up leaving at 8:30am. - Jeffrey