Colombia is located in South America, and has borders with Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Ecuador and Panama. It is the only South American country to have coasts on both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. It is considered as a country with a special diversity, on account of its virgin nature, fauna and flora. Furthermore, it has a variety of different climates, a factor that favors tourism, as it is possible to carry out all types of activities, and visit all of the country’s areas of interest, throughout the year.

Local weather is warm along both coastal basins, as well as in the eastern plains, while the sierras and high-lands are cold.

Colombia invites ecological and adventure tourism with Natural Parks such as Los Nevados, high in the Andes, Amacayacu, deep in the Amazon, Tayrona, on the Caribbean coast, Gorgona, a Natural Park in the Pacific Ocean, and Otún Quimbaya, in the Andean Coffee-Growing Region.

Beaches at Barú in Cartagena, Neguanje and Arrecifes in the Nature Park Tayrona, San Andrés and Providencia islands have transparent waters and space areas of fine sand.

Bogotá is Colombia’s capital, being its main city and also its largest. Other important cities in the country are: Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, Cúcuta, Cartagena, Bucaramanga and Pereira.

Colombia is one of the world’s largest coffee producing country and number one producer of Specialty Coffees. Café de Colombia is produced by more than 560000 coffee growers throughout the slopes of the Andes Mountain in 21 coffee growing regions and more than 50% of the country’s towns.

 

Colombian Coffee Cultural Landscape (PCC)

ASIC 2014 will be hosted at one of Colombia’s most traditional coffee regions. The Colombian Coffee Cultural landscape is comprised of 47 towns in 4 coffee departments in the center of Colombia: Valle, Quindío, Risaralda and Caldas. The PCC was recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site due to cultural, economic and social aspects that are based on the coffee growing culture.

General Information

Population: approx 2,069,012.
Temperature: 8ºC - 24ºC.
Department of Caldas: Population 968,740.
Department of Quindío: Population 534,552.
Department of Risaralda: Population 897,509.

How to get there: By air, to the main capitals that comprise the Coffee-Growing Region (Armenia, Pereira and Manizales), approximately 50 minutes by air from Bogotá, or by land, with a drive of around seven or eight hours to the cities of Armenia, Pereira or Manizales.
This region displays a vast variety of natural beauty, with its flora, fauna and weather that goes from extremely hot in the Valley of the Magdalena river, to the snowy peaks of the Ruiz and Santa Isabel mountains.
It is not just the coffee crops that make this a special place, but also its customs, its people and its beautiful and abundant sights and landscapes, along with its traditional architecture, deeply rooted in its cities and rural areas.

 

Host city: Armenia

“Colombia’s miracle city” is the capital of the Department of Quindío. Its economy focuses on coffee-growing, and farms and country houses converted for use as tourist lodges.

Sites of Interest

  • National Coffee Park: It is located in the Municipality of Montenegro, which allows to learn and experience the traditions and coffee-growing culture; its attractive features include: the Coffee Monument, an ecologic tour, ‘a rollercoaster, horses, the fable garden, the heliport, the traditional “Paisa” town, and the train ride, among others.
  • PANACA - National Park of Agricultural Culture: It is an interactive park, a cultural and hotel complex. It is located in the Municipality of Quimbaya, it is a theme park,
    in which visitors can enjoy life on the field. Among other attractions, this park allows visitors to enjoy cattle shows, as well as exhibits of trained dogs and horses, as well as experience agricultural life, silk culture and agronomy.
  • Quimbaya Museum: Received the National Architecture Award, and was designed by architect Rogelio Salmona, it holds collections of Pre-Colombian art. Located at the Avenida Bolivar No. 40 N - 80.
  • Cocora Valley: It is a site to experience and watch the flora and fauna native to the cloud forest; there are concentrations of Quindio wax palm tree, Colombia’s national tree.

 

Nearby Cities

Manizales - Aprox 1.5 hour from Armenia

“The City of Open Doors”, is the capital of the Department of Caldas, and is located in the heart of Colombia. Every year, it hosts the International Coffee Pageant and Festival, the highpoint of the Manizales Fair, with attendance from beautiful women representing on average thirty countries per year This festival also serves as the stage for the National Folklore Festival, the Bull-Fighting Fair, the National Poetic Song Festival, and the National Arts and Crafts Show.

Sites of Interest

  • Nevado del Ruiz Park: It is a natural reserve deep in the heart of Colombia, on the top of the Andean mountain range, spanning 58.300 hectares, including five snowy peaks with peaks of over 5.000 meters. This rosary of snowy mountains
    can be seen from the Magdalena Valley or from the Caldas coffee-growing region, on clear days.
  • Hot Springs at El Ruiz: Hot, medicinal springs, surrounded by a hotel infrastructure.

 

Pereira - Aprox 40 mins from Armenia

It is the capital of the Department of Risaralda, and an industrial and commercial hub. It has convention centers both in the city, as well as in the surrounding rural areas, to conduct events and congresses. Every year, this city holds the Harvest Festival, with cultural events, a pageant, and an orchid festival.

Sites if Interest

  • Otun Quimbaya Flora and Fauna Sanctuary: It was created in 1996, with the purpose of contributing to the preservation of the flora and fauna through environmental organization programs, research, environmental education and
    eco-tourism.
  • Santa Rosa de Cabal: Approximatly 8 kilometers from Risaralda, this town is famous for its medicinal hot springs, its ecological hiking trails, and its mud pools.
  • Otun Lagoon: It crosses the city of Pereira, and its highlights include the “frailejón” forest, the Mosquito Lagoon, the Santa Rosa moorland, and the Tolima and Santa Isabel Snowy Peaks.
  • Matecaña Zoo: It currently holds a collection of 150 species which include birds, mammals and reptiles from America, Africa and Asia, most of them native.