The guide
Salento sits inside the Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia, on UNESCO’s World Heritage List since 2011. The farms below town open their gates for tours: you walk the rows, learn how cherries become green coffee and finish with a cup brewed through a cloth filter.
Two well-documented farms are an easy trip from the hostel. Both are independent businesses — book with them directly.
What a tour looks like
At El Ocaso the classic tour walks the plantation (picking, planting and seedlings), then the beneficiadero where cherries are pulped and washed, the drying and storage rooms and the roaster, ending with a cup made with a cloth filter and an olleta pot. Longer tours add cupping, brewing or roasting and must be booked ahead.
Don Elías is a family farm that has grown coffee for more than 30 years without synthetic products. Tours cover the crop and each processing step with hands-on moments, by the Río Quindío and a small waterfall the family calls la Cascada de la Abuela.
Getting there
Walk: El Ocaso says it’s about an hour from the plaza, all downhill on an unpaved road — and the same hill back up. Ride: the farm mentions horse rides from town of about 40 minutes. Jeep: private Willys from the main square, for groups of up to ten.
Don Elías is in the same area, about 5 km from town by most accounts. Check the farm’s own directions when you book.
Coffee cherries near Salento Destination photo — not the hostel Coffee berries — Hacienda Guayabal, Caldas (not Quindío) Destination photo — not the hostel Countryside near Salento Destination photo — not the hostel
