Medellín & the Coffee Region

Before the Spanish arrived, the valleys of the Cauca and its tributaries were home to chiefdoms such as the Quimbaya, whose gold figures and flasks, now in Bogotá's Gold Museum and the Quimbaya Museum in Armenia, are among the finest of pre-Columbian metalwork. Spanish settlement from the 16th century centred on gold mining, with Santa Fe de Antioquia the colonial capital; Medellín, in the Aburrá valley, was granted its town charter in 1675 and replaced Santa Fe as the provincial capital in 1826.

The region's modern shape comes from the Antioquian colonisation of the 19th century, when families of settlers moved south into the forested slopes of the Central Cordillera, clearing land for farms and founding towns: Manizales in 1849, Pereira in 1863 and Armenia in 1889. Coffee, planted on these family smallholdings from the late 1800s, made the area Colombia's economic engine, and the department of Caldas, created in 1905, was split in 1966 when Risaralda and Quindío became departments of their own. Medellín meanwhile became the country's industrial centre, built on textiles.

From the late 1970s Pablo Escobar's Medellín cartel made the city the centre of the cocaine trade and, by the early 1990s, one of the most violent in the world; Escobar was killed there in 1993. Guerrillas and paramilitaries fought over the city's hillside comunas into the 2000s. Since then investment in transport, libraries and parks has transformed Medellín's image. In 1999 an earthquake centred near Armenia killed more than a thousand people and destroyed much of the city, which was rebuilt.

The paisas — people of Antioquia and the coffee departments — are known across Colombia as hard-working, commercial, devout, proud and talkative, with a sing-song accent and the use of "vos" rather than "tú". Family is central, Catholicism strong, and the arriero, the mule driver who carried goods over the mountains, remains a regional symbol, complete with carriel, a leather shoulder bag, poncho and hat.

Medellín's great festival is the Feria de las Flores in August, when silleteros from the village of Santa Elena carry huge flower arrangements on their backs through the city. The city is a centre of reggaeton and Latin pop, home to stars such as J Balvin and Karol G, as well as a strong tango tradition, left by the singer Carlos Gardel, who died in a plane crash there in 1935. The painter and sculptor Fernando Botero, born in Medellín, gave his city the rounded bronzes of Plaza Botero.

In the coffee region, the culture of the finca — the family coffee farm — shapes daily life. The UNESCO-listed Coffee Cultural Landscape recognises the smallholder farms, steep plantations and bahareque houses of wood, cane and earth with painted balconies. Towns hold fiestas for the harvest, Manizales stages a large fair in January, and Pereira and Armenia have lively fairs of their own.

Medellín has about 2.5 million people and the wider Aburrá valley around four million, making it Colombia's second city. Manizales has nearly half a million, Pereira's wider urban area more than 700,000 and Armenia about 300,000; the rest of the region is market towns and farms.

Medellín runs on commerce, finance, textiles and clothing, services and a growing technology sector, and draws growing numbers of foreign residents. Its hillside comunas remain poorer, and sex tourism has expanded in the city, alongside police operations against the gangs that drug and rob visitors. Rural Antioquia produces gold, bananas in Urabá, cattle and hydroelectric power. In the coffee departments, coffee remains important but farms have diversified into avocado, plantain, tourism and cattle, and many young people have left for the cities or abroad.

Days start early, especially on the farms, where pickers begin at dawn during the harvest. In the towns, men gather in cafés with billiard tables on the plaza, families take Sunday drives to the countryside, and Medellín's residents fill the metro and the Parque Lleras bars.

Paisa food is hearty and generous. Beyond the bandeja paisa, frijoles antioqueños — red beans cooked with pork and green plantain — are eaten almost daily, served with rice, ground beef and the thin, plain white maize arepa that accompanies every Antioquian meal. Mondongo is a tripe soup, sancocho a stew of chicken or beef with potatoes, cassava and plantain, and chicharrón, thick deep-fried pork belly, is a weekend treat.

Mazamorra, a drink of cooked white maize in milk, is sipped after lunch with a piece of panela, the unrefined cane sugar that also sweetens aguapanela, the everyday hot drink. At Christmas every family makes natilla, a set custard of milk and panela, with buñuelos, fried cheese dough balls. In the coffee region, rainbow trout from the mountain streams is served with patacones in Salento, and roadside stalls sell obleas and arequipe.

Coffee here means both the cheap tinto sold on the street and, increasingly, specialty single-farm coffee tasted at fincas and in Medellín's cafés. The local spirit is aguardiente Antioqueño, an anise-flavoured cane spirit, and the region also makes rum.

Medellín is best seen from above, riding the metro to the Metrocable lines that climb over the comunas to Parque Arví, a forest reserve on the ridge. The centre has Plaza Botero and the Museum of Antioquia, and the Comuna 13 district — once one of the city's most violent — now draws visitors to its graffiti and outdoor escalators. The Botanical Garden, Pueblito Paisa on Nutibara hill, and the Museo Casa de la Memoria, on the conflict, round out a visit.

Two hours east, Guatapé's houses are decorated with colourful zócalos, relief panels along their lower walls, and the Piedra del Peñol, a granite monolith, rises above the reservoir, with more than 700 steps to the top. Santa Fe de Antioquia, north-west of Medellín, has colonial streets and the Puente de Occidente suspension bridge, and Jardín and Jericó, to the south-west, are colonial towns in coffee country.

The Eje Cafetero is dotted with coffee farms that offer tours. Salento, in Quindío, is the most visited town, with the Cocora Valley, where Quindío wax palms — Colombia's national tree — stand in pasture before a cloud forest; Filandia is a quieter neighbour. Armenia has the Quimbaya Museum and, nearby, the Parque del Café theme park. Pereira's cathedral and Bolívar statue sit near the hot springs of Santa Rosa de Cabal, and Manizales, on its ridge, is the gateway to Los Nevados National Park and the active Nevado del Ruiz volcano.