One of the tourist magnets of the country of Magical Realism is the well-known "Eje Cafetero". A green area dotted by charming cities and towns, surrounded by coffee plantations and nature reserves and covering, mainly, three departments: Quindío, Caldas and Risaralda and their respective capital cities, which are the best known: Armenia, Manizales and Pereira.
The Eje Cafetero is located in the center of western Colombia and is part of the Andean region, on the Western and Central Cordilleras.
The climatic conditions are from (-8 ° C in the Nevados and to 29 ° C in the Valleys, like that of the Risaralda), (Andean tropical forest), and geological in this region, determine the production of a high quality coffee, with relatively short harvest periods. Peasants in the area have developed techniques for cultivating, harvesting and processing grain, and all done "grain by grain", and have preserved this way of processing the industry despite the new techniques of mass agricultural industrialization.
The Colombian Coffee Axis owes its bliss to coffee. The region, with the paisa legacy has created an identity of its own in its current customs, and with it has developed a praiseworthy tourist culture. With a colorful architecture and sui generis, this region offers visitors peculiarities.
A curious case is the massive traditional use of American Willys Jeep, vehicles from the time of World War II. These Willys can be seen everywhere as transport of people and cargo. This particular tradition has even invented typical words of the Eje Cafetero, such as the "jeepao" or Yipao, which refers to the amount of things one of these Willys can carry, in the same way as the contents of a sack are called in Colombia "un costalao" (costal full of things).
The most important feature of this tourism industry ("Agrotourism") is that it is based on the offer of local hotels in the region, with the identity of coffee farmers in the area. Many haciendas and traditional rural mansions, with normal activities of the field, have been conditioned to serve as lodging for many tourists, which have defined features of originality and beauty, in hotels full of life and traditions of the first Antioquian settlers, with coffee plantations full of history and color, with chapoleras trained "empirically", for coffee harvesting.
Lovers of nature, especially of the peaceful, livable and inviting mountain, and businesses linked to the agro-industrial and agricultural sector, will find in the haciendas comfortable accommodations and the most exclusive of the region's gastronomy. In addition, schedules to make tours of the coffee plantations. Also horseback riding and tourist adventures in the surroundings and nearby towns.
