The Colombian Coffee Region, or Zona Cafetera, is one of the country’s most beautiful, accessible, and welcoming corners. This was my first real introduction to this lush part of Colombia, and it didn’t take long to see why so many visitors fall for it. Anchored by the Western Andes “trifecta” of Pereira, Manizales, and Armenia, the region is a landscape of green mountains, small farms, winding rivers, and a pace that feels noticeably gentler than Cartagena, Bogotá, or Medellín.

More precisely, Pereira sits in the Central Cordillera, in the Otún and Cauca river valleys, forming the classic coffee triangle that is easy to explore over an eight-day trip. It is a region that invites you to settle in, taste slowly, and let the landscape do some of the work, whether you’re hiking, riding horses, soaking in thermal baths, or focusing on culinary activities – it is food tourism at its best.

The easiest way into the region is a short flight from Bogotá, Medellín or Cartagena into Pereira, and the approach alone is worth it. As you cross the Andes, the mountains open into patchworks of coffee farms and emerald valleys, and the region unravels beneath you. My own stay was shorter, too short, I might add, but it was intensely flavour-driven: three days focused on the rich tastes of fruit, coffee, and cacao. You could build an entire trip around those three flavours alone, and if you want to lean further into the experience, Colombia’s rum makes a very fine addition to the story.

Fruit Tasting at Hacienda San José

Our short flight from Cartagena landed us in the Andean cool of the Zona Cafetera, and we were ready to dive into the flavours of the region. From the airport, we went straight to Hotel Hacienda San José, a colonial estate just outside Pereira that immediately felt like the right kind of introduction to this agrarian area deeply historic, unhurried, and rooted in the lush countryside.

The hotel hacienda itself, built in 1888, blends traditional coffee-region architecture with lush green surroundings, old trees, shady courtyards, and quiet pathways that make it easy to forget the rest of the world. Walking the grounds, enjoying the sitting room and admiring the tranquil blue pool, it was easy to imagine staying longer than just a day. This is after all a hotel and event space.

Our fruit‑tasting workshop was led by Adriana Jaramillo from I.am.Colombiano, whose warmth and curiosity turned what could have been a simple snack sampling into a full‑sensory orientation to the fruits of Colombia. The tasting was the heart of the experience: more than 30 seasonal fruits, each one brightly coloured and bursting with juice, were grouped together to help us understand the varieties within the same families.

We tasted the much loved passiflore group, collectively known as passion fruits (including gulupa, maracuya, granadilla and curruba ). They are often consumed as fresh juices made with water or milk, or cooked into an array of jams, sweets, and chutneys. The sweetened guava paste is paired with savoury cheese in a bocaillo & queso. I was pleased to see a variety of Colombian products using more than one fruit to create delicious jams!

In her excellent English, Adriana encouraged us to: smell the fruit, savour the texture in our mouths, compare the sweetness, and let the tastes of the region sink in. One of the most interesting experiments was to try the slices of fruit with salt. What may have been sour or bitter, changed dramatically. This was often suggested throughout my stops when tasting fruits (and even rum) in Colombia. By the time we left Hacienda San José, the sun was setting in a spectacular pink glow, a day of tasting, and learning. This was a perfect ending and a promising start to our journey in the Zona Cafetera.

Coffee Tasting: A Three‑Hour Lesson in Craft

Our coffee experience began with a visit to a traditional coffee plantation just outside Pereira, where the rolling hills of the Zona Cafetera gave way to rows of coffee plants and the farm life. The three‑hour guided tour at the Finca Don Manolo, led by coffee expert Santiago López, took us deep into the world of Colombian coffee, from planting and harvesting to drying and roasting.

The workshop felt more like a focused, detailed conversation than a rushed overview. Don Manolo walked us through everything: the different varieties of coffee, how the plants are spaced in the hills, the careful hand-picking of the beans, and the slow, air‑drying process that can take days. He explained the labour‑intensive nature of the work, the way each step matters, and why the region’s reputation for quality is earned rather than assumed. The whole process felt deliberate and respectful of the land, and the scale of the work was clear: coffee may seem simple in a cup, but it is anything but simple to produce.

After the walkthrough, we sat down for a tasting session that put theory into practice. We tried several different roasts, and our guide showed us how each one demands a very specific brewing method – whether drip, pour‑over, or espresso – to reveal its best flavours. The range of tastes surprised me: bright citrus notes, deep chocolatey tones, and everything in between. The three‑hour timing meant the workshop was immersive rather than rushed, and by the end, the coffee on my hotel table at home would feel like a quiet nod back to that afternoon in the hills.

Cacao and Cooking at Hacienda Maracay

The Cacao Sanint Nature Experience at Hacienda Maracay felt like the sensory and emotional heart of the trip, the place where everything we’d tasted so far – fruit, coffee, and rum – came together. The finca is owned and run by Alejandra Sanint, whose warm, grounded presence made the whole experience feel personal rather than staged.

She began the day with a short cooking class focused on traditional Colombian baked goods made from corn, cassava, and other local ingredients – recipes with indigenous roots that have been passed down through generations. The “Amasijos experience” meant starting completely from scratch: grinding the corn, kneading the dough, and shaping our own arepas and empanadas, each one a little more textured and human‑made than the last.

As the kitchen warmed up, we gathered around a table for a traditional breakfast that turned our own work into celebration. The spread included arepas served with guacamole, fresh cheese, and hogao (Colombian creole sauce), plus the empanadas we had just shaped, and savouring chorizo for those who wanted a bit more bite.

There were also seasonal fruits and hot chocolate to round out the meal. Alejandra and her assistants set out a buffet of condiments – guacamole, ají, and small bowls garnishes – that let us customise each bite and watch how the textures and heat played with the corn and crisp pastry. Eating food we had helped make, surrounded by the quiet green of the finca, felt like a quiet nod to the region’s culinary roots.

After breakfast, the cacao-making portion of the day began in earnest. One of Alejandra’s assistants walked us through the process of turning cacao into silky chocolate, explaining how each step needed to be done by hand: the beans must be dried, cracked, and ground with care, and the whole operation is slow and physically demanding.

Our guide started showing us the colourful cacao pods – soft, milky-skinned, with the beans nestled in the middle – and got to taste them, which revealed a surprising sweetness and creaminess before the beans even became chocolate paste. The assistant then showed us how the beans are dried and sliced to reach the nibs, the stage where the chocolate starts to become a powder, and emphasized again just how labour‑intensive this work is.

Finally, we moved to the chocolate-making station. The assistant melted the cacao, poured it into moulds, and invited us to customize our chocolate bars by adding pistachios, dried corozo berries, raisins, peanuts, a pinch of salt, and other garnishes of our choice. Each one of us got to take home a large, personalized chocolate bar, a tangible reminder of the farm and the hands that had turned the pods into something sweet and solid.

The whole experience – the dough under our fingers, the warmth of the kitchen, the milky taste of the cacao, and the click of the moulds closing – felt like a quiet, tactile map of the region, one bite at a time. By the time we left Hacienda Maracay, the cacao, the coffee, the arepas, and the empanadas had become less like souvenirs and more like a culinary story of the place.

Rum Tasting at Hotel Boutique Sazagua

The rum tasting at Hotel Boutique Sazagua was one of the most enjoyable experiences of the trip. The hotel offers several workshops – fruit, coffee, Colombian cooking class, and rum – but we opted for the Colombian Rum Tasting Experience, drawn by the idea of ending the day with something distinctly local.

Set on the hotel’s outdoor patio and surrounded by nature, the tasting felt intimate and relaxed. Our guide, Juan Pablo Vásquez – chef and general manager – brought both expertise and energy, walking us through the origins, production, and traditions behind each rum before leading the tasting.

Each variety had a distinct character, from bright and spicy to rich and caramel-toned. My favourite was La Hechicera, matured in white oak casks infused with bourbon. Produced on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, it was exceptionally smooth.

What elevated the experience was the thoughtful food pairings. We sampled rums alongside blue cheese, chocolate, bocadillo with mini bananas, chicharrón, and fresh mango. Each combination revealed something new – the cheese softened sharper notes, chocolate deepened the richness, and fruit added brightness, while the chicharrón brought a satisfying salty contrast.

Juan Pablo kept the energy high and the mood light, turning what could have felt like a formal class into something playful and relaxed. He encouraged us to slow down, savour each sip, and notice how the flavours evolved. The result was a tasting that felt both educational and indulgent, without ever becoming formal. His detailed explanations and easy humour meant we were all leaning in, asking questions, and genuinely enjoying the process. By the end of the evening, the atmosphere was warm and convivial. Staying on property made it even better – no need to travel, just a quiet walk through the gardens back to our room, a perfect close to the day.

My Overall Recommendation

Go. Visit Colombia but go beyond Bogota and Cartagena. After three days in and around Pereira, organized by BnB Colombia Tours, what stayed with me most wasn’t the views, the hikes, or even the ease of travelling the region. It was the way fruit, coffee, cacao, and rum wove itself into the story of Colombia, turning each day into something more like a shared culinary experience than a checklist.

If you’re going to visit the Colombian Coffee Region, make space for more than pretty photos and quick stops. Build in time for these kinds of slow, hands-on experiences – tasting, cooking, learning, and sharing – because that’s where the real character of the place lives. For me, this short trip didn’t just feel like a taste of Colombia; it felt like a reminder that the best way to understand a place is often the same way you understand a good meal: by living it, rather than just watching it go by.

Disclosure: Margarita was a guest of ProColombia and BnB Colombia Tours. Part of a post conference trip, she visited the region with numerous other travel writers and journalists. All opinions are her own.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Do you ever plan a travel experience around something other than famous cities and sights? What about food, local tastes and fruits – would that excite you?

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Self-improvement has never been easier with a wealth of knowledge at your fingertips. Everywhere you look there is advice on faith, diet, relationships, travel, finances and career from a wide range of sources.

For anyone on a self-improvement journey, it doesn’t take long to realize that delving too deeply into the self-help culture can have a detrimental long-term effect on your psyche and damage the very confidence you are trying to build.

Let Me Explain:

Just as there is a phenomenon called Facebook envy, a situation where prolonged exposure to the supposed happiness and excitement of other people’s life can lead to discontent with your own. There is also a type of dissatisfaction caused by prolonged attempts at self-help and self-improvement especially when you feel you are constantly coming up short.

It is similar to the principle of making a New Year’s resolution. On the whole, making a New Year’s Resolution is a positive start to the New Year. Problem starts when your goals require drastic life changes that you quit “cold turkey.” These overnight shifts are unrealistic, unsustainable and ultimately set people up to fail. This failure gives their self-confidence a massive hit and reinforces the belief that they cannot do anything right.

No Two People Are the Same

Also, a self-help journey can be confusing. For instance, one source may describe how many tasks they complete before 9:00 a.m. while you may feel lucky to have stumbled out of bed by then. In this instance, early rising does not necessarily lead to a productive day for everyone. However, you have convinced yourself that in order to be successful, you will need to get up at 6:00 a.m. and it doesn’t sit well with your system.

The truth is, while many successful people do get up at the crack of dawn, many others do not and early rising is not a guarantee of success. It’s important to cherry pick the habits of people you want to emulate and use their advice as a general guide not a rule.

Social media, including platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, etc. love creating a feeling of deficit in our lives. A deficit it seeks to fill. It makes us feel inadequate and the only way to conquer this inadequacy is to consume more social media. It’s a vicious circle.

Take, for instance, your everyday celebrity. They always look stunning. You look at a photograph and marvel at how great they look just walking in the park. You don’t realize that there is a team of people tasked to making them look like that. Looking good is their job and it takes considerable time, effort and resources to maintain. They put the same amount of time and effort into their appearance as you do working 8 hours a day.

It’s the Same Lesson

The same lesson can be learned from self-help. I find self-help books inspirational and motivating. I have learned a great deal and picked up so many amazing tips. However, these books and videos are not crutches, they are merely loosely aligned goals to steer you in the right direction, not rules to live by.

Psychology research on self-concept suggests that constantly comparing your current self to an idealized version of yourself can increase feelings of inadequacy. Self-help content often emphasizes “ideal behaviors,” which can unintentionally widen the gap between where you are and where you think you should be. Too much emphasis on narrowing the gap can lead to anxiety and insecurity. Rather than seeing self-improvement as a journey, it is easy to fixate on how far you have to go.

In many instances, constant self-improvement can become a form of procrastination that feels productive. This is sometimes called ‘productive avoidance,” and it is when people think they can improve just by reading about improvement without putting in the actual effort to improve.

Often, people that are constantly attempting to improve have higher rate of anxiety, emotional exhaustion and depression stemming from a feeling of never being good enough. This happens when extremely high internal standards create constant self-criticism and dissatisfaction. Rather than feeling they are achieving some progress, they fixate on how far they have to go.

Comparison Brings No Results

It is unwise to compare yourself to something or someone that doesn’t exist or is merely two dimensional. You can read celebrity books but they, just like you, have insecurities and anxieties that their fans have no idea about. Portions of their lives are not going according to plan, and you only ever hear about that when their walls come crashing down.

Real and lasting change is best achieved slowly over a period of time not huge trajectory changes. Extreme changes will make you not only miserable and are not designed for long-term benefits.

Let’s Talk:

What changes have you been able to implement in your life? How did you accomplish them? Did you choose the slow, consistent route? Which self-help materials have you been able to tailor to your own life and priorities?

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There’s something I’ve come to notice as I’ve gotten older, and once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it. It is this basic truth:

We don’t give ourselves much credit.

When I look back on my life, the facts are there. I built and ran businesses. I bought, remodeled, and sold twenty-six homes. I earned a pilot’s license. I played in bands. I raised two children and did my best to provide for them. I’ve written songs I’m proud of.

It’s a full life by any reasonable measure.

But that’s not what comes to mind first.

Accomplishments Give Way to Regrets

What shows up instead are the mistakes.

The wrong turns. The decisions I wish I had made differently. The moments I would change if I had the chance. Somehow, those carry more weight than everything that went right.

And I don’t believe this is just me.

Talk to almost anyone over 60, and you’ll hear a similar story. A lifetime filled with effort, work, love, and responsibility… followed by a quiet tendency to focus on what didn’t go perfectly.

Not in a dramatic way. Not in a way that stops us from living.

Just there.

Always there.

It makes me wonder why that is.

What Is It About Mistakes?

Maybe it’s because mistakes feel unfinished. The things we did right settle into place. They become part of who we are, part of the structure of our lives. We don’t question them. We don’t revisit them often.

But mistakes don’t settle the same way.

They stay active. They carry a kind of open-ended quality, as if they’re still waiting for correction, even though the moment has long passed. There’s no clean ending to them, so the mind keeps returning, as if there’s still something to figure out.

Or maybe it’s something else.

Maybe It’s the Standard We Held Ourselves to

Most of us didn’t go through life aiming to get by. We tried to do things right. We tried to be responsible, to make good decisions, to provide, to build something that mattered. And when we fell short of that – when we made a bad call or hurt someone or missed an opportunity – it didn’t just register as a mistake.

It registered as a failure to meet our own expectations.

And those are the kinds of things that stay with you.

There’s also a strange imbalance in how we remember things.

The good we’ve done often feels expected. It becomes normal. Of course we worked hard. Of course we showed up. Of course we did what needed to be done. Over time, those things lose their sense of significance, not because they weren’t important, but because they became part of the routine of living.

Mistakes Don’t Blend in That Way

Mistakes tend to stand apart.

They interrupt the story we thought we were writing. They become markers – moments we can point to and say, “That’s where I would have done it differently.”

And so we return to them.

Not always intentionally.

Sometimes it happens in quiet moments. Driving somewhere. Sitting alone. Watching a day go by. A memory surfaces, and it’s rarely the smooth, successful parts of life that come forward first.

It’s the rough edges.

The part of this that I find most interesting is how different it would look from the outside.

If someone else told my life story – if they laid it out without my internal commentary – I doubt they would focus on the same things I do. They would see the effort, the risks taken, the willingness to try, to build, to keep going.

They might even say, “That’s a life well lived.”

But that’s not the voice we carry inside.

Inside, the Focus Shifts

We remember the deal that didn’t work out the way it should have. The decision that cost us time or money. The moment we handled something poorly. The opportunity we didn’t take.

It’s not that we forget everything else.

It’s that we don’t give it the same attention.

And over time, that imbalance starts to shape how we see ourselves.

Not in an obvious way. Not in a way that anyone else would necessarily notice.

But quietly.

Subtly.

It becomes the lens we look through when we reflect.

I don’t have an answer for this.

I’m not offering a solution, and I’m not suggesting that we can simply decide to think differently. If it were that easy, we probably would have done it by now.

What I’ve come to believe is that the value may not be in fixing it.

The value may be in recognizing it.

Because once you see the pattern, something shifts.

The Beginning of a Change

You start to notice that your mind is doing what it has always done – returning to the same moments, giving them more weight than everything else. And in that notice, there’s a small bit of distance.

Not enough to erase the thoughts.

But enough to question them.

Enough to say, “That’s not the whole story.”

Because it isn’t.

If we can remember every mistake we’ve made, then everything else we’ve done is still there too. Every success, every effort, every time we got it right, every time we showed up when it mattered.

Those things didn’t disappear.

They just don’t ask for attention in the same way.

The Quiet Truth

Maybe that’s the quiet truth behind all of this.

Our lives are not defined by the moments we revisit the most.

They’re defined by the total of what we lived.

And when you look at it that way – even briefly – it becomes a little harder to ignore everything that went right.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

How often do you ruminate on mistakes you’ve made in the past? Do you think of your successes as often? Why do you think that is? Do my reflections sound similar to yours? Either way, please contribute to the conversation!

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