Pereira

Day 86 (September 22, 2018) - Pereira, Colombia

Pereira is probably the biggest city in the coffee region of Colombia, but it is seldom visited by tourists. Our guide book said it's not really a tourist destination at all, but it's a good place to visit if you're looking for a fast-paced, friendly city with a throbbing nightlife that is off the tourist trail. While many tourists pass through the bus station on their way to Salento or other towns, not many stop. We decided to visit Pereira for six nights, mostly to relax after our somewhat tiring visit to Salento, but also because our flight to Quito, Ecuador was departing from Pereira. We did test out the offerings of Pereira and can certainly attest to its lack of tourists, throbbing nightlife, and cosmopolitan feel. 


Pereira has two main areas of activity: the downtown area and Zona Rosa. The downtown area is centered around Plaza de Bolivar (aren't they all), whereas Zona Rosa is located southeast of downtown on Carrera 13, roughly between Calles 4 to 14. 

Plaza de Bolivar, Pereira

During the week, the downtown area is supposedly filled with business people that come to the city for work. On the weekends, however, the business people leave and mostly locals are left. We walked around the downtown area on a Monday afternoon and it was full of activity. The streets and plazas were very crowded, and all the shops were buzzing. Just off of Plaza de Bolivar is a very nice cathedral we visited called Nuestra Señora de la Pobreza (translation: Our Lady of Poverty). While all the cathedrals/churches we've seen so far in Central/South America have been made of stone/masonry, this cathedral's interior had exposed wooden framework. It reminded me of an old wooden roller coaster (but not as fun).

Catedral Nuestra Señora de la Pobreza

Zona Rosa, on the other hand, seemed to be a very affluent area with many chain restaurants and shops. For example, there was a Juan Valdez (a.k.a. Colombian Starbucks), a McDonald's, a Presto (a.k.a. Colombian McDonald's), and a Bogota Beer Company. There was also a pretty big mall right in the middle of Zona Rosa with its own giant supermarket (Exito). We ended up staying on a side street in Zona Rosa that gave us quick access to this area, which was busy at all hours of the day and night. 

Our Juan Valdez Cappuccinos

In contrast, the downtown area gets pretty desolate at night. One night we went out to a club in the downtown area. We had read online prior to getting to Pereira that it can be a bit sketchy at night, so we decided to take an Uber, even though it was only a 10 min walk. It was probably good we did, since the streets of downtown were practically empty - potentially a good recipe for a mugging. When we came back to Zona Rosa in the wee hours of the morning (via Uber), Zona Rosa was still packed with people eating, drinking, or just walking around, so we were able to get a late night burger. Side note on cheap Colombian burgers: they aren't made from ground beef. The patty tasted like a hot dog, so it seemed the "burgers" were just hot dogs in a round, flat shape (to better fit on a hamburger bun). They were still good, just not what we were expecting. This happened to us in Bogota too.

There really wasn't a whole lot happening in Pereira - just cafes and bars to take advantage of. It is a nice place to go, though, if you want to avoid tourists, yet be in a city having a full range of amenities. You can also easily get to other happening cities (coffee zone-related) in the area via bus, but we didn't end up doing that. We were happy to just take it slow and relax a bit, which was easy to do with our nice (and cheap) Airbnb apartment.

View from the balcony of our Airbnb apartment in Pereira

Since there's not much more to say about Pereira, I'll comment on our favorite beer place/brand in Colombia: the Bogota Beer Company. On almost every trip we go on, we usually like to drink the most common local beers. These are easy to determine through street ads and finding the cheapest beer on the menu. I suppose it's like drinking Budweiser or Miller in the US (which are the most common and cheapest), rather than drinking the better craft beers. Since we've been traveling, we have typically adhered to this pattern. This is to save money and to drink what the locals drink. In Colombia, the common beers are Aguila, Club Colombia, and Poker (among a few others). 

However, when we were in Bogota, we decided we were somewhat sick of the cheap local beers, and we craved some good craft beer. The Bogota Beer Company ("BBC") is not really a small craft brewery - there are BBC Bodegas in practically every medium or larger sized city - and their slogan is quite indicative of their size: "La Cerveceria Pequeña Mas Grande de Colombia," which means "The Biggest Small Brewery of Colombia." Starting in Bogota and continuing throughout our Colombian trip, we would usually find the BBC Bodega in the town we were in and have a few pints there. Pereira had their own BBC Bodega, so we hung out there on occasion. Even most restaurants sold BBC beers (bottles or sometimes on tap), and below is a picture of Mark at a sushi restaurant with one of our favorite BBC beers: Chapinero Stout.

Bogota Beer Company, Chapinero Stout

While the picture below is not actually from a BBC (it's a place called Beer Pereira and was located in the food court of the mall), it's a good beer-related picture of Mark I can't pass up posting here.

Don't worry, we shared this one

And here's a cool-looking church we saw on the west end of Zona Rosa called Iglesia San Jose.

Iglesia San Jose, Pereira