Manizales Town and Termales

Tierra Viva Termales

After a fantastic night’s sleep at the finca, yesterday’s plan was to explore the nearby town of Manizales and local hot springs, or termales. We had a great day and are so glad we visited Manizales town and termales.

Manizales Landscape

Manizales is part of a beautiful landscape but I could never live here. The driving up and down and around winding mountains is too much for my motion sickness! I have taken gravol before every single drive into and out of this coffee farm and I am still feeling it!

visit to the town

We took the Hacienda Venecia van to the highway and the lovely Angela from the hotel accompanied us into town. We hitched a ride with a collectivo jeep for a 15 minute journey that cost 5000 COP for the two of us (about $2.20 Canadian). Cool trip – the views along the mountains are lovely. I just would be addicted to Gravol if I lived here.

We walked around the town a bit, visited some plazas and a cathedral.

Cathedral Manizales
Cathedral in Manizales
Manizales Town Street View
Manizales Street View

manizales from above

But the majority of our Manizales time was spent riding the air cable cars. Because the city is built into these mountains, driving can be slow. With all the hills, this city is 10x worse than San Francisco. I can’t imagine cycling here! The cable cars are a really easy way to get around for locals, and a fun sightseeing thing for us tourists! You can ride both sets of cable cars round trip for 1,700 COP each (75 cents Canadian).

Selfie Manizales Cable Car
Cable Car Selfie
Cable Car Manizales
View of Manizales from the cable car
Cable Cars Manizales Town
Cable Car View #2

authentic colombian lunch

We also stopped into a lunch spot for the most authentic meal of the region, the bandeja paisa (yes, we heard about it from Bourdain). We were very smart and got one order to share. Thank God because the serving was massive! It includes ground meat, beans, rice, avocado, fried plantain, chicharrones, french fries, chorizo, salad… and the whole meal including soup, a beer for Brian and a juice for me came to 21,500 COP (Less than $9.50 Canadian!) Thank god we split it.

Bandeja Paisa in Manizales
Lunch to share

manizales termales

Then we headed to the outskirts of town to check out one of the regions’ “Termales” or hot springs. We got so lucky and had the place to ourselves for an hour and a half. We got to switch between the hot spring and the even hotter spring, enjoy the springs in the rain and in the sunshine, and have a couple of cervezas while giving our muscles and minds some relaxation. Thank you Tierra Viva! Amazing!

Tierra Viva Termales
Tierra Viva Termales
Tierra Viva Manizales Town and Termales
One of the baths

After the baths, we bussed back into town toย the Cable neighborhood, which was full of hotels, bars and restaurants. We spent a few hours there before heading back to our oasis at the coffee farm. We had a very enjoyable day with lots of beauty. I loved this experience and would recommend a trip to Manizales town and termales when you visit Colombia’s zona cafeteria!

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Author: Mel

Living aboard a sailboat, blogging about the places we visit and the adventures we have. Love hiking, cycling, scuba, animals and adventure.

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