Flora & Fauna
Come with us on a walk through the farm!
Our farm is a sensorial experience. Arriving from Pijao village, the traveller is welcomed with a concert of countless birds who find shelter and food in our coffee trees, fruit and wild trees, banana trees, dead wood, jungle, hedges and watercourses. Due to our chemical-free and extensive agriculture, we deliberately give back a lot of space to native animals and plants.
A hike through our farm is a varied experience. Coffee cultivation areas extending over 200 metres difference in altitude showcase different stages of ripening, from flowering blossoms to red or yellow fruit, all year round. Guamo trees, with their wide crowns, shade our coffee plants and provide them with a natural supply of nitrogen. Cedro Negro, the Andean walnut, is now rare in the region due to over-timbering (its hard, stable wood made ideal construction timber) but the endangered, strictly-protected tree is thriving and multiplying splendidly on our farm.
With a little luck you can observe nocturnal monkeys in a huge bamboo pond. Colourful butterflies, some as big as the palm of a hand, love the flowers on the edge of the forest, the waterways and the light undergrowth of the forest. Numerous flowers and wild herbs have returned to the former cattle pastures. Trees we have planted are gradually pushing their way through the high grass, shading the soil and keeping it moist where once the turf dried up in the dry season.
Young trees will soon form new rows of trees and connect forest areas, serving as ecological bridges between existing forest areas. These biotopes will eventually meet a nature reserve bordering our farm to the south.
From the higher areas of the farm there is a magnificent view of the River Lejos Valley and Middle Cordillera mountains. Here grow wax palms, the world’s largest palm trees. We have planted some of these amazing plants which take several decades to reach up to 60 metres tall.
Evenings are unique. Intense lights and colours form from the green of the plants, the blue of the sky, white-grey wild cloud formations, the yellow and red of the setting sun and rainbows that the evening sun produces when it shifts its light under rain clouds.
As night falls hundreds of fireflies shower the farm in a sparkling sea of lights. Crickets, cicadas and frogs begin their nightly concert, which, as dawn breaks, morphs into birdsong. Another day on the farm begins.
Book tours
Two-hour guided tours of our finca teach you about coffee growing. On an educational forest trail you can observe how different plants, birds and other animals – some with some support from us – have reclaimed their natural habitats. Tours end with a hands-on explanation of coffee production on our finca and coffee tastings.
We also organise guided bird-watching tours.
Our offer
Guided tour of coffee plantation 25.000 COP / person
For more information email or call:
stephan-rosiny@cafe-rio-lejos.com
+57 318 8873971
Animals and plants of the farm
