A Walk in Pereira, the largest city in the Colombian coffee region

It's been a month since my last post. Since I arrived in Bogotá a month and a half ago, I've been feeling a little scattered and have also had to deal with some issues such as find another apartment and move. But that's not what I'm going to write about today, hehe. Last weekend, we went to the wedding of one of my husband's coworkers. The wedding was in Pereira, capital of the department of Risaralda and one of the three departments that make up the region known in Colombia as El Eje Cafetero (The Coffee Axis). Pereira is the largest city in this region, and although we didn't have much time to visit, we were able to get a quick and pleasant glimpse of the city.

We traveled on Thursday night, so on Friday morning we went for a walk around the city, and I invite you to join me on this tour of the city for #wednesdaywalk.

Our hotel was located on Avenida Circunvalar, a very central and lively area of the city. But before starting our walk, we needed to recharge our batteries, so we had a hearty breakfast at a place called Matutina.

The waffles with eggs were a hit, and the coffee was so delicious that I had two cups.

With our bellies full, we were ready to begin our walk.

Our tour began in front of one of the most known and important churches in the city. La Iglesia San José, a gothic style church.

I wanted to go inside and see the church, but the central nave was closed and only a side tiny chapel was open, which gave little view of the interior of the church.

Across the street, on the corner, there was a small shopping center called Marbella. We walked down the street where the church was located, heading toward the city center. It was a busy street with many shops.

At the next corner, we crossed to our left onto a colorful street called Calle del Encuentro.

With colorful murals and facades, this street has many bars and cafes, and we were told that it is very lively at night. We didn't have a chance to see the nightlife.

We continued our tour and crossed an overpass that took us to Plaza Victoria in downtown.

In this square, which is quite large, our attention was drawn to the Lucy Tejada Cultural Center and the Victoria Mall buildings.

From there, we continued walking a few more blocks until we reached Plaza Bolívar, the city's main square.

In this square, the sculpture of Bolívar is quite unique, as Bolívar is naked on the horseback. The sculpture was by a Colombian artist named Rodrigo Arenas Betancourt.

In this square is the cathedral of Pereira, Nuestra Señora de la Pobreza. A simple church that we found very nice.

We went in and there was mass so we couldn't take many pictures inside.

It was already noon and we had to go back to get ready for the wedding, so we retraced our steps along the same streets we had taken to get there.

But when we reached the colorful Calle del Encuentro, we decided to take another street back to our hotel. And we walked in the opposite direction.

In the lower corner there was a colorful and beautiful mural of a bird. Very striking!

From there, we walked towards Circunvalar Ave. along a narrow street where by chance we found a cat cafe. And by chance or not that day we took the walk was August 8, International Cat Day.

This was a quick glimpse of Pereira. We only had a couple of days and the other day we dedicated to an excursion to the coffee axis that I will tell you about. But Pereira seemed to us a nice city, we appreciated the warm weather since these days Bogotá seems like a freezer. And we would love to come back another time to explore more of the area.

This is my post for this week's #wednesdaywalk challenge hosted by @tattoodjay

Thank you for reading.

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