Jardín is what a coffee town looks like when nobody has bothered to ruin it. It lies in the south-west of Antioquia, on a green mountainside in the heart of the coffee region, and the plaza is the centre of everything: a square of tall trees, brightly painted chairs, and a neo-Gothic basilica of the Immaculate Conception with a pointed façade that looks rather too grand for the place. Early in the evening, farmers, schoolchildren and old men with hats gather there to drink tinto, the small black coffee Colombians drink all day.
The road from Medellín is long, and most of it is good fun. From there the road winds into steep, narrow valleys of banana, coffee bushes and cloud-wrapped ridges. Corners come close together, surface quality is mixed, and lorries and the odd old Willys jeep, the local workhorse, take the middle of the road, so ride with your head up and give every blind bend respect.
Behind the town, the forest is worth a morning. Nearby reserves protect the gallito de roca, the Andean cock-of-the-rock, a flame-orange bird whose males gather at dawn to display, and the cave known as the Cueva del Esplendor, where a waterfall falls through a hole in the roof. Birdwatchers come for the hummingbirds and tanagers that haunt the garden feeders. Rain arrives most afternoons, so plan the riding for the morning and the loitering for later.
Hot chocolate with cheese, trout from the cold streams and fried plantain cover most meals. Jardín is a small town of around eight thousand people, with several fuel stations in the area and plenty of simple guesthouses, and weekends fill up with visitors from Medellín, so book ahead if you can. Evenings are cool, and the cobbled streets, especially the steep ones, can be slippery after rain.