The bus from Pereira to Manizales broke down. Then the bus from Manizales to Neira broke down. We were deep in Colombia’s interior coffee country and moving very, very slowly.

Eventually we made it to Neira, a small village in Colombia’s Caldas province, well off the beaten tourist trail that centers on Salento, further south. Neira is also home to Carlos, the mysterious man who had mistaken us for coffee buyers at the Medellin coffee fair some weeks earlier.