Pereira is the capital city of the department of Risaralda in Colombia's Zona Cafetera. It is in the center of the western region of the country, located in a small valley that descends from a part of the western Andes mountain chain. It is an urban center in the coffee producing region. Located in the middle of the triangle formed by the 3 main cities in the country: Bogotá, Medellín and Cali and about 3-5 hour drive from these cities.
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Pereira is a beautiful university city with a population of 482,000 (2023). The city's motto is "Pereira con Vida".
There is an extensive network of buses running around Pereira connecting most parts of the city. Costs are around COP$2,000. It runs 5 km along the main avenues, including numerous nearby neighborhoods (barrios) and surrounding barrios. Use caution when visiting lower-income barrios (as you should in any other city). Types of buses range from large buses to smaller vans, and Wilys jeeps are also available for side trips to outlying areas including local mountains and valley floors (prices vary depending on destination but generally are very cheap). The Megabus is Pereira's version of bus systems developed in Curitiba, Brazil, and Ottawa, Canada, later adopted in Bogotá's Transmilenio: a mass…
Pereira is a beautiful university city with many things to see. 1 La Pobreza. The Cathedral "La Pobreza" is the city's easy to see sight, why the Spanish would choose locations high up for planting cities, and why the later Colonialists from Medellin and State of Antioquia who founded this city choose this relatively high location to mount a new city 130 years ago. The climate is moderate and very healthy, and nothing like the humidity and heat you'll find in valleys down below!. 2 Parque Olaya Herrera. Urban park with colonnades and other sorts of monuments, and old train station. 3 Alto del Nudo.
The city has a municipal auditorium and theaters where you can attend concerts, operas, and listen to symphonic music. There are lots of night clubs, discos, and bars that serve up lively house, trance, rock, salsa, and tango music. Pereira offers an exciting nightlife along the main avenue Simón Bolivar, where you will find many of the best discos and restaurants, but there is another smaller in upscale residential neighborhood located in south part of city. On weekends, starting on Thursday night, this is where many of younger crowd and students like to gather.
The traditional food comes from Antioquia, the region to northwest and famous for the city of Medellin. Lunch-time meals usually consist of a soup made from plantain (a variety of green bananas), followed by a plate of rice and selection of fried pork, beef, or chicken, with small cabbage salad in vinegar dressing, a natural juice drink made from mango, or if you are adventurous, try one of native fruit flavors, they are delicious but hard to pronounce, this will usually be followed by a coffee. Sometimes, you might be offered a dessert called mazamorra, which is corn and milk with local sugar cane, called 'panela'.
Paradise Calle 12 1 El Rincón Clásico (La Tienda de Olmedo), Carrera 2 at Calle 22 (downtown). A tiny bar with thousands of vinyl records, mostly tangos and Spanish music. 2 Zanzibar Club, Centro Comercial Bolívar Plaza (downtown), ☏ +57 6 334 6955. Until 2AM. Cocktails, beer and food served. Pool tables. Terraces with great view of the Plaza de Bolívar. (updated Jan 2018)
Be careful in some parts of Cuba and Villa Santana. They are colorful and lively but somehow risky. The water quality here is excellent (Pereira water is on the top 20 of best quality drinking waters in the world). It is very pure also it is possible to drink straight from the tap here (but not in all parts of Colombia is this true), so no need to purchase bottled water and taste is great!
Guide content from Wikivoyage contributors (CC BY-SA) — abridged; the full article has much more.
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In Oct, Pereira typically sees ~24°C daytime highs and 31 rainy days.
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