From its perch 2,100 meters (6,900 feet) up in Colombia’s central mountain range, Manizales evokes the traditions of Colombian coffee culture and small-town life, much as such places as Cheyenne, Nebraska and Topeka, Kansas evoke the culture of corn and wheat farming on the American plains. An annual Beauty Pageant of Coffee still ranks among the year’s principal celebrations, with coffee queens riding through the city in horse-drawn carriages festooned with flowers. Equestrian parades, bullfighting and folk dancing are still in fashion, and coffee and craft fairs draw huge crowds. But change is coming to Manizales, and not all of it is welcome. Traffic clogs the city of 420,000 at rush hour. Pollution is increasing. And the once-abundant water supply is threatened... [Log in to read more]