Salento

Part of the reason I chose my Medellin > Jardin > Salento route was because I was assured there were direct buses between those places. It took 4 bumpy buses and a taxi to reach Salento from Jardin, and I arrived pretty tired, but the views out the window were breathtaking. The hostel I’d booked was a 10 minute bus ride outside of the town, surrounded by nature, and I knew I’d made the right decision when I arrived and immediately met Ella, just finishing her 6 month travel, and joined a hike she’d planned for the next day. I’d also met a couple of times in passing an Austrian couple, Lisa and Martin, who turned out to also be part of that planned hike. Plan for tomorrow sorted, I headed back in to Salento town to meet Lisa and Michael, a German couple (yes, those names are confusing) I had met on 3 of the 4 buses over. We had dinner, played tejo (a fun and chaotic Colombian game involving throwing a heavy metal disc across a room in to a big box of clay, hoping to hit one of six small triangles filled with gunpowder which explode on impact, winning you three points and cheers from around the room) and I headed back to my hostel, already feeling at home in my new destination, and glad to have plans for tomorrow.

We got an early start the next day, and after one of the best hostel breakfasts I’ve had (oatmeal with several freshly cut fruits, fried eggs with tomatoes and onions, toast, coffee [yes, coffee is still a consistent thing]) we headed out Vale da Cocora. The valley is named for the wax palms that can be found there, the national tree of Colombia. Almost other-worldly, the trunks soar tall and thin in to the sky, the only greenery five or six leaves at the very top, appearing very small from such a distance. While the first and second viewpoints had beautiful scenery, the beginning of the walk was fairly uninteresting. We were really glad we decided to do the full loop, coming back down the other side of the mountain along a river and through a jungle, much quieter and a more varied walk with small rock scrambles and rickety rope bridges. We were also very lucky with the weather - it threatened rain a couple of times, but in the end was dry and warm, with just enough hot sun to make us feel tropical, but not enough to burn us completely. I was also really grateful for the lovely people I was walking with - I enjoyed hiking alone in Jardin, but this was a nice change of atmosphere and we natually chatted in many different formations as well as all together. An excellent group.

We arrived back in Salento on the back of a open top jeep (they pack in as many people as they can, including some standing and holding on the the back, which is fun on bumpy roads) and by chance ended up with some delicious food in a local restaurant. My trout (a local specialty) came with a patacon (smashed plantain deep fried in to a huge crisp) and I ordered yolu juice (fruit like a sour kiwi). We sat in the main square and a huge rainbow appeared.

In the rest of my stay in Salento I visited a coffee farm for a I think the best coffee I’ve had yet (Black Honey, as recommended by the guide I met in Botogá, prepared with an aeropress - it tasted like chocolate and berries), met Rafael, who works with ancestral medicine, and generally enjoyed the hostel and the nature surrounding it. Salento is a beautiful town. It’s touristy, but its colours are so vibrant and the nature surrounding it is green and lush. Now to head to Pereira for the reason I’m in Colombia at all, the wedding.