15/10/2022 From Medellin to Salento
What to expect
Salento
We arrived in Salento at 5.30 a.m.. I slept surprisingly well on the bus. Blake, unfortunately, didn’t. Together with an English guy we walked to our hostel Viajero and checked in. We knew our dorm beds were only available from 3 p.m.. Therefore we had a lot of time to kill. Thankfully, the receptionist gave us two blankets, so we got comfortable in the hammocks in the common area outside.
Try some coffee
After breakfast at the hostel and some more relaxation, we walked around the cute town, had a coffee and some cake. We are in a big coffee plantation area, so a lot of people visit the coffee plantations here. Since we had already done that in Minca and learnt about coffee on the food tour in Medellin, we skipped the coffee plantation in Salento.
Stroll on Calle Real
When we get to a new town, I love googling restaurants and cafés. (Do I think about food too much? Most definitely!) I found an amazingly sounding café called “Coco Bowl”, where we had a late lunch (buddha bowl and terryaki noodles – poor Blake, it was all vegetarian again).
The street “Calle Real”, where the café is on, also has lots of vendors selling different types of food and souvenirs.
Do some fruit tasting
In the evening we joined a fruit tasting class that was offered by our hostel for free. Some of the fruits we knew, some of them we had tried on various trips in Colombia before (like lulo, guava or tomate de arbol) and some we had never even heard of (such granadilla). It was so interesting (and not all tasty).
16/10/2022 Salento and Cocora Valley
Today we got to explore the main reason why we went to Salento: the huge palm trees in Cocora Valley.
Visit Cocora Valley and its palm trees
These palm trees are the highest ones in the world and can get up to 50 to 60m high.
Don’t ignore the facts!
Sometimes Blake and I are really good at ignoring facts.
- Fact 1 we ignored: It’s a long weekend in Colombia (“Day of the Races”). So loads of Colombian visitors wanted to see Cocora Valley today.
- Fact 2 we ignored: It usually rains here in the afternoon (as we already had to find out in Guatape). So it’s best to start the day early to escape from the rain.
But here we were: checking messages, journaling, enjoying a morning coffee and having a long relaxing breakfast at Coco Bowl instead of starting the hike early.
And then we were still surprised about the long line up to buy a ticket for the jeep to Cocoroa Valley as well as another long line to actually get on the jeep.
Just here for the view
Luckily, 90% of the tourists only walked to the two viewing platforms in Cocora Valley. We, however, were ready for the five-hour-loop that ends at the palm trees – starting at 12 noon. What could technically go wrong?
We hiked through a beautiful valley with the tall palm trees in the background, crossed five very old hanging bridges, walked through the cloud forest, climbed up a hill and got to a finca (=coffee farm) on the top, where we watched lots of hummingbirds around the flowers and had coffee (okay, it was beer).
Rain on your parade
We were three hours into the hike when the weather slowly changed from sunny to cloudy. Unluckily, it changed to full on rain and fog by the time we got to the first viewing platform of the palm trees. We could see the first row of palm trees but could only guess the rest in the background.
On the second viewing platform we couldn’t see anything anymore.
We walked through the strong rain for the last hour with our feet completely soaked and water dripping from our clothes.
You win some, you lose some
When we got back to the jeep after five hours, the jeeps were all overpacked. This is why Blake had to stand at the back outside of the jeep while I chatted with the Colombians inside the warmer jeep. Sometimes you’re the dog, sometimes you’re the tree😉.
Great company
After a very long and hot shower, Blake and I went out for Venezuelan dinner and tried the city’s famous trout (type of fish – I liked it, Blake didn’t). Since it was a very small restaurant, we were sat together at a table with a Spanish couple, who we ended up chatting with the entire evening.
We really enjoyed the cute town of Salento after the big city life in Medellin and we can highly recommend visiting Cocora Valley!
Now it is time to put on our dancing shoes and show what Canadians and Germans are made of. Let’s go to Colombia’s salsa capital: Cali.
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