Winding Down

It is hard to believe that we are nearing the end of our trip. The past six weeks have flown by... We are, however, looking forward to drinking copious amounts of clean, beautiful, canadian tap water! We met a Nova Scotian a few days ago who is currently living in Argentina and discussed this phenomenon at length. I hope we don´t take this for granted when we get home.

The last few days have been fantastic. In Salento, we splurged a bit on a really nice hotel (a whopping 35.00). It had three lovable dogs: Figo, Josh (Yosh), and Yoko, a bunny, and various exotic birds. The had the most comfortable beds and a fantastic, hot, shower. At night the power went out in the entire town and we bought candles and snacks and sat on the veranda in front of our room and played with the boy whose parents own the hotel and his two friends. They entertained us by pouring hot wax on themselves, embalming moths with candle wax, and teaching Dani to count in Spanish. It was a very memorable night.

Salento is a quaint town in the coffee region and has picture perfect buildings that are all white with brightly painted trims and beautiful Islamic-inspired doors. All of the men also seem to look like Juan Valdez. On our second day in Salento, we decided to visit the Cocora Valley, 10 km away. We decided that we would try to walk there, made it a windy and dusty 2 km, got tired, and wandered into a hotel to see if their restaurant was open. It was, the man assured us, before leading us outside, yelling at a man lounging on the grounds, who ran over to unlock the restaurant doors for us. They put on special music for us and served us Poker beer as we played pool in the deserted restaurant that had a huge dance floor, disco ball, and even a stage that housed exercise equipment. We ended up hitch-hiking back to Salento and met a Colombian woman who loves Canada so much that she has been there seven times.

The next day, our third in Salento, we decided to take a jeep to the Cocora valley. We packed into the back, sitting, standing, kneeling, gripping, on the dusty windy journey to the Valley. It was simply breathtaking. We rented some horses and rode to a waterfall, saw a trout farm, and enjoyed spectacular views of the valley were huge palm trees with coconuts are scattered throughout the lush green landscape. The area is known for its abundant trout. It was delicious.

We enjoyed Salento so much that we decided to stay for another day. The people were so friendly and welcoming compared to Armenia and especially Popayan. On our last day in Salento, we visited the Finca de Don Elias. Don Elias turned out to be a sweet old white-haired grandfather without teeth. He lives on the farm with his children and beautiful grandchildren, who were happy to practice their English on us. He walked us through the labour-intensive coffee making process. He also showed us other treasures on his farm such as trees brimming with oranges,lemons, and bananas, pineapple bushes, and macadamia nuts. The tour concluded with a fantastic cup of Colombian coffee, of course.

Today we traveled from Salento to Pereira, and caught a bus from there to Medellin. We arrived in the evening and wandered around in the area near our hostel and stumbled upon a Reggae festival in the nearby park. There were many dreadlocks in our midst. We can't wait to explore more of the city tomorrow!

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