Salento

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The Valle de Cocora, with its 60 meter high wax palm trees towering above you backed by green countryside and jungles. It's definitely a place to visit and that's why most people do!

Salento is the place to base yourself for the Valle. Its a small town with colourful buildings and a place to slow down and relax...if you have the time!
The colours are great and create a joyful and friendly atmosphere to the town.

There are plenty of hostels and restaurants in Salento, just make sure when you visit that you check when the national holidays are. We happened to visit at the same time as the Colombian Independence Holiday and almost couldn't get any accommodation.
It also meant that visiting the palm trees was more noiser and busier than we would have liked.
This area is also a starting point for treks in to Los Nevados national park where you can do two or three day trips to the high altitudes.

For the palm tree walk, you take a Willie car (basically almost a jeep) from Salento for 30 min. The earlier the better for weather and less people. We got the first one at 6.30.
Once at the start of the walk there are two options. Option one: walk anti clockwise and walk the valley in to the jungle, crossing rickety bridges, head uphill and then drop down to the palm trees at the end. Total time depending on if you go to a farm is about 4-5 hours. We did it this way, minus the farm stop.

Or option two, start with the palm trees and go clockwise. Eitherway, you'll see the palm trees and they are very impressive! And so are the valley views!
Some cash and good walking shoes is necessary, also consider taking a packed lunch or food.
What more can I say? Thats just one small place out of many...Go Visit Colombia!

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