Blogs from Salento, Quindío, Colombia, South America

The Colombian chapter of our South American adventure got off to a very slow start. Slow is an understatement, we didn't move for 2 whole hours at the border. There as no explanation forthcoming but the queue for immigration didn't move an inch. It turns out the staff we taking it in turns to work, rather than all working at once. Crazy. We been on the road from northern Ecuador since 8am, and didn't make it in to Colombia until gone 2pm...it was less than 150km to travel. To compound the misery once across the border there were no buses travelling to our preferred desitination (Popayan), well none that would arrive at a feasible time and we had to change plans and head to Cali, arriving at 6am. This probably ranks as the worst journey for ... read more

Pereira was another big city with not much to offer for tourists apart from te fact that it's situated in the centre of the coffee region. So on our secod day we made a one day trip to manizales where we did a coffee tour, learning about origins of coffee, Colombian plantations, the distinguishing of good and bad coffee and different flavours and the process from planting the coffee seeto over harvesting it, washing, drying and we even roasted our own coffee. Besides that we walked around Manizales where we ordered lunch without knowing what it was. We relaxed in pereira and ate the best empanadas from the street vendors. After three days we headed towards salento, a beautiful 7,000 people town, situated among the hills. On the first day we discovered the best dish "trucha" ... read more

Als mein Kleinbus wie ein Kamel die einsame Straße nach Salento hinauf schwankt frage ich mich, ob ich schon für das nächste Paradies bereit bin. Mitten im Kaffeedreieck, umgeben von Nationalparks mit weiten Tälern voller Kaffeebäumen liegt das verschlafene Dorf, dass selbst vom lokalen Tourismus noch recht verschont geblieben ist. Meine Hacienda liegt direkt hinter dem Ortseingang. Neben etwa 20 Hunden begrüßt mich eine Bulldogen-Ameise (die hier) auf meinem Kopfkissen. Es riecht nach exotischen Pflanzen und Regenwald. Ich hole mir erstmal einen Kaffee. Nach der ersten Tour durchs Dorf hat sich mein Zimmer gefüllt. Die Belegschaft: Sophie aus England, Mitte 30 und Freelancerin, Callan, ebenfalls England, hat irgendwann mal irgendwas Soziales studiert, jetzt von Beruf Backpacker. Ein hinkender Hund findet sofort gefalle... read more

Salento was next up after Medellin and with it being Easter a lot of Colombians were making their way to the same place as us which made for some traffic troubles. The weather had also took a turn for the worse and there was a massive storm going on with torrential rain, we arrived in Salento 9hrs after leaving Medellin due to a change in Armenia and also the traffic coming into Salento. After grabbing our bags myself and Jack asked the driver where the taxis are and his response was there are none and laughed so we had to navigate ourselves around although it’s not a big town. We did find the hostel but the owner said they were full and they had moved us to another called Plantation House so we made our way ... read more

Salento is a quaint little town nestled amongst breathtaking mountainous views and is also part of the coffee triangle. Nicklas and I decided to check it out a few weekends ago and had to tear ourselves away from it. La Serrano, the hostel we stayed at, is located almost 2km outside of the city, and it couldn’t have been in a better location. The hostel is really a ranch house surrounded by a stunning, 360 degree views. We both agreed that the rooms like the hostel had would easily charge well over $100 USD/night back at home, and this place only charges from a range of $15-40 USD/night! Incredible! Unfortunately, it rained most of the weekend. This meant that we had to cancel our horseback riding plans, couldn’t really go hiking, and on Saturday, it stopped ... read more