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Published: June 23rd 2010
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After Medellin, we took a bus to the very small town of Salento. Salento is known for the Valle de Cocoro where the national tree of Colombia, la palma de cera (the wax palm), grows. When we arrived in the evening, we tried to check out a few different hostels, but most of them seemed to have their doors shut. So we went back to the first place we checked out, La Casona de Lili. Unfortunately, the only room they had available had been filled after we left to check other hostels. But, no worries!! Lili, the owner and quite possibly the most friendly person on the planet, offered us her own room for the night and said we could move to a different room the next day. In just a few minutes, she had it cleaned, fresh sheets, towels, etc. and we had ourselves a place to stay for the night. She also gave both of us big hugs, one each upon meeting us, and then another when we were heading out to have some dinner... just a few minutes later. 😊 Her helper, Sandrita, was also very helpful and friendly the whole time we were there. Great place to
stay.
Anyway, we planned on taking a jeep to the Valle de Cocoro the next day but we missed it. Apparently, even though the jeeps are supposed to run on a schedule, they leave as soon as they are full. So, we missed the 9 a.m. jeep because it left about 12 minutes early. The next jeep didn't leave until 11:30 a.m., so we decided to just do a hike on our own. We were told about a hike nearby by another guy in our hostel, so we set forth. At the beginning of the trail, we found a sweet little dog, who I named Emily, and after I gave her a cookie, she became our hiking buddy and joined us for nearly the entire hike. It was so nice to have a dog for a day. It was just like hiking with Baily... she would run ahead a little bit, and then come right back. Or she would lag behind to sniff something and then run to catch up with us. She was so adorable!! However, regardless of having our guide dog, Emily, we still got lost about a billion times on our make-shift hike. Once we came
to a fork in the trail. We went right. We went right up to a couple of military soldiers, with their fingers on the triggers of their guns, who told us we couldn't come up that way. We went back down and tried the trail to the left. This trail was sometimes well-marked, other times we needed a machete to get through the brush. Eventually we ended up on a road, we found an office of tourism, and we looked at a map. We thought we could find another trail, so we kept going, over a bridge, through cow pastures, along dirt roads, across a river, back across the river, down this trail and that trail. We made our own trails. Nothing seemed to be making a loop, so eventually we ended up walking all the way back the way we came. On the road back (which curves uphill) we were finally able to see, from above, the trail that we were looking for! Frustrating! When we got back to town, we ate at a really awesome restaurant called La Mojiteria. It was one of the only places I found really good veggies in Colombia. They also had amazing soups.
The next day we decided to try the Valle de Cocoro again. This time we got up early and arrived early. We went with a French couple, Benoit and Amelie, who we met in our hostel (and who would end up being our travel partners for a few other towns). We were smushed into the tiniest jeep and took off on the 8 km dirt road to the valley. Upon arrival, we were given the option of hiking on foot or taking horses for $10/hour. We all decided to hike, a decision I eventually regretted. Let me preface this story by saying that the valley is incredibly beautiful. The national tree, the wax palm, is a really cool palm tree that grows super tall and thin with a small sprouting of palm leaves at the top. It's also a cloud forest, so the setting is very magical and romantic, especially at the end of the hike. The hike starts on a small road and then turns into the forest where it turns into a trail going up the mountain. There is a river that you have to cross SIX times, back and forth, on make-shift bridges that are not
really bridges at all. They are downed trees, tree limbs, or rocks. Some of these ¨bridges¨are easy to cross, and other ones you are inching your way, hoping you don´t end up in the river. Crossing the bridges was relatively amusing because we'd often come up to one of these crossings and it was such a vague excuse for a bridge that we wouldn't even be able to tell if it was where the trail was leading us or if we should keep looking for the trail elsewhere. We'd have to look across the river and determine if we saw the trail continue on the other side.
Anyway, the trail leads to a hummingbird refuge, which costs about $1.50 to enter. We went up and sat for a while, having a drink (which is included in the cost of entering the refuge) and watching all the hummingbirds all of different types and colors, come up to the feeders. It was pretty cool. While we were there, though, it started to rain. When it let up a little, we continued on our hike. We could have hiked back down the same way we came up, but none of us really
wanted to cross over the river and it's crazy bridges another six times, so we continued up the mountain in order to complete the loop. It was only 800 meters to the lookout point, but on a steep incline and in really thick mud almost the entire way up. It was at this point that I really wished we had paid for the freaking horses. Well, we eventually made it to the top and then headed back down another muddy road, until finally, back in the valley, we had a very rewarding view of all the wax palms. And, the sun finally came out! We finished the hike shortly after 5 p.m. and missed the 5 p.m. jeep, so we waited an hour for the next one. Back in town, we ate dinner at La Mojiteria again with our new friends, Benoit and Amelie, and hung out at La Casona listening to Lili laugh and tell stories about other travelers that have stayed at her hostel.
The next day, we headed to Cali with Benoit and Amelie, but not before saying goodbye to my foster dog, Emily, and getting a couple more hugs from Lili.
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Miranda
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did "emily" the dog has cute brown eyes, a button nose and crazy hair?