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Published: February 18th 2009
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The view from my bedroom window
And I had a double bed to myself with only one set of bunkbeds in the same room, Luxury I am sure you will agree!! No wonder I couldn´t leave. I sometimes think I make a bad traveller as I always intend on going to somewhere just for a few days and then staying a lot longer! It makes keeping to a schedule very hard.
Salento really is a difficult place to leave though. There is an area in Colombia called Zona Cafeteria. It is the coffee making region for those of you who don´t speak fluent spanish like myself (ahem!!).
Zona Cafeteria covers quite a large mountainous region south of both Medellin and Bogota and sort of in the middle of both of them. I boarded what I thought was going to be a 4 hour bus journey from Medellin which then turned into a 7 hour journey which meant I missed my connection at Armenia and had to stay the night there.
Armenia itself is not a very nice town and when I was getting out of the taxi at my hotel (provided by the Lonely Planet of course) I felt uneasy for the first time in Colombia as some street guys seemed to be very interested in me and my bags and the taxi driver had to guard me until I got into the hotel.
The streets of Salento
I´m not sure if you can make out the locals but all of the guys walk around with cowboy hats and ponchos. It is so cool. All fine though and certainly not typical of Colombia.
The next day I took a simple one hour bus journey on a nice local bus to Salento and immediately fell in love with the place. The town is maybe about 200 years old and it really feels like you have stepped back in time. It is full of quaint houses and shops and has become a melting pot for all sorts of different artists. As a result the buildings are really cool and the place has such an amazing laid back vibe to it.
I stayed at a place called Plantation House which is a hostel set up by and English guy and his Colombian wife and is perfect. The views and the relaxation are out of this world. They also have their own coffee farm on their land which I really wanted to have a tour of but unfortunately it rained quite badly most days so this was difficult.
On my first afternoon I decided to take myself off for a walk. I knew it was going to be about 3 or 4 hours but following my trek to Machu Pichu this was obviously nothing. Somehow
Another street scene
You can definitely make out some of the local guys in this. though, I managed to forget all of my new found outdoor skills and rather ambitiously left in just shorts, vest and sunglasses. Straight away I realised the need for mosquito spray, then my raincoat, then my poncho as the rain really started to come down and then my torch as I realised it woud be getting dark soon! Honestly I sat under a tree which was not doing very much for me and then under a shelter in a village I stumbled across for about an hour! Luckily the rain stopped and I found my way back onto the right path and back to the ranch in daylight but still......!!!!!!
I realised my poor achilles heel is still really sore from the Salkantay trek the next day which is ruling out hiking for me at the moment. I am hoping to be able to do the Lost City Trek in the north of Colombia but it is a 6 day walk so unless this is better then I won´t be able to go 😞
The following day I went horse riding which was amazing. It is a great way to see the area you are in (and it
The Plantation House
Great hostel. The window in the middle was my bedroom. doesn´t use your achilles tendon very much) but I did not realise that it could also be classed as such an adventure sport! We were up and down the side of really really steep slippery hills and galloping through the country side at quite a speed. There is honestly nothing quite like the sensation of going at top speed with the wind in your hair and a wild beast between your legs!!!!!!!
The rest of the time in Salento was spent chilling out, playing billiards with the locals (quite an experiece) and eating amazing organic cakes and drinking the best coffee in the world!
All in all Salento is a great place for the body and soul (not so sure about the waist line though!) and I have left 2 friends richer. I met 2 great girls there and we have had so much fun together that I decided to change my plans and move onto the next place with them. San Augusitin. More on that later!
Hope all is well with everyone and I miss you all a lot xxxxxxx
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