Salento: Valleys, firecrackers and cowboys Cali: Salsa Salsa Salsa

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Now Salento was more like it! Everything we were hoping Manizales would be (and wasn't quite) Salento was! It's a teeny little town set in a hushed foggy mountain valley. There are only a few streets and one main plaza like in all the tiniest towns we have visited. It's quiet here, no moaning buses and screeching vendors and the views are so splendid you can spend all day just looking at them. All the men are genuine certified cowboys; donned in cowboy hats, ponchos and gumboots and riding horses everywhere!

Plantation House, the only hostel listed in the Lonely Planet was full, but we discovered that there are about 30 other hostels in the town. We stayed one night at the republic artisans which was a little bit expensive but came with, I kid you not, a nine course breakfast! It was the most decadent thing I have ever had, we were eating trout sushimi in a tiny Colombian mountain town! Go figure. However the beds were pratically planks and one man snored alllllll night, so we moved to a Hospedaje with a blue door right on the plaza and got a private room for much cheaper! As much as I have been enjoying dorms, it was nice to have our own space for awhile.
At night we met up with our friends Josh and James that we met in Medellin and drank beers all night with them and some lovely Spanish people they had met! It was fun to practice our Spanish and English on each other, and there was much hilarity when they tried to teach poor Anna to roll her rrrrr's. However everything must shut down by 12pm on weekdays so we had a pretty early night.
The next day was a little overshadowed with that beautiful mountainous torrential rain. We went for a walk out to the finca (coffee farm) that is owned by Plantation House but got absolutely soaked on the way and it was too damp to get a full tour. But the manager Julio Cesar (Im not even joking) gave us lots of delicious coffee and showed us the processes from picking to peeling to drying the coffee beans. We were bursting with pride when we had a 20 minute conversation with him, all in Spanish! It was very simple, but satisfying.
The next morning we were to get up very early to get the 730 jeep to Valle De Cocora, the nearby tourist attraction. However at five in the morning we were woken up by what we were convinced to be gun shots, and a lot of them. Then the sirens started and we were really scared. However in the morning we discovered that this weekend was Colombia's celebration of 200 years of independence, and the noise was in fact firecrackers! We felt less embarrassed when other backpackers admitted that they had drawn the same conclusion. So we slept in a little later and caught the 930 jeep to the Valley. And it was amazing! After the rickety jeep ride you are shown the path to the right and then you are on your own!

The first part of the walk is gorgeous, you are walking through fields and valleys with cows mooing and mist falling, but out of the mist in what looks like English countryside, pokes the giant spikey tops of the wax palm, the worlds biggest palm! It's an incredible tree, it grows about a metre per year, so these ones are ridiculously tall but with super skinny trunks still! It was incredible to see the normal forest tree line and then the palms towering overhead. The mist made it all very ethereal and mysterious.
After a very muddy first hour or so (thankgod we rented gumboots from plantation house, do not attempt this in anything less than hiking boots and even those will get soaked and covered in mud) you enter the first part of cloud forest. I had never seen cloud forest before and wasn't even sure what it was, but it's so beautiful and unique.
It's damp and verdant like a rainforest, very much like one, except it's not hot at all, the moisture comes from the clouds that literally hang below the tree line due to the high altitude! It's quite a sight.

The walk itself was difficult, but very rewarding. You have to cross some really surging rivers on tiny little log bridges and sometimes just by jumping from rock to rock. One guy ahead of us gave us the great idea to use a big stick for support, which probably saved us multiple times from being swept away. It was very steep and absolutely pouring with rain at one point, but we reached Acaime, the home of hundreds of different hummingbirds (i never knew they came in so many different vibrant colours, practically impossible to take a picture of them though!) where you are given a much needed bowl of chocolate and cheese. We were soaked through so decided to keep walking so we didn't get too cold. We decided not to go up La Montagne because it's very very steep and we were exhausted so we went back the way we came. This was challenging as due to the rain, the rivers had swollen even further and now were churning brown terrifying rapids! After one or two scaredy-cat moments stranded in the middle of log bridges over the top of the river we realised we would just have to suck it up because there was no other way home! We felt very brave and proud as we waded thigh deep in some spots through this tumultuous river, clinging desperately to our sticks and yelling encouragement to each other. But we made it, and when we entered the wax palm forest again, the fog had lifted and the sight of those incredible trees stunned us.

That night the celebrations in Salento were even more furious, with firecrackers every minute or so, church bells clanging and people dragging sheets of corrugated iron from their jeeps! There was a parade and a church ceremony, these Colombians sure love to party! But what a beautiful town. The next day was gorgeous and sunny and we spent all morning wandering the streets, looking at the beautiful handmade wares and trying our best not to spend all our money!

Our next town on the map was Cali, the city of salsa. And salsa we did. We stayed at Iguana House hostel which is big and nice with a kitchen for cooking our patented rice and tuna salad! (cheap, yummy and full of much needed veggies) The Saturday night was our first and the best, Anna and I both got decked out in our one nice dress and bought a little bottle of rum, coke and lots of limes for pre drinks. At the hostel we met a few other people going out, among whom were two lovely local girls. They took us to their favourite bar which was incredible! We ordered a bottle of aguardiente to share and watched it all unfold. The table next to us was chock full of vivacious locals, playing maracas and bongos along with the music and just singing and laughing. Soon they were up dancing and even the local girls said they were the best dancers they had ever seen, so joyful and full of life! We were absolutely enthralled and then really embarrassed when they asked us to dance, but they were lovely and patient and I think quite enjoyed teaching some foreigners ("Australia! So far away!") their local dance. It's very different here, asking someone to dance is not a pick up line, they just love doing it, people are always swapping partners and I was dancing with one man while his girlfriend was giving me tips! It was an incredible night.
Cali has very little to do during the day, especially as it was a long weekend (AGAIN) so we mostly relaxed. We went out again the next night with two nice girls we met at the hostel but it was pretty quiet being Sunday.
The next day we started on our way to leave our beloved Colombia as it was Monday and Anna was flying out on Wednesday night! We caught the ten hour bus to Ipiales and stayed there as the border crossing route is reputed to be dangerous at night, although they certainly are cracking down. The police stop the buses all the time, one made me open up all our bags and checked everything inside! Us naughty Gringas are sure to be up to something haha. But it all went smoothly and we collapsed into bed, sitting on a bus all day sure takes it out of you!

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