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Published: September 12th 2012
Second part of my Colombian experience, and discovering a bit further everyday just how different Spanish is here! To some extend reminds me of China where one word can mean just so many different things and in Colombia it is no different! Ask for a “Perico” and chances are that you end up with everything but a coffee…as it means as well cocaine, parrots and scramble eggs! Talking about coffee, Colombia is simply THE place to go for to get a proper “Tinto”, “Cafecito”, “Perico” (that one has milk in) or “Oscuro”, a real coffee culture where the coffee is simply so tasty and soft that you simply don’t need to add anything in it! (and I am normally someone who cannot drink coffee without sugar…)
Now, when it comes to coffee and if you are a coffee lover like me, there is one place that one has to visit while in Colombia, the “zona cafeteria” where most of the coffee is produced. And it has an added bonus, the main village in the heart of the coffee plantation has everything of a dream place for a few days break, colorful houses, beautiful landscape with plenty of
Colors
Salento, Colombiapalm trees, rivers and hills, and excellent food (trout is a specialty there and they have any fruit you could possibly think of), so after Bogota, time to head to Salento for a three days coffee break !
Back on the road…
Traveling Colombian style and that implies buses on curvy roads and more buses! The one from Bogota to Armenia was no exception, the great thing is you don’t need to book anything, you just show up at the bus station (El terminal) and chances are that you would have to wait less than 15mn until the next bus departs for your destination.
An 8 hours and half ride later in a comfortable but freezing bus (better take warm clothes with you when traveling here..), with more or less nonstop salsa music (ahh…first trip where I don’t actually need to use my iPod !), I finally reached Armenia…11pm already and got a chance to experience once more colombian hospitality. Had booked the same afternoon a room at one of the hostel of Armenia as I knew it would be too late to catch the bus from Armenia to Salento (runs from
Layers of green
Valle de Cocora, Salento, Colombia 6am to 8pm), and the owner offered to come pick me up. Bus got delayed and ended up arriving really late, so I was very much ready to take a taxi but no, he insisted that he would wait for me, and so did he as he didn’t want anything happening to me…this was really sweet!
The “hostel” was actually a beautiful finca a bit outside of the city, with swimming pool and nice garden, if I hadn’t been looking so much forward to go to Salento I could have spent a bit longer there, chilling out and resting!
Next morning bus ride to Salento was a much shorter one, one hour on yet more curvy roads and I was in Salento.
Colors, colors and more colors, welcome to Salento town!
The town of Salento is simply incredible, every single house is painted in a different set of bright colors and it seems that there is always a few people painting once more their house….mmm Colombians here are addicted to colorful paints and brush !
The whole place is quite small, surrounded by coffee and fruits plantations, with at his
center the main square, with its cafes and the church. Quite touristy too but not backpacker wise (although there is quite a few), mostly colombian tourists who are just as chatty when you meet them on vacation as they are back home! Met quite a few while enjoying some coffee at one of the terrace by the square, great way to improve even further my Spanish!
The bed and breakfast (la posada del café) where I stayed was just as colorful as all the other houses, with the added bonus of having a lovely garden full of flowers and birds and the best homemade breakfast I had so far while in Colombia.
Hiking into the Valle de Cocora, big day ahead!
Seems that this is one of the thing to do while in Salento, well I had no clue about it 24 hours before but after a little chat with fellow travelers and quite a briefing by the owner of the B&B, here I was on the square, trekking shoes on, waiting for the 9.30am departure of the jeeps for the Valle de Cocora.
After a half an hour ride across the countryside, we reached
the starting point of the trek or should I say the starting points as there were two different trails! A short chat with the driver later, understood that the one on the right was the sporty one and the one on the left the more family friendly one, mmm….the group of people naturally split into two, we opted for the one on the right side and that was rewarding !
Starting with Acaime & its hummingbirds For two hours and half, you hike on a dirt path, quite muddy at times, across first the pasture and then as you go up through a tropical forest and along the river Quindio, crossing it in several occasions on make shift wooden foot bridges. Around us, plenty of colorful butterflies, the sound of waterfalls hidden among the forest and a really dense forest with tree roots going in all direction…
We then reached Acaime, a ranger post high up in the forest where you can rest a bit while enjoying a cup of coffee & the sight of hummingbirds & Motmot (bird with an electric blue color and long tail) which are flying all around.
Caffeine level back to normal, time to for the most strenuous part of the trek, a hike up to “La Montana” To do the whole loop you got to backtrack for about one km, until you reach the sign “The Montana” and then take a right, from there it goes up for 1.8km all the way to the Montana ranger post (2860m). Quite a rough trek up through a pine forest but the view when you reach the top is superb, and that day was quite cloudy, don’t even want to start imagining it when there is blue sky and sun!
Now the easy part and the vista Cocora is famous for! From the Montana, it goes down all the way for a bit more than 5km, and now I understand why everyone visiting Salento is going to the Cocora valley, the vistas are simply stunning!
Still quite high up and then at one of the curve, it is opening up and you got a panoramic view over the bright green valley surrounded by mountains & the famous giant wax palms Colombia is famous for (going up to 60 meters, these are really gigantic!)
As we make our way down, we get to enjoy more surreal vistas & then decided to cross through the grassland, walking under the giant wax palms and looking up at times although these are so tall that it makes your head spin!
Friday night out in Salento, Cumbia time!
Salento is quite a tiny town but I was placing some hopes on the fact that it was Friday night, might get a chance to dance after all!
For locals, seems that the night starts with walking around and chatting in the street, until they would settle in one of the bar for some “Poker cervezas”. We did pretty much the same except that it took us quite a bit of time to spot a bar where we would not become deaf by the end of the night!
Music in Salento is mostly cumbia with from time to time a bit of salsa, well after that night, guess I can dance cumbia! The group of people I was with was not too much in the dancing mood but as usual when you give me music, I cannot quite stay seated for too long…before
and more colors
Salento, Colombia I knew it, I was on the dance floor, together with a really fun group of Argentineans and Brazilians and well surrounded by Colombian dancing cumbia! Great fun and it is completely exhausted but happy that I finally found my way back to the B&B.
A taste of coffee and horseback riding in beautiful zona cafeteria
Fully recovered from the Cumbia night, and hoping that after the upcoming four hours on horse I would still be able to move my legs for the upcoming party in Cali, I made my way to the house of the horseman.
Together with a group of three Spanish people, we were on for a tour of the surrounding valley around Salento, and one of its traditional coffee plantations. Well, although I love horseback riding and never miss an occasion when I get the chance to do some, this time I really thought I would break a leg before the end of the journey! Being the only one who had previous horseback riding experience I ended up with a seven months horse, very energetic and quite difficult at first to handle…so opted for the only solution I could
Walking by
Salento, Colombia think off, went for gallops after gallops until the horse started to calm down…pfff…still got my two legs !
The visit of the coffee plantation was extremely interesting, got to learn a lot from the actual planting to the production of coffee old style. No machine nor pesticides there, but instead a family run business were beans are handpicked before going through all the production stages manually using simple equipment, a pure delight!
A visit would not be complete without the tasting part, so after having witness the different stages we got to try some, caffeine level back to normal!
The remaining part of the journey on horse was just as delightful, amazing vista, tiny rocky trails going up and then a few more gallops to finish the journey, loved it!
Time to head back to the B&B, pack and head for THE capital of Salsa, Cali that is!
Traveler’s tips Transportation:
• from Bogota, plenty of buses run to Armenia during day and night time – COP 37’000
• from Armenia, buses take about 45mn, every 20mn – COP 3300
Accommodation:
• in Armenia,
Colourful houses
Salento, Colombia stayed in Hostel Los Juanes (20’000 COP/night)
• in Salento stayed at the Posada del Café (private room only – 45’000 COP/ night)
Going out: one place that I really enjoyed in Salento (absolutely excellent coffee and good set lunch) is Alegria located on one of the street perpendicular at the calle principal (toward the end)
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taracloud
Tara Cloud
Excellent adventures!
I love that you're so game (and energetic) to hike all day and dance all night. I especially liked your story of galloping the young horse--it sounds as if you can gallop all day. Quite fun! I was also really inspired by your last blog on the wonderful political graffiti. Buen viaje!