Blogs from Salento, Quindío, Colombia, South America - page 7

Hola! Well I have had a crazy week in Southern Colombia. On my way to Salento (a cute colonial style town famous for coffee, cowboys and trout) I sat beside a beautiful young Colombian girl who did not speak English, but when she found out that I was travelling by myself she decided to take me to meet her friends, two of who could speak perfect English. I spent the afternoon walking around the town which was packed with Sunday Colombian tourists and I had a new fruit juice - Guanabana, absolutely delicious with milk. The next day I did a tour of the coffee farm owned by the hostel I was staying at - the Plantation House. Colombian coffee is so renowned because they only grow Arabica beans (more flavour, less caffeine); apparently it would ... read more

mein pc hat noch mehr probleme.... gott. ich hoffe ich schreibe das nicht 2 mal. hier im suessen salento bin ich aufgebrochen um den cafe zu erkunden. das machte ich im parque nacional del cafe. das ist ein teil sehr tolle plantage und dann noch ein bisschen disneyworld. aber nicht zuuuu toll. der cafeteil war sehr interressant. kafebluete hat einen supertollen duft. da habe ich eine marktluecke entdeckt. habe viele sorten cafe gesehen, und den ganzen arbeitsprozess zur bohne. dannach bin ich noch ein bisschen achterbahn und so gefahren. ganz zum schluss sogar noch ein bisschen kart. denen hab ichs gezeigt, den columbianern :D hab natuerlich gewonnen... heute bin ich dann schon wieder frueh frueh aufgestanden um ins vallee de cocora zu fahren. mit einem tollen willy's jeep. dort hatte es viel nebel oder regenwald und ... read more

Monday morning we headed off early to Bogota’s main bus station, through some different neighbourhoods which were more suburban and more familiar to us. Very unlike the dusty chaos of the central area near where we were staying. Our bus journey started at 9am and lasted almost 8 hours, with only a 20 min break for lunch. It was exhausting to say the least, although Amy seemed to cope really well with it. Once we got out of Bogota, the landscape was beautiful, through the mountainous Andes, through plains and over rivers. At times it was a bit terrifying (for Fee anyway) looking over the shear drops from the side of the road. We changed at Armenia, straight on the next bus to Salento, only a short 50 min hop away. Salento is a pretty, rustic ... read more

We had two options - a thirty minute jeep ride at 7.30am or a three hour walk. It was a no brainer. Out came the boots. Yes, I would rather walk for three hours than get up early. Even missing the jeep, we still left Salento the wrong side of nine o´clock for my liking. And so we walked, winding down from Salento into the Valle de Cocora. After the steep twisty descent we crossed the Rio Quindio and made our way along country lanes lined with eucalyptus trees. Halfway to Cocora, a young lad was herding about ten calves down the lane behind us. James used his farming instinct and correctly pointed ahead at the field the cows were heading towards. The lad nodded. How James knew which one beats me - there seemed to ... read more

Day 726 (25.03.09) Having had some more leisurely starts to our days it came as a bit of a shock when we got up for the 7.30am jeep from Salento out to Cocora for another day of walking. With its huge, lanky looking rubber palms and stunning walking it is an obvious and not to be missed days walking if you're in the area and we set off excited for more exercise and fresh air. Cramming 12 (not including the driver) onto our jeep which has seats for only 6 we ended up with Mark on the roof and many more hanging onto the back and sides of the jeep. We took the stunning 20 min drive out to the start of the walk where with all the passengers getting off you could almost hear the ... read more