Salento

So we stayed far longer than we had planned to in Medellin. And on our last day there it dawned on us that we now have exactly 30 days to get to the south of Peru for the inca trek! AAAARRRGGGHHH! after lots of frantic internetting and guide booking we worked out a route that would allow us to do most of the things we wanted to do and still get us there in time. Although it meant missing out on Guatape and San Agustin which breaks my heart a bit. I DO NOT WANT TO LEAVE COLOMBIA.

But we left Medellin and took the bus through Armenia to Salento. Its in the heart of the coffee region and we had heard that the scenery was beautiful, mountainous and full of cloud forests. It turned out to be one of the most beautiful places i have ever seen! Its like a kind of tropical switzerland. But because of the clouds my photos dont do it any kind of justice.

Salento itself is a small, sleepy village that comes alive every weekend with tourists. We were worried that it would be a bit like taganga, but salento seems to have retained its character and is very well looked after. This could be in part because the vast majority of tourists are colombian. It also turned out to be full of friendly characters, including an american inventor who made excellent peanut butter.

A short jeep ride away is the Cocora valley, home of Colombia's national tree, the wax palm, so we started off there. It was cloudy in the morning (what do you expect from a cloud forest?) we met a french couple on the way and decided to do the 5 hour trek together. You start off in a valley that looks a bit like ireland.

Then you get into the cloud forest, at which point the heavens opened on us! I thought it added to the adventure but the french couple were less impressed. Especially as the bridges were becoming less and less sophisticated as we got deeper into the forest.

Luckily there is a hummingbird sactuary half way up! you pay about a pound to enter but you get a huge bowl of hot chocolate and a big lump of cheese in return. i didnt really understand the cheese bit. It stopped raining then so we dried off, ate some lunch, spents ages trying to photograph the hundreds of hummingbirds and got some directions from the super friendly man who owned the place.

The problem is, that the intructions involved walking for one kilometer. And i dont know what a kilometer looks like. So we got very lost. We picked up an equally lost english couple on the way and ended up walking up a giant mountain for two hours for no reason!

Eventually we found our way out of the cloud forest and into the actual valley of the cocora - which was like being in the middle of Jurassic park. the clouds made it feel really spooky, and because we were late, we were the only ones there which made us feel extra special. It was a real adventure and a great day - although we were all exhausted by the end.

When we got back to salento (by hanging onto the back of a jeep!) we all decided to go to play Tejo. Tejo is the national colombian sport. You have a square of wet clay with a metal ring in it. You stand on the other side of a large room and throw a metal wieght - aiming for the middle of the ring. Its a bit like boules. Except to make it a bit more exciting and a lot more colombian they put four paper triangles full of gunpowder on the ring - so if you hit the triangle you get a very loud and incredibly satisfying explosion! You play in a barn at the back of tiny bar - as long as you keep buying beers you can play as long as you like. The bar was full of men wearing non-ironic ponchos and cowboy hats, who had obviously been playing it there whole lives. We on the other hand, were rubbish! between six of us we only got two explosions in a whole hour! I am obliged to point out that dermot hit one.

We took it easier the next day, and just went to the mirador. Although we managed to take a wrong turn again and ended up in an army camp - that was guarded by a very young soldier who was watching the spain versus italy match on his phone. We had noticed before that the soldiers and police officers in colombia are very young. Colombia has compulsory military service for men at 18. But its widely known that you can bribe your way out of it. We've heard that it costs about $500 to get out of doing it.

The next night me and dermot decided to go and play pool in the Billiards hall. I mainly wanted to go, because the bar was exactly like the one in a Gabriel Garcia Marquez short story I was reading at the time., with groups of old men playing billiards, poker and dominos. We met the friendly waiter who we'd chatted with on our first night. A love lorn poet who was teaching himself English by talking to the tourists in town. He taught us the rules of billiards while showing off his leopard print three fingered billiards glove.

 We finished our time in Salento by doing a Coffee tour in a small Finca just outside of town. The owner of the Finca (farm) showed us round and although we knew it was going to be in Spanish, nobody had told us that he didnt have any teeth! luckily we still understood most of it and it was really interesting. He runs a small farm of four hectores which is organic and everything is done by hand. Although the term ECO is probably the most overused word in Colombia at the moment, it still hard not to be impressed by the commitment many people have towards the conservation of their environment. Salento is such a beautiful and peaceful place, even when the farmers grandson is playing dubstep while he does the house chores!

When we finished we walked back down the river into town, past all the colombian families who were celebrating the bank holiday (the third one this month!) and got a bus to Cali.

Cali has a reputation and we decided to stay for only one night to break up the journey to Popayan; our last stop in Colombia. So I imagine my next post will be from Ecuador!