08.09.-11.09.11

Salento

After another beautiful bus ride through the mountains and the "ZONA CAFETERA" I arrived in the beautiful and tiny town of SALENTO at 3pm in the afternoon. I was lucky as the bus driver dropped me off right in front of my "Hostel Tralala". Wow….and I was glad that I followed the recommendation of a Dutch couple as it was a superb hostel with nice dorms and a lovely backyard and hammocks.

As I was very hungry I went straight to the city centre in order to find a restaurant or café……but as the "siesta" was still going on and most of the restaurants were closed I decided to walk over to the supermarket, buy lots of vegetables and cook a healthy meal instead of rice and beans again.

Salento is a very popular backpacker hangout with mild weather, spectacular countryside and a very nice and colourful city centre around a lovely plaza.

In the evening I wanted to go to the "Easy Speak" Bar where Kate, one of the hostel staff, was working…..but as it started raining I just decided to hang out at the nice hostel and chat with some other travellers in order to find out some information about the walk through the" Valle de Cocora".

On Friday morning, 09.09.11 I walked to the nearby "Finca de Cafe" which offered a tour around their coffee fields and their production areas. The one hour walk through the village and then the mountains was absolutely lovely and I had a great view down to the valley, the river and the coffee fields.

When I arrived at the Finca I was greated by a nice Columbian guy (mmhh I can't remember his name!) who told me that I could enjoy a private tour with him as they were not expecting any other tourist for that morning. Fantastic, I thought....but I ask him to talk slowly as I wasn't used to the Columbian accent at all yet!

The whole tour was really interesting. We walked through the coffee plantation where he explained everything regarding the plants and the beans and afterwards he showed me the peeling, washing and drying process in one of the sheds.

After the tour we walked over to the beautiful Finca where he offered me a freshly brewed coffee. Mmmmhhh….the coffee was sooo good and what a difference to the "Nescafe" powder which I had in the last 11 months! Si, si….and for sure I bought a bag of coffee to take it home to Germany!

For the return walk I chose a different way, along the river to the next village where I caught a bus back to Salento!

After a good lunch at the hostel I decided to do a three hour horse ride which was offered and recommended by the owner of the "Hostal Tralala". So 1 hour later, ALAVARO the owner and guide picked me up with three of his horses right in front of our hostel. Wow…how cool….this is only possible in a tiny mountain town like Salento!

So we picked up a couple from Germany from another hostel and off we went!!! Both of the others were more or less beginners and I was a bit disappointed as I thought this would become the most boring horse ride ever. BUT….after 5 Minutes we went down a very, very steep trek .....and the trek went down and down and down…..for about 20-30 Minutes. Even though that I am an experienced horse rider I was quite scared at a few parts…..and I felt quite sorry for the skinny horses. But I was surprised about the German couple AND the horses how well they managed this scary, stony, slippery and steep trek!

The trek went on through the beautiful valley, along the river and then to a nice waterfall. Thank God I took my bikini with me so I could jump straight into the ice cold water. Unfortunately the two Germans didn't bring their swim gear but submitted that the water was too cold for them to jump in.

On the way back the weather changed and the sky was "pitch dark" in the far mountains. After a while it started raining and suddenly we could see a beautiful rainbow. Wow….the landscape was so beautiful with the different colours that I asked Alvaro to stop a view times in order to take some photos.

When we arrived in Salento we rode straight to Alvaros finca where he proudly showed us his four foals.

Puuhhh…..what a beautiful and adventures day I had and everything was well worth the money…..and if you can imagine I had a fantastic sleep that night.

On Saturday, 10.09.11 I got up at 6.30 am as I wanted to join four girls from Germany who checked into the hostel the day before, on their hike through the "Valle de Cocora"!

At 7.30 am we all jumped on a Jeep who took us to the "entrance" of the "Valle de Cocora". At about 8.30 am we started our walk which first went through the beautiful valley along the river until we reached the "cloud forest". Even though that the trek was very muddy it was absolutely gorgeous and a couple of times we had to cross a few hanging bridges and past a few nice little waterfalls where we would have loved to take a dip.

After two hours we took the turn to the "Reserva Natural Acaime". The "refugio" and wooden house was hidden in the thick forest and it was another 30 Minutes uphill but nice walk. When we arrived at the refugio we all tried a very typical hot drink which is made from sugar cane with lemon which came with a chunky bit of cheese. In front of the house we could see different types of beautiful hummingbirds which were zipping their "sugar water" right in front of us.

After we had a good rest and something to eat we continued the hike up to the "Finca la Montana". Puhh…..that was for sure the hardest part of the whole trek and it took us half an hour to climp uf the steep part to the Finca. After the finca the trek just went downhill and from there we could see the hills covered with the "palma de cera" (wax palms). Some of them were at least 60 or more meter high!

For sure we took millions of fotos and therefore the whole trek took us about 6 hours. But when we arrived back on the main street to catch a jeep we all agreed that it was a beautiful and well worth hike.

On Sunday, 11.09.11 I left the Hostal Tralala early and took the bus from Salento to Pareira and from there to MEDELLIN.