Day 24: Thursday, October 25th

Salento, Colombia- Stayed at El Viajero Hostel

Dear Obiwan,

Obi! I am now in Salento! I successfully slept on the night bus to Armenia, you know how tough it is to sleep on buses. So to to get to Salento, the most famous coffee town to visit in the coffee triangle of Colombia, you have to first take a bus from Medellin to Armenia. The 3 main cities of the ‘Coffee Triangle’ are Armenia, Pereira, and Manizales. Salento is the most famous town in the coffee triangle. People say it has become ‘very touristy’ but I loved it Obi! It’s a really small town with huge hills, colorful homes, restaurants and coffee farms everywhere. Also, right nearby is this well known “Cocora Valley” hike that I did.

So…after the night bus to Armenia, and an incredibly kind woman next to me on the bus ride who was working with some people with disabilities- which had me remember some of my past jobs then I reminisced about WORKING… Anywho, she helped me find where the next bus was. Then I got on that bus to headed to Salento! On the bus I met this really nice guy, Ashwin who was from Holland. He was also solo traveling and didn’t have a plan for a hostel so he chose to go to the same one as me! I read about it on Hostelworld, it was called “El Viajero Hostel Salento” and it looked beautiful! Also, they spoke about leading tours and having salsa lessons and group meals, so it looked exactly like what I wanted! We got there at 7am and there were rooms available BUT check-in was at 11 or 1pm or something much later that 7am. The hostel let us keep out bags there, safe, and we changed and decided to hike Cocora Valley!

So we were off! We were told “it isn’t too hard,” and one couple told us “it took us 6 hours, but there is a 2 hour hike you can do instead!” If you could guess Obi, we went to do the 2 hour hike, however, there are no signs or anything distinguishing between paths. There were people trying to sell you horses or sell themselves as guides and we just wanted to hike for free so we said ‘no thanks’(no gracias), and we chose the path to the right, which seemed flatter than the path to the left. We were told that one way is “all the way up, then flat by the river the way back,” or “flat by the river on the way there and the way back is a big incline then all down.” AND- there was a hummingbird area(Obi you know how much I love hummingbirds! Well, you would wanna catch and eat them all)! We were told its an ‘extra 30 minutes there and back’ but hell yeah, we are gonna go (so we thought)! Obviously we chose the way with flat on the way there and ‘down’ on the way back- BUT we actually chose the WRONG way because we had no idea which way we were going…and it was way too late to change ways when we realized. Also, there was no 2 hour hike…

Obiwan, this hike ended up being 7 fricken hours…and first let me say that it was beautiful! After about…30 minutes or so you see the beautiful views of Cocora Valley and the famous incredibly tall palm trees that are just, astoundingly tall. I want understand why and how?! Then all around you are rolling green hills and the valley stretches out far in front of you with trees and cows and farms sprinkled across. LOOK HERE!:

So, the other part of this hike Obi was…well…it monsooned rained! Because, ha, I am in Colombia in the ‘rainy season’ which I chose not to believe. And at first the rain was light and felt amazing as we were just hiking UP endlessly…but then, we were hiking down…and got by the RIVER and man Obi, it was dangerous! Every now and then we passed people either going our direction or coming the other way and everyone was soaked and would warn how dangerous it was. Also, a group of people recommend us NOT to go see the hummingbirds because they told us they saw 3 hummingbirds and that it ends up taking an hour and a half to go there and back, so, begrudgingly, we didn’t go.

In the end Obi, we made it back. We had to cross the river one time walking directly IN IT with a strong current pulling at our feet and besides that there were beautiful wooden bridges crossing over the river multiple times with suspension wires you can hold onto over the river. However, their beauty was slightly blurred through pouring rain and the bridges being insanely slippery. Luckily, I had good company and it was still beautiful and fun.

Here are some videos and pictures of the storm and of us reaching the end!

Also, we met this nice French couple who told us they did go see the hummingbirds and said they saw 30 AND THAT IT WAS SO AMAZING. But, we can’t change the past so it’s FINE I’M NOT UPSET.

The end was also tough because the road just…never ended, and we got back at 530, and we left around 1030 am, so it ended up being 7 HOURS. And at 530 the sun was ALMOST SET, so Obi, if you did the math, if I went to see these hummingbirds we would have been hiking the last hour in the DARK- and WE were told the last car back is at 6 (so we would have been back around 7 and I guess just had to sleep under a tree?)!

After this we returned to our hostel, and Ashwin was told about the nicest restaurant in Salento so we went there! We almost gave up after having to hike a hill that was so steep you almost fall backwards (found out on the way back you take another way that beautifully cuts through the center of the town and is BARELY a hill)…but…it’s okay 😂.

Dinner was so delicious! We saw some fellow hikers and hostel folks at the restaurant and had a lovely end to our unexpectedly adventurous day!

Alright my dear Jedi. Love you so much, till tomorrow!

Love,

Carly