COLOMBIA! Salento

One and a half years ago I went to Colombia and visited the Amazon, I was also going to Salento but because of Corona I had to cancel that trip and had to go straight back to Aruba after the Amazon. So, now I'm so close to there AND I had a stop in Bogota anyway, I decided to take that opportunity to visit Salento.

For this I calculated 5 days, it was an 8-10 hour bus drive from Bogota so the return trip itself would take me 2 days. I arrived in Bogota in the evening and was planning to get a night bus to Armenia and from Armenia it was only 1 more hour to Salento. The busses where not going from the airport but from another bus terminal. They told me that there was no bus going to that terminal, it was already 21:00 so it could be that is was already to late. A taxi then, no problem. Someone alsked me if I needed a taxi so I walked with him, when we got to the parkinglot I figured out that he was not a taxi driver. He told me he was an UBER driver. I was watching my navigation to see if he really was going to the bus terminal or not. But it was all fine. 

When I got there I could get the bus at 22:00 to Armenia, nice! So that would spare me the cost of a night in a hostel. It was like a big Van Gerwen bus, so quite comfortable. I'm not a person that can sleep everywhere (bus, car, plane) but I had little naps in between. The loud latin music that went on for the whole trip didn't make it easier. Around 6:00 I arrived in Armenia and at 8:00 I arrived at my hostel. I could use some sleep but I was not getting a room before 14:00 (check-in). So I got in a hammock and closed my eyes for a little bit. Then I decided to go to see a coffee farm and get some coffee. I met 2 persons that where going there themselves so I joined them. It was around an hour walk. We got a tour at the farm and that was pretty interesting. I didn't knew the process of making coffee (planting, waiting, picking, etc) took this amount of time (years!). It looks a little bit like the process off making wine. 

We got a cup before and after the tour, I had a black one and then a cappuccino (which was really nice) with a piece of cake. After this we decided to get a beer in town (I still could not check in). I made a few phone calls to Holland and was glas when I finally got a shower! Looking for a place to eat I saw the 2 persons that I joined to the farm in a restaurant and I joined them there aswell. I had an really good vegetarien (thai?!) pasta, it was already more then 30 hours ago I properly ate (except for the piece of cake, apple and a banana).

I had an early breakfast because I wanted to go to the Cocora Valley the next day. THE WHOLE REASON I WANTED TO VISIT SALENTO!!!! This time I was highly advised to put on some hiking boots because the track as full of mud and big possibility that it would rain. So I did, and I was pretty glad for it. My sneakers where definitelly not waterproof, even the sole had a little rip in it so I would have gotten wet feet pretty quick. I tought the jeep was going every hour but it was every two hours. 7:00-9:00-11:00 etc. I went there at 8:00. Lucky in about 20 minutes there were 12 people waiting so we could go. It started as a beautifull day with sun and no clouds!

The track was really beautifull, so green! Definitely worth visiting! and the track was not to difficult (14km long, altitude around 2000m, elevation 700m) but still it had some steep parts. When we got to the top is was all cloudy and we couldn't see a bit. But... that at least gives nice drone pictures! When we arrived at the Quindío wax palms (the famous high trees in the valley) we could see a bit more. We had chosen a good day! We walked with a group of 7 people, one from my hostel, one that was sitting at the square where we got the bus (he came allong because I told him what we were going to do) and 4 friends from Antwerp (they also like the restaurant Amadeus, all you can eat spare-ribs in Antwerp!! So I will probably see them in december again). The guy was happy that he met me, otherwise he wouldn't have done the trip, so he told me. Always nice to hear. 

After the trip we went all back to our hos(t)el to get a shower and I met with the people from Antwerp to get dinner and have a few drinks. It was a really good day!

The next day was a relaxation day where I just went to town, get breakfast, drink some coffee/cappuccino and watch the cycling contest. So the whole town stopped, even the busses didn't go till after the race the afternoon, which frustrated some of the backpackers, but it didn't bother me. I finished my book and got another one, had local food and went to bed early.

Already time to go. I met up with the best friend of Jairo and his wife, they live in Armenia. They only speak spanish but it went pretty well. We had some beers at the terminal before I had to catch the bus to Bogota. The night bus again. With only 30km more to go, the bus broke down and they tried to get it working again for half an hour. Then we all had to get out of the bus because we could join another bus. They organized that very well. At the busterminal I found out that STILL no bus was going from that place to the airport. How is that even possible!! I found some other backpackers and they told me that you could take the metro to the airport but that was a 20min walk. They gave me a card that I could use for that. I waited till the sun came up so I didn't had to walk in the dark.

At the airport I got some nice breakfast, potatoes, bacon, eggs, bread, jam a cappuccino and a juice and my last money I spend at the gate, a burger and a beer! I was ready to go back to Aruba!