Sunday, November 21, 2010

SALENTO

When we finally arrived in Salento it was raining very heavy and we weren't impressed with the town nor the hostel. We got a tiny little room in a hostel that the Lonely Planet praised but wasn't anything special. It definitely didn't help that it was dark and raining. The next morning we wanted to go for a hike through the Valle de Cocora but since it was still raining, decided to wait another day. So we spent the day at the hostel and in cafes with our net books - working on the blog. (It's more work than expected)
The next day we finally went to the Valle de Cocora and the weather was much better than the day before. To get to the park we took a jeep early in the morning. Because of a landslide the jeep had to get off the road and drive over a field. Since it was wet that wasn't easy and we all had to get off the jeep and people had to push the jeep.
We didn't have a map for the area and so we chose the trail that we thought would lead us in the right direction. Most people only walk through the valley to a little farm with hummingbirds. But we opted for a little longer hike over a hill and back through the valley. After we walked for maybe 15 minutes we got to a river that was more than a little creek. There was a tree as a bridge over the river but it was no easy task to balance over that tree to the other side of the river. The tree was a good 1.5 m over the river, quite long and the water fast and with a lot of rocks.
Micha was brave (or crazy) enough to balance over the tree and luckily made it safe to the other side of the river. I tried but didn't fell safe and turned around. In the end I walked through the river with Micha's help. After that the trail was much easier. But still difficult enough with a lot of uphill and a lot of mud. The trail was very nice with trees and bushes everywhere. We also saw some hummingbirds and some other big birds. The view from the hill is supposed to be very nice but we didn't see anything since we were basically walking in the clouds and it was very foggy around us. But at least it didn't rain. When we got to the house with the hummingbirds we enjoyed a hot chocolate and talked to some nice Colombians. Our way back went first along a creek, than became a very muddy path. Walking through the valley was very nice and there were amazingly tall wax palms everywhere. After too much time in Salento we left the next morning for Cali, were we spend a day before flying to Quito.


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