We got
the 10 am bus for 40,000, it wasn't direct, so we had to switch buses in
Armenia. The bus was lovely, wifi & fully reclining seats.
It took us the whole day to get to Salento tho. Once there we attempted to beat the sunset to our hostel, La Seranna, we came second and finished the walk in the dark. We checked in and were the last two to sign up for dinner. Lovely homemade Mexican food. Then we had a beer and roasted marshmallows on a big bonfire. Up early on the Tuesday for our free breakfast, paid 4,000 extra for some bacon. Walked back into the village to get a jeep to the start of the Corcora valley jungle trek. It's funny how a country can continue to surprise you with its lack of rules and public safety, 11 of us piled into a jeep, with three of us standing on the back holding on. The ride lasted 25 minutes.
The trek was beautiful but very long and pretty steep in places. We crossed over and back the valley on suspension bridges. Hiked out of the valley, to the top of the mountain, there were palm trees everywhere. It was a pretty overcast day, so we didn't get the best view of the surrounding mountains but the fog was very cool and made for some great photos.
We jeeped it back to the village and bought mince and what not to make spaghetti Bol. I cooked for four of us, myself Vick, and two American guys we'd hiked with, Matt and Stephen. We played cards till 10.30, I thought everyone how to play trumps. We would have played all night but we were sent to bed. I attempted to watch Narcos, the 50 minute episode took 90 to watch. On Wednesday we had a pretty decent group going and decided to head out to a coffee farm for a tour. We got to pick our own coffee beans and see how they are harvested and roasted before being ground into coffee powder. We then got to taste the coffee, which was very nice. It's drank straight with no milk or sugar. On the jeep back to the village myself and Charlotte decided it'd be cooler if we climbed onto the roof of the moving jeep and sat in the roof rack.
We got back to the village and the jays were playing so we went into a local pool bar and watched the game there. At 5.30 the police showed up and searched everybody in the bar except for us, the gringos. A full list of everybody present was made and everyone's ID's were checked. Still have no idea what this was all about, we were just completely ignored. Charlotte and Rachel from Blackpool made a lovely vegetarian curry, that was really spicy, but I managed to eat it. Just to ensure we got enough out of the day we headed back down to the village in yet another jeep to play some Tejo, a Colombian sport involving alcohol and making things blow up with gun powder and metal stones. Thursday, our last day in Salento, no where near ready to leave, we headed out to go horse riding, we'd booked for 9 people but the guys only showed up with 5 horses. 10 minutes later a guy comes trotting up the road with more horses in a line just following him up the road. No helmets, and minimum instruction, feeling bad for the people in the group that had never been on a horse before we headed off for the waterfall. As there were no rules we raced for positions behind the instructor leading the way, I tried out side saddling and even went backwards for a bit. The waterfall was absolutely freezing but I'd taken my togs with me so I hoped in for a quick swim.
It began to lash rain just as we got back to the village so we headed to Brunch to get lunch and say some goodbyes. We now had a group of four and headed for Cali. Myself, Vick, Rachel and Charlotte.
It took us the whole day to get to Salento tho. Once there we attempted to beat the sunset to our hostel, La Seranna, we came second and finished the walk in the dark. We checked in and were the last two to sign up for dinner. Lovely homemade Mexican food. Then we had a beer and roasted marshmallows on a big bonfire. Up early on the Tuesday for our free breakfast, paid 4,000 extra for some bacon. Walked back into the village to get a jeep to the start of the Corcora valley jungle trek. It's funny how a country can continue to surprise you with its lack of rules and public safety, 11 of us piled into a jeep, with three of us standing on the back holding on. The ride lasted 25 minutes.
The trek was beautiful but very long and pretty steep in places. We crossed over and back the valley on suspension bridges. Hiked out of the valley, to the top of the mountain, there were palm trees everywhere. It was a pretty overcast day, so we didn't get the best view of the surrounding mountains but the fog was very cool and made for some great photos.
We jeeped it back to the village and bought mince and what not to make spaghetti Bol. I cooked for four of us, myself Vick, and two American guys we'd hiked with, Matt and Stephen. We played cards till 10.30, I thought everyone how to play trumps. We would have played all night but we were sent to bed. I attempted to watch Narcos, the 50 minute episode took 90 to watch. On Wednesday we had a pretty decent group going and decided to head out to a coffee farm for a tour. We got to pick our own coffee beans and see how they are harvested and roasted before being ground into coffee powder. We then got to taste the coffee, which was very nice. It's drank straight with no milk or sugar. On the jeep back to the village myself and Charlotte decided it'd be cooler if we climbed onto the roof of the moving jeep and sat in the roof rack.
We got back to the village and the jays were playing so we went into a local pool bar and watched the game there. At 5.30 the police showed up and searched everybody in the bar except for us, the gringos. A full list of everybody present was made and everyone's ID's were checked. Still have no idea what this was all about, we were just completely ignored. Charlotte and Rachel from Blackpool made a lovely vegetarian curry, that was really spicy, but I managed to eat it. Just to ensure we got enough out of the day we headed back down to the village in yet another jeep to play some Tejo, a Colombian sport involving alcohol and making things blow up with gun powder and metal stones. Thursday, our last day in Salento, no where near ready to leave, we headed out to go horse riding, we'd booked for 9 people but the guys only showed up with 5 horses. 10 minutes later a guy comes trotting up the road with more horses in a line just following him up the road. No helmets, and minimum instruction, feeling bad for the people in the group that had never been on a horse before we headed off for the waterfall. As there were no rules we raced for positions behind the instructor leading the way, I tried out side saddling and even went backwards for a bit. The waterfall was absolutely freezing but I'd taken my togs with me so I hoped in for a quick swim.
It began to lash rain just as we got back to the village so we headed to Brunch to get lunch and say some goodbyes. We now had a group of four and headed for Cali. Myself, Vick, Rachel and Charlotte.
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