Salento and the Valle de Cocora

The next morning I left for Salento. It’s a very small little town in the mountains a few hours from Manizales. I’ve heard how beautiful it was from lots of travelers and Colombian, so I was expecting it to be quite touristy. I was pleasantly surprised when I got there. It was a bit touristy, but it was mostly Colombian tourists walking around town, not too many gringos.
The hostel where I was staying, The Plantation House, felt a bit like being in summer camp. The views were amazing, It was on a hill on the edge of town, looking out on to a huge valley filled with coffee farms, palm trees and pastures. The actual grounds were beautiful as well, filled with tropical plants and flowers. The actual building wasn’t anything special, more like a cabin, a bit dirty and run down but, again, felt like being back in camp but it felt going being out in the country.

A few guys from the hostel were going to hike the Valle de Cocora in the morning so I decided to join them. I hadn’t read much about the area we were heading to, except that there were lots of wax palms, the official tree of Colombia. It didn’t sound incredible exciting, I had seen lots of palm trees down here, but I stoked for a long day of hiking.

In the morning we walked into to town to get a jeep out to Cocora, a small village about 20 minutes from Salento. These old army jeeps are the rural bus service out here. They wait until they get 8 people before leaving. The five of us are crammed inside, trying to figure out where the other three are going to sit. One guy climbs on the roof, the other two stand on the bumper, hang on and we’re off.

We start hiking and the valley is breathtaking. The trees are unreal. Up to 150 feet tall! Pretty surreal looking, too, as their trunks are thin, with nothing on them except the palms at the top. We hike for a few hours up to a farm house where they serve you coffee or soda. It was a nice place to relax for a bit and watch all the hum birds. Another hour or two, we get to another farm house. The view from here were gorgeous….overlooking the valley and surrounded by mountains. The couple that owned the house was really nice and fun to talk to. Another hour on the trail and we came to the most breathtaking part of the hike. A lush, green valley, surrounded by beautiful farms and filled with thousands of the wax palms. Unreal. Another short hike and we were back in the village, about 6 hours in all. We try to find a jeep and none of them seem to want to take us back to Salento. Most can’t be bothered as they are in the midst of seemingly, very important chess match.

We finally find a jeep, and about 10 minutes into the ride, the driver starts looking out the window at the jeep. He has a bit of a concerned look on his face, then he curses in Spanish, “Wey puta”, and pulls over. Flat tire. He then tells us that was his spare as he got a flat yesterday as well. At this point we are exhausted, starving and just want to get back to town. The next jeeps aren’t coming for almost an hour. We give the guy a few pesos and decided to walk. It’s not far, just up and over one big hill. The views from the top were once again breathtaking and it was worth to hear the annoying Israeli guy whine about having to walk again.

Later, I head into town to get some dinner. Although the town is a little touristy, it’s definitely still a country town. There is a traditional town square, an old church, a few restaurants and food vendors around the plaza. There’s also a little main street filled with cafes, artist’s shops and a few pool halls. The rest of the town consists of feed stores, little markets, butchers and a few veterinarians. The men in town, old and young, are wearing ponchos, tall rubber boots and sombreros and there was usually more horses then cars in sight. The town was one of the most laid back towns I’ve been to here in Colombia, but I saw something I have yet to see. The police station here was caged in looking like they were ready for a riot at any moment, and there were lots of cops walking around with large weapons. The town seemed safer then anywhere else I have been down here, but I think this rural mountainous region was once home to significant ocaine production.

The owner of the hostel also owns a coffee plantation, so the next day I take a tour of the farm. It was interesting to see the process from the guys handpicking the beans, shelling them, drying them and finally roasting. The coffee plants were on incredibly steep hills, also on the farm were bamboo forests, pineapple plants and plantain trees.

My friend Jon, who owns the hotel in Taganga where I worked, was in Armenia with his girlfriend for the weekend. Melissa recently moved home to help her mom run their family business because her dad recently passed away. IT was great seeing them. We hung out in Salento, had some lunch and the went into Armenia, about 30 minutes away. It was about the size of Periera and had also been devastated by earthquakes. It was quite modern. They showed me around town and we watched a parade, mostly the local girls dressed up in cowgirl gear riding their horses through town. We went out to a club that night that had a live mariachi-ish band playing. Everyone was singling along with the band, dancing and laughing. Pretty entertaining scene.

The next day we relaxed at Melissa’s house. It was a beautiful house by any standards. Filled with original Picasso and Botero paintings., pool in the back yard, amazing gardens. A pack of German Sheppard guard dogs and a guy with a very large shotgun stood guard. I felt like I was in one of Pablo’s estates. Back to Salento for a few more days of relaxing then back to Cali to get to work on my bike. Hopefully.

Manizales and Parque Los Nevados

After close to a week in Pereira, I was ready to get moving again. Next up, Manizales. This is a small university town in the center of the coffee region. It is basically the Boulder of Colombia. It, like Pereira, doesn’t have much colonial architecture and is also quite modern. The town sits in the mountains and is full of steep hills and winding streets. It also has a very hip vibe to the town, much more of a European feel, the cafe culture here is strong. The town was also incredibly clean and the people here appeared to have more money that most places I have been in Colombia.

I didn’t spend much time in town as I came here to do some mountaineering in the nearby Parque Los Nevados. The national park has some of the biggest mountains in Colombia, the highest is Nevado del Ruiz, 5300 meters (15,900 feet) I booked a tour at the hostel and was leaving early in the morning.








The van picks me up, along with a few other German travelers staying at the hostel. My first clue that this wasn’t going to be the mountaineering trip that I hoped was the 50 something year old women, with a cane, already in the van. At first, I though maybe she was a local that was simply getting a ride up the mountain, but unfortunately this wasn’t the case.

We spent about 2 hours in the van, picking up another couple and driving into the hills. We get to the park, stop to take some pictures, back in the van for another ½ hour. We stop again for breakfast at a remote mountain hut. Typical Colombian breakfast of eggs and arepas, but they also served us all cocoa tea. This isn’t hot cocoa, it’s made from the leaves of the cocoa plant. The indigenous people have been eating and drinking it for years, it is supposed to fend of hunger, help with the altitude and give people energy for working in the high mountains. Basically, it was like drinking strong green tea, but it was nice to have something warm as it was getting pretty cold at this point.



Back in the van, a few more photo stops, the scenery was amazing. It would quickly change from lush, tropical rainforests, to high dessert scrub brush, to moon like landscapes, void of any vegetation, and finally to high altitude, snow covered peaks. We finally get to the point where we start hiking, we’re at about 4800 meters and the we’re going to about 5250 meters, not exactly the all day trek I was hoping for. The trail was steep, however, and at this elevation the air was thin and breathing was difficult. About an hour or so to the top and into huge snow fields. It was fun seeing snow in Colombia, especially knowing it was brutally hot in Cali just a few hours away.





On the way down we stopped for lunch at a hotel in the middle of the park. Nothing around but mountains and cows in sight. Typical Colombian almuerzo and then a soak in the hot springs. The view was amazing, even if the facilities were less then beautiful. Actually, the hotel would be a perfect setting for a horror movie or Stephen King novel. It was remote, cold, dark and run down. Regardless, the hot water felt good after a day of hiking.

Pereira

Next stop was the town of Pereira. When I got there what I thought was going to be a little town, I quickly realized was more of a small city. There are only about 300,000 people living there but it had a very cosmopolitan feel as it's the commercial hub of the Zona Cafetera. I couldn’t find much info in any guide books or online about the town, mostly because there is not much tourism there. The only thing I heard about the town was it was home to the most beautiful women in Colombia, so I had to see for myself. After spending a few days there I would have to agree.

The town wasn’t incredibly pretty, none of the colonial architecture that is found in most Colombian towns. It had a much more modern feel to it, because of several recent earthquakes, the the city is full of contemporary architecture, modern malls and lots of outdoor cafes and restaurants. For no particular reason, other then the abundance of good cafes (fairly rare in Colombia) and attractive women (not so rare in Colombia), I immediately liked Periera. I planned on staying 2 days, I ended up staying 5. In that time I saw only one gringo, a guy from DC. Maybe because of the lack of tourists, people here were incredibly friendly, probably the nicest I have met in Colombia so far.

I spent the first day walking around, checking out the city. The only real highlights were a very cool suspension bridge and pretty crazy stature of the South American hero, Simon Bolivar. Every town here seems to have a statue of him, most are of him, in his military uniform, looking very stoic or regal. Here he is riding a horse, totally naked with a crazed look in his eyes. I also went to the zoo, probably the first one I’ve been to in 15-20 years. It’s supposed to be one of the biggest in South America. Some very cool animals, and not as depressing as I remembered some zoos.

First night I had a typical Colombian dinner of bandeja de paisa, one of my favorites. Chicharones, beans, rice, avocado, ground beef, chorizo and a fried egg. The I walked around the zona rosa a bit. This part of town was particularly modern, feeling like it could be a neighborhood in a the states, lots of new, outdoor restaurants, starbucks-looking caffee shops and beautiful new condo buildings.

On my way back to the hotel, I heard some music coming from a bar around the corner. It was a Colombian rock and roll bar and the band was playing a mix of Latin rock songs in Spanish and covering American and British classics. The were really fun to watch and the place was packed with what looked like were Colombian hippies. One of the girls working there spoke pretty good English, so after the show I went out with her and a few of the other girls that worked there. She knew everyone in the neighborhood and we went on a bit of a tour of the local hotspots until almost dawn. Everyone I met was greats and super friendly.

Peira ended up being one of my favorite cities in all of Colombian. Partly because the people were so cool, but I think more importantly, because of the lack of tourism. I never felt I had to do or see anything, I’d wake up, maybe go for a run, eat some lunch, go to the mall, hang out at a café and go out with Jenny and her crew at night. Very normal and routine, a nice chance from feeling like I need to make the most of every minute have in whatever town I’m in.

Lago Calima

First stop on my tour is Lago Callima, everyone here in Cali keeps telling me how beautiful it is and there is supposed to be some kite surfing/ paragliding. I walk to the bus station, esorted by Pilar and Carmilla, and a few hours later I’m in the town of Darien.

The lake really is pretty, again, it reminds me a bit of Colorado as it’s man-made lake, surrounded by mountains. I didn’t find the town itself all that interesting, however. It was a little country town, a few tiendas, some restaurants, pool halls and a couple of hotels. I was expecting it to be a bit more interesting, I was getting bored after one night.

I was hoping to try some kite surfing, but it was pretty expensive and there wasn’t much wind the day I was there. But I did meet some pretty cool locals that ran the kite surfing shop. Anyway, it was a nice place t relax for a couple of days and it was much cooler then Cali. I decided not to wait around for the wind, though, and headed for the coffee region.

Regreso a Colombia

After a few weeks in Colorado, which felt more like a vacation then almost anything I’ve done this summer, I’m back in Colombia. It’s amazing how easy everything seemed back in the states. Knowing where things were, how to get where I wanted to go and being able to really talk to everyone I met was a nice break. Being down here, almost everything seems like work. Trying to interpret directions or comprehend how something such as the customs process works, not to mention even the simplest conversation, takes so much mental energy. And patience, which is clearly not one of my strong points.

It was also nice to get to enjoy a bit of the Colorado summer….going to the farmers market, riding my bike around town, motorbike rides in the mountains and eating at potager (peaches and corn in full effect, que rico!) and my favorite thai and Mexican restaurants. The highlight, though, had to be going to a Ween concert at Red Rocks with backstage passes. We ate dinner with the band, watched from the stage and the sound booth and even got to watch the CSU football game on a big screen tv in the lounge. After a few weeks, though, I was ready to get back on the road.

I flew back into Cali and headed for the Barrio Fatima. My first objective was to fix the motorbike. I found a guy that works on bigger bikes and had him take a look. He figured out what was wrong and the parts we needed. Of course, most of them were no where to be found in S America. After an incredibly long and painful process, the parts were ordered on there way. It was going to take a couple weeks, however.

The process could have been much quicker, but everything here moves on Colombian time. The family here has been so great.....letting me stay there for all this time, feeding me, doing my laundry, my ironing, everything. I'm so grateful for all they have done, but I also feel like I'm at their mercy when I'm here. They can definitely operate on Colombia time. I'll plan on going to the mechanic in the morning and by the time we're done eating breakfast, drinking coffee and getting a shower, it's time to get ready for lunch. Then it's too hot, maybe later in the afternoon. Well, maybe tomorrow. I could have had the bike looked at, parts ordered and on their way while I was home if I didn't have to operate on Colombian time. But I not really in a rush and it's been great getting to know the family.

Cali is an oppressively hot city, the afternoon are almost unbearable. So Steven, his friend Edwin and I spent a day out on the river in the hills not far from town. The city is generally pretty crowded and dirty, the rivers running through town especially so. I was a little skeptical about swimming in the rio, but I was pleasantly surprised at how beautiful and clean the water was. I felt like I was back in CO, it was a great way to escape the stifling heat.

That night, Saturday, Stephen, his girlfriend and I went to a part of town called the Parque de Perro (park of the dog). There were bars, cafes, restaurants and discos surrounding the parks and lots of people hanging around., It was really the first time I got to experience the nicer side of Cali. We hung around the park a bit and did some people watching that had some delicious parilla at one of the restaurants.

Stephen, Edwin and I went up to the finca the next morning. It was the first time I did the ride in the daytime and it was gorgeous. Beautiful mountains, amazing houses and picturesque farms. Also some pretty funny roadside stands selling everything from cheese, milk, desserts and live goats, chickens, ducks, etc... We just relaxed for a couple of days, making food and doing some work around the property.

I still almost two weeks before the parts would arrive so I decided to get out of town for a bit.

Going back to Cali

The ride back to Cali was pretty uneventful, however the scenery, even for the second time was still breathtaking. I get into the city call Stephen and he tell me where to meet him. It’s on the edge of town, so I back out that way. I ride around the shopping center a few times, I can’t find him anywhere. There are tons of people and the traffic is brutal. I finally find him, get back on the bike and it won’t start. I get it running and at the first stop light it stalls and won’t start. After trying to get it started, and trying, very unsuccessfully to push it with his small scooter, we decide we need to tow it. His dad drives out in the car and we hook up a rope. Probably the scariest thing I’ve done in South America, if not in my life.

The rope is attached to my handlebars, the other end to the car’s bumper. Going straight was simple enough, although there are cars and bikes everywhere, it’s now dark and we have a long way to go. Turning was a not so easy, the rope slacks first as the car brakes, then jerks the bike to the side and down towards the hitch. Very Sketchy. After the first few turns I got the hang of it, but still not fun. Braking was also a process, if I got to close to the car, the rope could get caught up in the front tire, not really sure how that would end but I didn’t want to find out. Anyway, finally made it home and got the bike inside.

Stephen, girlfriend, Johanna, and I went up the family’s finca in the mountains. We got there pretty late, so we just relaxed and bit and went to bed early. The finca was beautful. There was a really nice cabin Stephen's grandfather built, all sorts of beautiful flowers, coffee, plantains, oranges, yucca and bananas. Using a machete, we cut down one of the plantain trees and took a huge bunch home with us to ripen.

The next morning his aunt and her boyfriend met us up there. We spent the day at the river where there was a pool and little resort. When we got back the aunt was cooking sancocho. It’s a very typical Colombian stew made with chicken, corn, plantains, pork and I’m not sure what else. Along with a bit of aguadiente, excellent Colombian meal!

Spent the next couple of days in Cali working on the bike and hanging around the barrio. I had a steady stream of mechanics of various specialties coming to the house to help with the bike, most wouldn’t take any money for their time. Otherwise, I just hung out with the family and a few friends of Stephen’s. Most nights were spent hanging out in the park across the street talking to the neighbors.

I also spent a lot of time eating. The family would feed me 4 meals a days, probably more if I didn’t stop them. It didn’t help that I have a habit of saying “si” whenever I don’t really understand a question. Next thing I know a huge plate of food would appear and I felt compelled to clean my plate. Braised beef, ribs with lentils and rice, roast chicken, chorizo, sweet plantains, fried plantains, arepas con queso…all of so delicious.

I had planned to take a cab to the airport, it’s a little ways out of town and Stephen had done enough for me, but he insisted. It’s time to leave and half the family piles into the car with us- a couple of aunts and little Juan Guillermo. Then they insist on coming in with me and waiting until my flight left. I’m starting to feel like one of the family.

Galapagos

Quito, Ecuador

The next day we moved to a small hotel in a little bohemian neighborhood, I can’t remember the name but a bit similar to the Candalaria in Bogota. Lot’s of cafes, hostels, bars and cheap restaurants. Also lots of tourists, but more of the backpacker type then the business crowd at the Sheraton. We spent a few days in Quito, most of them were pretty lazy. Sleeping in, checking out some of the neighborhoods and lots of time in coffee shops.

We went out to the Media del Mundo, the monument that marks the equator. Well, at least where they thought it was 30 years ago when they built it. It was later discovered that it actually passes a few thousand meters to the south. The monument wasn’t all that exciting, but worth the ride out there. We also hiked to the top of Pululahua Volcan. The views from the top were amazing, the crater filled with a few dozen houses and farms, clouds periodically obstructing the view then blowing away as quickly as they appeared.

One day was spent in and out of airline offices and travel agencies trying to book flights to the Galapagos. The cruises boats buy most of the seats on the flights so we couldn’t find tickets. We planned on going out there and booking a boat at the last minute, but ended up finding a good deal and booked it in Quito so we could get the flights. The boat was nicer, and more expensive, then we had planned, but it was half off and it were happy to have it all arranged before we got to the islands. Our flight left the next day and we would meet the boat 4 days later.

I had read about a restaurant, Café Mosiac, that was up on a hill and had amazing views of the city. I thought it would be a fun place to go for drinks on our last night in the city. I got the address, we hopped in a cab, but he driver had no clue where it was. He dropped us in the general area, it seemed like an ok neighborhood, but definitely no tourist wandering around. Actually not many people at all on the streets. And it was pretty dark. The cab left, we wondered around for a while, up and down a few hills, no one we asked had ever heard of the place. We finally figured out where it was and we head in that direction.

We start up the steep hill, soon we’re on a set of stairs. It’s getting darker and darker, and creepier with every step. The stairs take a few turns, there is more and more trash and now there is also a horrible odor. A combination or rotten vomit, urine and burning hair, but we are close to the top. I’m starting to feel a little sketched, though, given that there’s no one around, nowhere to go since there is a wall on one side and a fence on the other. That at I’m a tall goofy gringo walking at night with a small white girl with bright blonde hair.

We turn a corner and there are three homeless looking guys having what appears to be some kind of séance. Something is burning, they all look drunk and pretty scary. They say something, I hurry Shannon ahead of me and up the stairs and we both basically run to the street above.
Finally at the top, the view are amazing and the neighborhood is beautiful. It feels like we are in San Francisco. Very contemporary houses over looking the lights of the city. The city is built in a valley and spreads throughout the hills on all side. It’s really beautiful a night, a sea of lights on the rolling hills.