Central Colombia: Navidad and Hiking trails
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| Hike to the Rock! |
You must excuse us for the blogging
delay, the writers were on strike! ;)
Here's a run-down of the weeks that
were, back in the later part of December.
After our stay in Medellin it was off
to the lake in Guatape, where we stayed at Mi Casa right on the
water, under the shadow of the famous Guatape rock. Amidst some
low-rolling hills and water, this enormous volcanic rock looks
entirely out of place, and is a huge tourist draw.
Who doesn't want
to climb 740 steps for a pretty lookout?
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| The view from above |
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| Streets of Guatepe |
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| Rasta kayaker! |
Turns out it was first ascended back in the
50s, and now has concrete steps build onto one side for people to go
up and down. Well worth the climb, but we wouldn't be in a hurry to
get out there again anytime soon! Another afternoon there was spent
kayaking with the hostel owner's tandem kayak. Bri and I redeemed
ourselves after our first try with one of these together a few years
back in Portugal, where we could do nothing but zigzag across the
water. Much more peaceful paddle this go around! Our last day was
spent in the world's most colourful town, Guatape. The pictures speak
for themselves.. as you walk through the town every building has
brightly painted symbols and murals along the bottom of the wall,
some even with the likeness of their pets!
From Guatepe it was a haul back to
Medellin, and then 2 more buses onwards to the small hillside town of
Jardin. This place was well off-track from where we were headed, but
after reading about it we just had to go check it out. We stayed a
little ways from town at a peaceful hostel complete with hammocks and
one of the best dogs we've met, a feisty gal named Fiesta (We walked
3km into town one night and she came along with us, sleeping at our
feet at the restaurant. She rocks.)
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| Saltero de Angel |
We had some full hiking days here, hitting the trails one morning with a few others from the hostel to the Escalatera Waterfall, past the Jesus statue with beautiful views over the town. Another day we headed down a lovely stone camino around to the other side of town, where we were joined by a friendly black dog with some rad dreds in his fur (who we may have made friends with after we fed him some leftovers), and then came back across a rickety old wooden cable car on the other side. Black dred dog decided to stay up on the hill, and we were relieved to see him back downtown with his other mates the next day.
Our best hike here was to the Angel
waterfall and cave. We paid for a guide to take us, and although we
read that this hike was difficult, this trail really blew us out of
the water! At least for me, this had to be one of the most
challenging hikes I've done. Although we started off in easy-going
mountainside pastures, there were times in the forest where we were
climbing almost 90 degree vertical hillsides, hanging on to nothing
but tree roots to get us up or down. At other points we came across
landslides that washed out the trail, and so our guide had ropes for
us to climb down instead. Despite the hardships on the trail, we were
rewarded with views of hummingbirds, waterfalls, and an incredible
cave waterfall that was fed by two different rivers. We've never seen
anything quite like it, and it was just magic!!
Leaving Jardin we were bound for
Salento, another full day with 3 separate bus transfers. I was pumped
that the first of these was the chiva bus, the colourful open-air
buses we've seen all over Colombia. We were pretty squished by the
end as more and more people came onboard down the road, but it was
fun to take in the sights over the mountains down the gravel roads.
At one of our transfers in Pereria we were met by police who were
checking everyone's ID, and even looked through our grocery bags to
see there was no contraband in there, even searching through our
oatmeal bag!
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| Chiva bus ride |
We spent a quiet holiday in Salento,
which is in the Cafeteria region of central Colombia where heaps of
coffee is grown. We spent a few nights at a hostel that we didn't
love, and switched to one called the Hilltop, which was owned by an
Israely fellow who had a crazy pack of 6 shitzus, and an adorable
black and white kitten that I shared my bunk with both nights. We
enjoyed the cute little town which was busy with Colombians on
holiday. With such a recent violent past, we've met a number of
traveling Colombians who are visiting these different parts of their
own country for the first time, free to move about without the threat
of guerrilla conflict. Salento, to no surprise had spendid coffee
(even I'm getting a taste for it!) and we went on a sweet little
coffee tour to Oacasa coffee farm.  |
| Cocora Valley |
We went through the whole process
at this organic finca, and even got to try picking the beans
ourselves. Santa found us here, and we exchanged our stockings with
some little goodies, and were happy to catch up with our people back
home. Feliz navidad! Our last day was a hike out to Cocora Valley
where the wax palms grow- the 3rd tallest trees in the
world! It was a foggy but mystical view over the valley with plenty
of lanky palm trees looming overhead. It was fun riding back to
town, as we got to stand on the back of the Willy jeep (1950s model!)
and take it alllll in.
....One more Colombia entry to come!
....One more Colombia entry to come!
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| Salento serenades |
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