If I had to make a list of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen, the Cocora Valley would surely be among the first places. Not to mention Salento, the colorful and picturesque little town where you have to stay to visit the valley of the giant wax palms and the attractions of the Quindío department of Colombia.
The first adjective that comes to mind with Colombia is magical. And not by cliche, it really is a country with wonderful places, a country that makes me feel at home whenever I visit, with its hospitable people. Even the accent sticks to me as soon as I get there.
As I still have several places in Colombia on my bucket list, this last trip I only dedicated to Salento in the Coffee Axis, and Medellin, a city that I will talk about in another post. Now I will focus on what you can visit if you travel to this part of the Coffee Axis.
Salento: between colored houses
Salento is a small colorful little town full of life. To get there, you have to fly to Pereira or Armenia and drive for about an hour to Salento. We took an Uber, which is not totally legal yet, meaning that it was not possible to take it directly from the airport, so we first had to take a taxi to a nearby shopping center and from there, the Uber driver took us to Salento.
Perhaps it would have been easier and faster (possibly a little more expensive too) to have taken a taxi directly from the airport to Salento, but personally it bothers me a lot that the taxi associations do not let us consumers decide freely which transport to take.
As soon as we arrived in Salento, we went out to see the little town. It is very small and can be visited in a short time, since there are only a few streets that surround the main square. You have to see Calle Real, which is like the artery of the town where most of the shops are located, and at least go to one of the two viewpoints, Alto de la Cruz and Salento.
As we were hungry, we ate a delicious giant patacón in one of the stalls of the main square and then climbed the 238 steps until we reached the top of the viewpoint Alto de la Cruz. Here are the letters of Salento and from above you have really nice views of the valley and the town.
As Salento is a very rainy place, we were suddenly surprised by a heavy rain shower and ended up soaked, but it is exactly this type of climate that you hope to have in such a magical town. Also, what better place to be wet and cold than in the land of coffee, so we took this opportunity to have our first cup of Colombian coffee in a cute little place called La Tertulia Café.
The Cocora Valley that leaves you breathless… literally
I honestly think it is one of the places that you have to see before you die. It is home to the Ceroxylon Wax Palm, declared a national tree since 1985. One of the places that I had in my “bucket list” for many years was finally there a short distance from me.
Very early in the morning, we walked to the main square, where we took a “Willy” jeep, a kind of very affordable public transport that takes all the tourists to the Cocora Valley. Those jeeps are supposed to take two people in the front and eight in the back, but in reality, they are usually filled up with some 15 people (I am not exaggerating), of which three are standing in the back on the outside of the jeep… two of them were Patrick and I.
As I am super claustrophobic, I thought “I prefer to be standing for 20 minutes in the back with the air hitting my face, than to be piled up inside”. At first, everything seemed fine, because you are admiring the beautiful landscapes, but in reality it is quite tiring and although the jeep moves slowly, it is still dangerous. But hey, this is part of the tourist adventure; although I don’t really recommend it after the trek in the valley, as you finish the circuit without any energy.
When you arrive at the park, you have two options. The “easiest” or least heavy is to start directly where the palm trees are and from there, if you wish, trek the entire circuit of the Cocora Valley National Natural Park. At first we wanted to do the “short circuit”, but when we saw everything that the complete circuit has to offer, we decided to go for the long trek. “Is it difficult?” I asked the guard at the entrance, and he answered with that delectable paisa accent, “no madam, you can do it in like in 5 hours or even 3…” uh-huh! Surely that guard never did the complete tour, I finished it completely exhausted.
We trekked the 12 kilometers in about 5-6 hours and I will not lie, it was quite heavy because you start in the mountains, but it is definitely worth a 100%. You can also do it horseback riding, but we preferred to walk.
If you decide to do the whole circuit, you have to take into account that there are no bathrooms, except in the Casa de los Colibríes, a place where hummingbirds arrive (honestly we only saw four), and a very popular stop for hot chocolate or aguapanela -delicious, like a tea that is made with sugar cane-, accompanied by a piece of cheese. Besides -I repeat- it is your only opportunity to go to the bathroom.
The path is absolutely breathtaking because you hike between the mountains, crossing the river through wooden bridges, seeing small waterfalls and listening to the animals. We walked, up, down and I saw no end to it. You have to take into account that the altitude can be up to 2,400 meters (and I am hypertensive, yes, here we start with the aches and pains).
But at that point where I turned around and said to Patrick “I can’t do it anymore”, everything started to get much easier and suddenly in the middle of the fog, we entered the Wax Palm Park. Finally the most awaited moment, the moment when you see the whole valley with its hills and giant palm trees that can reach up to 60 meters high, it is indescribable.
I was very excited, we took a thousand pictures and went down to where the wings are, which in theory is a perfect spot for a spectacular photo, but at the same time impossible because of the number of people who constantly appear in your photo unwanted. It was also very windy, so the picture did not turn out as expected -in these times of Instagram; -)-, but it is still an incredible spot.
From there, still overly excited, we walked down the valley to finish our circuit and took the first Willy available to return to the center of Salento. We still had to visit a coffee farm!
In the land of coffee
Once we got back to our initial starting point in Salento, we took another Willy to a coffee farm. I wanted to visit a small family farm, so Las Acacias seemed ideal.
Las Acacias not only produces coffee, actually the coffee growers here produce little coffee and to survive they also cultivate other fruits. The tour is very nice because they explain you about all their crops. For example, it caught my attention that they plant the banana trees in between the coffee trees to prevent them from eroding.
We also saw their animals such as goats, chickens (some even laying blue eggs) and obviously they showed us the whole coffee making process from its cultivation to its end. That afternoon, we ended up drinking a delicious cup of coffee, sitting in front of that wonderful green landscape and watching the sunset.
Express stop in Filandia
As we got along well with Remy, the Uber driver who drove us to Salento when we arrived, we also hired him to pick us up and take us back to the airport, planning a quick stop in Filandia, another colorful little town in Quindío.
Although we found everything under construction because they were repairing the main street, that did not prevent us from seeing Bolivar Park, which is like the main square, surrounded by colorful buildings, the Town Hall and the María Inmaculada Parish, as well as Calle 7 up to the Los Angeles viewpoint. At the end, Remy ended up giving us a list of restaurant recommendations.
And so we departed in a small propeller plane heading to Medellin. As I am afraid of planes, this one made me nervous, but in the end I was distracted because the Once Caldas soccer team accompanied us and the flight was actually quiet smooth. See you soon Salento!
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