I was excited – it was time to visit coffee country! We crammed ourselves into the minibus and admired the view as we traveled from Cali.
Salento was beautiful. Cute and quaint little town surrounded by hills filled with banana palms and coffee plantations. Everything was so green!
What does one do when in coffee country? Visit a coffee plantation and drink coffee of course. We walked 5kms through the beautiful country side to the Don Elias organic coffee plantation where we went on the tour…in Spanish. Luckily for me there was a girl on the tour who could translate for me!
(Among the coffee plants and under the banana trees)
(Freshly picked coffee)
(Gets hand squeezed for the beans through this…)
(…and the beans get dried in here)
(Hand roasting the beans)
The other essential day trip in the area was a trip to Valle Corcoa, a stunning valley just out of town. Looking back, doing a 5-6 hour trek up to 3000m in altitude probably with a cold wasn’t the smartest move ever. After I (finally) made it up the mountain without dying, I realised the views were worth the pain.
(Catching my breath)
(Hummingbirds at our break stop)
(Snack time – hunk of cheese to dip in hot chocolate anyone?)
(Proud that I had made it through the hardest part!)
(Looking out over the cloud forrest)
Towards the end of the walk we came upon the giant wax palms that the area is famous for. For me it was amazing as that was how I had pictured Colombia. Walking further we came to a spot that was perfect for our ‘Wax Palm photoshoot’…
(Looking down to the wax palms)
(Not sure what we were trying to achieve, but we collapsed)
(Showing off my super cool gum boots)
(Tom racing to make the photo)
(Me, Tom, Emma and Luke celebrating the completion!)
(Our lift home)
(Cowboy drivers!)
