Blog post 4 - 27-30/10/2025
"There's a reason magical realism was born in Colombia. It's a country where dreams and reality are conflated where, in their heads, people fly as high as Icarus" Salento is a small town in the coffee growing region of Colombia. This picturesque town provided the inspiration for Disney’s film Encanto, which harnesses the spirit of magical realism. And while it keeps its culture and identity, one could be forgiven for believing they were in a film. From the painted houses, quiet coffee shops serving the most locally sourced coffee you’ll ever find, to back-street Tejo alleys. It was easy to fall in love with the town. Following the fast paced, hustle and bustle of Bogota I really wanted to chill out for a bit and let my body and mind recover. I decided to head to Salento, which took ~9 hours to reach. An 8 hour bus to Armenia, followed by a taxi to the town. I had originally planned to bus the last part as well, but being to lazy the day before and not packing my things meant that I arrived too late in Armenia to get the bus.
Dogs
If you love dogs, COME HERE! There are dogs everywhere and oh my god they are so friendly. Turns out I was quite a hit with the locals and received many besos. I booked a hostel specifical because it advertised 2 St Bernard Dogs who are always there to greet you when you come back from a day out. In this town it seems that small dogs are not allowed.
Cocora Valley
I arrived late to the hostel (Coffee Tree Hostel), found my way to my room, a mixed dorm, although it was only me that made it mixed. Sorry Ladies! The following morning, there was quite a buzz around the hostel and the word on everyone’s lips was “the hike”. It turns out that it had been raining most days prior to my arrival, but this morning was gorgeous blue skies, unspoilt views across to the mountains and beyond. So it seemed that everyone was going to be doing the hike today. I guess I’ll be doing the same. To get to the Cocora Valley it’s a short ride in a jeep, heading up into the mountains. I met some girls in the jeep and asked if I could tag along with them for the hike. As with most of my adventures so far, it was a group of mixed nationalities (Monica NZ, Magalie Swiss, Julia Germany, Athenais France). From the Jeep stop you have 3 choices of hikes, 1 is to the top of a mountain, which is a pretty serious hike, next is the more famous loop which takes you up 1 side of the valley and back the other to the famous palm trees. The other is just to the Palms. We chose the loop, and set off through pastures, heading deep into the valley where the scenery changed to jungle. We followed the river and its many sketchy bridges crossing the river, often accompanied by a sign saying something like “1 at a time”, looking at the bridges, I thought that’s not a sign I want to mess with. At the halfway point, you can continue round the loop or take a small diversion to the hummingbird house. We took the diversion and ended up at this small house deep in the jungle up on the hillside, with around 20 hummingbirds of differing colours flying around, only stopping to feed, and maybe have a little fight with some other bird. At the hummingbird house they offer a drink as part of the entry price. This gave me the perfect opportunity to try a Colombina delicacy. Hot Chocolate with Cheese. Yep, you heard that right. They give you a slab of cheese, the way you eat/drink this is by breaking up the cheese and dropping it into the hot chocolate, allowing it to melt a bit before fishing the pieces out with a fork. Despite how it sounds, I really enjoyed it, I’m not sure I’ll be breaking that out at Christmas. But at the right time, in the right place, 10/10 would dunk cheese into hot chocolate again. The obligation to play with the local dogs was completed and received a big slobbery kiss on the face as a thank you. We continued with the hike. We reached the crux shortly after, and wow I was feeling unfit! Hiking up through the jungle canopy, it felt like it was never going to end! After a lot of swearing and hands on hips, the canopy cleared, and we could see a casita a little further up the hill. We reach the house, and wow it was beautiful, looking over the valley and jungle below, with beautiful colours and an immaculate garden flourish with vibrant flowers. Hard not to be romantic about this place, despite the heavy breathing and occasional coughing fit, it was beautiful to experience this little slice of paradise. Happy now for the downhill section we walked along a land rover track that connected the casita to the rest of the world. Stumbling upon a snake set off a loud shriek from one the members of the group, I’ll hold my hands up to this one 😉 We then reached the famous palm trees and so began the Instagram antics… We finished the hike and boarded back on to a jeep, this time hanging off the back. This will stay with me as one of my favourite memories of Colombia, I had such a nice day with my group of lovely girlies and the adventure of the jeep ride on the way back topped off a perfect day out.
Tejo
Imagine playing darts, but every time you hit a triple it sets off an explosion. That’s how I describe the game of Tejo.
The game is played by throwing a large stone at a slanted wall of clay, in the middle is a metal ring and explosives are laid around the edge. There is a decently comprehensive scoring system to this game but that often gets forgotten about as the excitement for setting off these explosives is really what everyone wants. You do this by hitting the explosive with you rock. The explosive now trapped between the metal ring and the stone, creates a very very loud noise, often frightening. I played this with the girls and also invited two others from my hostel. Riona (truffle pig) and Esme from the Netherlands, everyone was a great sport and we had so much fun, after a while, you do get quite tired as the rocks are heavy, and your hands now covered in clay.
Horse Ride
Yes, I rode a horse. Was I good, no. Did I fall off, nearly. Did my legs hurt for the next 3 days, yes. Was it worth it, yes. Did the man guiding us know 1 word, yes, “Spectacular! “ A bit of a fuck it, why not moment I signed up to a horse trek with Magalie, neither of us having really any horse-riding experience. Alas, we had such a good time, we rode through the mountains down into a valley where we trekked upriver, often getting very wet in the process. After one river-crossing we entered a large open field and while I was playing around with my phone in my pocket, my horse decided he was going for a run. He kicked into a full sprint with me one handed, I tried my best to keep with him, engaging core muscles I didn’t know existed, I got my second hand back on the hand hold and from there stood up and loved the rush of it. But for a second there, I thought I was a goner.
Coffee
As I mentioned, Salento is in the heart of the coffee growing region. They have so much that they use coffee to line ash trays, or perhaps that’s them preparing the next days batch for the tourists. I visited a coffee finca, where I learnt all about the growing, and preparing stages of a coffee. I got to pick my own cherries (ripe coffee bean) and go though all the stages including roasting in the traditional methods to then produce my own cup of coffee, direct from the farm. The coffee was exactly the kind that I would go for at home. I was in coffee heaven.