The buses to Salento in the coffee region were decent enough, stopping by Cali (a city in the south that I'm glad I decided to bypass- generally Ive preferred the small places along the way rather than the big cities) and Armenia.
Willy Jeeps
Picking the beans from coffee plants
Leaving the fermented seeds to dry
Poisonous banana spiders everywhere
And enjoy :)
Even the mannequins have been enhanced (nice one, Rob)
Symbols of old and new
I got to the main square in Salento, looked around and decided to stay at Casa del Lili, a hostel I had been recommended. Lili is a wonderfully inviting woman who takes you in and makes you feel at ease. She really has a great outlook on life that keeps her balanced, which she shared (in Spanish nonetheless as she spoke minimal English) over a bottle of wine and popcorn.
I loved Salento! The town is colourful, full of little shops, lively with music and vendors everywhere. I also met some lovely people there who made it even better; Nikki and Damien (a couple from Australia), Jude (a cool American dude) and Jessie (an awesome English girl I ended up travelling with for a while!)
One of the highlights of Salento is going for a hike in Valle de Cocora. A five-hour hike takes you through green valleys, into the cloud forest, up a mountain where you reach a cute farm at the top, then back down through a valley full of these incredible giant wax palm trees (tallest in the world!). Really spectacular scenery :)
Pretty cool!
The other highlight of Salento was visiting a finca (coffee plantation). There we got to see the whole coffee making process and make our own yummy coffee!
Taking the shells off the coffee beans (using a machine)
Then, once the beans are dry...
They go into a pot and are roasted on fire, and then voila, coffee!
Grind that up and you get some good strong organic Colombian coffee!
And enjoy :)
So far I was loving Colombia and had met great people along the way. Jessie, one of these great people, was going in the same direction I was and we ended up travelling together over three places. You really are never alone even when you travel on your own!
After spending a few days in the beauty of the coffee region, I took a bus to Medellin, the former drug capital (home to Pablo Escobar) and formerly one of the most dangerous cities. I heard that, despite its infamous past, the city had changed over the past ten years so I was curious to witness this (its the only major Colombian city I decided to spend time in).
The bus to Medellin was long, winding and annoying, making multiple stops to pick up and drop off random people from random places (generally, a bus or boat in Colombia does not move until it is beyond full and even then they will still stop to pick people up until there is physically no more space... and then pick up a couple of more).
I made it to Medellin in the evening and checked in at another nice hostel. The area I was staying at, El Puablado, had loads of bars, clubs etc (zona rosa). So, I got ready to meet Jessie (with some other people at the hostel) to see what the Medellin nightlife had to offer on a Saturday.
The next day we woke up somewhat tired and hungover. After doing some organising of my life, I met Jessie in the centre of town to visit Botero Plaza. Botero is a famous Colombian artist known for making sculptures of people and animals with weird proportions (his 'fat people' are particularly fun).
We were pretty tired after, it was hot and too late to go to the cable car (another attraction in Medellin) so we decided to get some food and take it easy for the day. As we were hanging about we heard some Australians talking and thought to ask if they knew any places to eat. They had no idea but we all ended up hanging out together for the next few days. Paul and Jace had some of the craziest travelling stories Ive ever heard and, as Jessie put it, were lucky to still be in one piece. Needless to say, the days in Medellin were pretty entertaining.
After some food and, importantly, some drinks, Jessie got pumped to get a tattoo she'd been wanting. The boys had been getting a tattoo in each country they were travelling to so they were also due for one. So, off we went late Sunday night to find a tattoo parlour in Medellin.
Next day, we were going to go to Guatape for the day, a cool spot two hours from Medellin, but it was raining so we went to the cable car instead. The cable car is now a symbol of the innovation and transformation of Medellin. Its part of the public transport system but you can take it even further to reach the Arvi park/reserve at the end.
There wasn't much you could do in the park on your own so we took a short walk in the forest with a tour guide (we found Rob and Seb to add to our group there), ate and made our way back.
I'd heard about a replica of a traditional Paisa town in Medellin (Pueblito Paisa, or 'tiny town' as we referred to it) so I convinced everyone to go check it out.
After that it was food and drinks time.
On the final day we went on a free Real city walking tour of Medellin. I hadn't done a walking tour yet and the Medellin one was rumoured to be particularly good. And it was! Our guide was a very well-educated funny local who took us to really cool places in the city and gave us a pretty balanced view of the history of Colombia, Paisa and Medellin, with multiple stories about hope and transformation. He described the transformation of Medellin from a corrupt drug cartel capital to a town of innovation. He described this as being aided by a change in government in 2002, which introduced a better security platform, education with dignity, transport and democratic architecture (public spaces that are now safe for everyone to use). These are some of the places he took us to:
Our tour group
This was a great way to get to know more about the city and its history. Then, after a lovely goodbye lunch with the Aussies, Jessie and I boarded a (cheap!) flight to the city of Cartagena on the Caribbean Coast!
Veryyyy excited to be on the coast again and having Emily come out to join me for my last week in South America is the perfect way to do it!! Bittersweet to be getting to the end now but I guess it has to end at some point, and more than anything I feel so fortunate to have been able to do this to begin with :)
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