Our first adventure was the ride from town to the valley. We picked up a collectivo jeep in the Salento town square at 9am for the hour long ride to the Valle de Cocora. When they hustled us to the jeep, Dave thought it was too crowded (there were only 5 people in it then). By the time we arrived at our destination, there were 18 people in and on that Jeep!
The women and children went inside... 3 in the front seat (plus driver) and we had 6 adults and 3 children in the back. Dave and the other guy with us rode by standing on a 10" wide platform bolted across the back of the jeep, and hanging onto the top. They ended up with 5 guys hanging on the back. The last guy to get picked up rode sitting on the metal rack on top of the jeep. The 50 minute ride only cost us $1.50, and the driver went pretty slow, so as not to lose any passengers. Sorry we were too busy hanging on to get pictures!
We ended up hiking 15 km through the mountains and forests without a map of any kind. The owner of the Plantation House said we could get a map in town. In town they said we could get a map up in the 'park'. Up in the park they said they didn't have any maps, but we could hire a guide. We decided to wing it on our own.
If we'd have known we couldn't get a printed map, we would have asked someone at the hostal to sketch a trail chart for us by hand. Fortunately the main crossroads have signposts. And we did find a few people to ask (in Spanish) along the way, to confirm we were on the right trail.
Anyway, we asked the guy from the jeep where to start, he pointed to the path with the blue metal gate, leading off the road.
Tim from Plantation House had encouraged us to rent 'Wellies' (boots) from him for hiking, for about $3 a day, because the trails and roads can get pretty muddy. We had weighed the pros and cons and decided to go with our own shoes. My jogging shoes have nice support, and are very light, and by now they are pretty much trashed as jogging shoes. So I wasn't too worried about getting them muddy, and I didn't want to hike in uncomfortable rubber boots. Dave brought some rugged 'water shoes' that he likes to hike in. For the first half mile we thought it wasn't too bad, and congratulated ourselves on the good decision. After that, the trail got muddier and muddier.
On the way up to our first stop, the trail runs along the Quindio River (strong stream at this point). We ended up crossing this river 6 times on rickety foot bridges. In one short stretch, the trail had fallen into the river, and we had to hike up into the woods for a few hundred yards. Getting back down to the trail, Dave slipped and got all muddy (sorry no picture).
>After hiking for 2 hours, mostly uphill, and on some very muddy trails, we finally reached Acaime. We had seen some 2'x1' hand-lettered signs advertising hot drinks and a place to spend the night at Acaime. It turned out to be a very nice little place run by a nice old couple. They have hummingbird feeders out, and just sitting there having a cup of coffee, we saw about 4 different varieties... from black and white ones to an iridescent green one with a long tail. That was WAY cool.
An Iridescent Green Hummingbird
Our HostsIt is possible to stay the night at this small place, for 10,000 pesos. The rooms looked clean and comfortable. There are some other hikes from this location, one to a mirador (scenic overlook) about a half hour away.
In the 2 minute description of the hike given to us by Tim of Plantation House the afternoon before, he had mentioned 2 places to go, Acaime and Montana. In our marginal Spanish, we queried the man at the Acaime house where the other place was. It turned out to be Finca del Montana (Ranch of the Mountain). At that point, we had two options, we could retrace our steps, or try to find Finca del Montana, and go down a different way (which turned out to be a dirt road rather than a hiking trail). The guy told us it was only marginally longer to go back via Montana. So we decided to go for it.
We retraced our steps about 45 minutes, crossing back over one of the 6 bridges, to the crossroads (where I'd previously seen the sign for Finca del Montana), and headed up the trail in that direction. After an hour of hard slogging on muddy trails, we finally made it up to Finca del Montana. In spite of the fact that the mud sucked my shoe off my foot and I ended up with totally muddy and wet feet, and the last quarter mile was nearly straight uphill, it was totally worth it. The view from that spot was fantastic. We were now up nearly 10,000 feet, and could see the whole valley (and the mountain) before us. The clouds drifted in and out around us and below us, making for some really exotic pictures.
Dave asked them if they rented rooms up there. They do, for 16,000 pesos per night. The manager's name is Luis Alberto and you can call ahead for reservations at 746-0665 (or -0641, -0645). You can actually take a jeep all the way up there, if you want to. Or horses.
They asked us to sign their book. This is fairly common in the parks... the government likes to track where their tourism is coming from. I glanced at the other signatures on the page. Mostly Colombian. There were no other Americans. Shai, the guy hiking with us, was from Israel, and he said he saw no other Israeli's there either.
Luis at the finca told us it was about a 45 minute hike down from there. "Oh good, we can make the 4 o'clock jeep". Well, 4 o'clock came and went and there was no sign of the the little cluster of buildings where the jeeps were. Since we were now hiking on a road, we had hoped to maybe hitch a ride down with someone, but we never saw another soul all the way down. Lots of cows, lots of wax palms, and incredible views, but no people. We stopped a couple of times to rest and enjoy the view, and finally made it down to the jeep area just before 5:00.
Glad to be Back!There we met a couple of Germans that had passed us on horses quite awhile back. They were also waiting for a jeep. They told us their 2 hour horse trip (to Finca de la Montana) cost 45,000 pesos each. That included a guide to show you the trail and hustle the horses along.
The 5:00 jeep filled up with locals rather quickly, and our only option would have been riding outside. None of us really wanted to hang outside for the 45 minute trip back, after 7 hours of hiking. So we ended up hiring our own jeep... 24,000 pesos and we had the whole jeep to ourselves. Split 5 ways, it only cost us a dollar more apiece.
When we got to the square in Salento, it looked like they were preparing for a fiesta. The square was lined with food stalls and people were everywhere. We weren't sure whether this was regular weekend tourist traffic, or whether there was something special going on. Even though we were wet and muddy from hiking, we were starving (no lunch on the trail), so we decided to sit right there and eat. We had a delicious 'trout in garlic sauce' for about $6 apiece.
More Pictures of Salento and the Cocora Valley
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