I don’t think I have a lot to say about Salento. It was nice for sure but I wish I would have visited Jardin – apparently it’s the same vibe as Salento, (a super cute ‘Encanto’ style town), but with way less tourists. That being said, I enjoyed my few days in Salento.

The main things to do here is a coffee tour and to see the tallest wax palm trees in the world.

My first full morning started with a free yoga class at the hostel. Honestly, whenever I do a yoga class, I’m always reminded of how much I actually hate yoga.

Anyways, I did my coffee tour at El Ocaso Finca with a girl from the hostel I met the night before at games night. The walk from town to the finca was just shy of an hour and it was absolutely beautiful, with stunning views the entire way. We arrived just in time to strap on a picking basket and get to work. From planting a coffee seed, it takes 5 years for it to mature to a point to be able to harvest. That tree has another 5 years baring fruit, peaking at year 3, before it’s cut down and the process starts again. There are two types of coffee bean: arabica and robusta and Colombia is the top exporter for the former, (Brazil the largest of the latter). The good good stuff gets exported so the coffee you actually get to drink in Colombia is from the lower quality beans that remain.

We ended the afternoon at the finca with more coffee and a cake from the shop, with some other girls we met along the way. The view was so beautiful, even when the heavens opened. We got a ‘Willy’ – old WWII Jeeps that are used to get around now – back to town for some food. We randomly met a girl on the street who had just arrived from Canada and was also looking for some food. This is the thing I love about travelling – never in a million years would I randomly start chatting to someone on the streets of London and immediately go to lunch with them? That would be so crazy, they’d probs section me. But whilst travelling, it’s totally normal and I love it!

The next day, I wanted to head to the Cocora Valley to see the famous palm trees. Standing at 60m, they are the tallest in the world. I wanted to see the trees, take a cutesy pic in that big hand thing and get my hot girl walk in at the same time. I did not get any of the above: I got the Morrogacho Hike. It was truly a series of unfortunate events. Starting with absolutely PISSING rain when we began which meant the trail, (which was full of cow and horse shit anyways), was muddy and treacherous as hell. The second issue was my inability to adjust any altitude. The viewpoint is some 3,450m above sea level and at one point, I was fully wheezing on the brink of having an asthma attack. I eventually pulled myself together but I deadass, (and I know I love a bit of hyperbole but I am being so for real here), could. not. breathe. properly for the whole way up. This made things a bit difficult especially seeing as it’s just a hard hike anyways. I hadn’t mentally prepared myself for a hard day which I think made it worse. The worst thing though was, we got the top and the view was… fine? I did genuinely think to myself, I have been fighting for my literal life for the past 3 hours, for this??????? Thankfully, as I could actually get oxygen into my lungs with every step taken on the descent, I was able to enjoy the views which were amazing – the valley is so vast and lush green. The biggest unfortunate event of all though was the fact that I did not, in fact, get to see the 60m tall palm trees.

By the end of the day, I was exhausted and feeling a bit defeated, but there was little time to sulk. I had a night bus to catch…