Colombia: Salento & Valle de Cocora
Last blogpost about Colombia! On Friday the 30th of June we left Medellín and went to Salento. The main reason for going to Salento was because we wanted to visit Valle de Cocora, a valley known for having the world’s tallest palm trees.
Our first evening in Salento we watched ‘Encanto’, an animation movie that takes place in Valle de Cocora. Barbara had already seen the movie twice, so it was finally my turn to watch it as well. For the weekend, we didn’t do that much except for strolling around Salento and chilling in our hostel. On Monday it was finally time to visit Valle de Cocora!
At 6AM we walked to the city center to take the first jeep to the valley. After half an hour we arrived and started our hike. We chose to do the long hike (12 kilometers) and start by the valley itself. It definitely did not disappoint! We went to the different view points and took a few (or actually quite a lot 😉) pictures while we were one of the first people here. After some time, we continued our hike and then the weather started to change. It got more cloudy and eventually it even started to rain. At this point, the hike became quite difficult and exhausting. In total, it took us eight hours of walking and some helping hands (literally to go through all the mud) from a few guys to get back to the starting point. According to Google, this was an easy hike… Well, I will never believe Google again when they call a hike easy! But in the end, it was totally worth it.
The day after we returned to Medellín because on Wednesday we had our flight to Quito! In total we stayed three and a half weeks in Colombia and I absolutely loved it. It’s definitely a country I will return to one day!
