Fuimos en jeep al valle de Cocora

Trip Start Aug 08, 2010

Trip End Oct 18, 2010

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Where I stayed

Hostal Ciudad de Secorbe

Actually in Solento, not Armenia

Flag of Colombia Armenia, Quindío, Colombia
Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Solento, an even smaller and more quaint town! (So small that travel pod cannot find it on the online map and we had to put Armenia instead.) Solento has about 7,000 people, including the friendliest hostel owners, Enrique and Luis. We traveled through an entire afternoon of rain to get here and it has rained during a lot of our stay. Still, we managed to do lots of walking and have enjoyed the fresh air.

Solento is located in the Zona Cafetera and in five years will probably be a huge tourist hub. It is full of artesan shops, has a charming central plaza, and is surrounded by lots of natural beauty. We enjoyed great coffee, which has been surprisingly rare in Colombia.

A common trek in this area is to the Cocora Valley. We began the day early by paying $3000 COP to take a 30 minute Jeep ride out of town, into the valley. From there, it is about an 8 mile hike that loops through the valley, to a hummingbird refuge, up through a cloud forrest, to a finca lookout point, then back down a road through amazing wax palm trees

Salento

. All in all, it took about 6 hours and was absolutely stunning. And a little muddy. We lucked out...the rain held off until the minute we got inside the jeep to return to Solento. Then it poured for the remaining hours of the day and night.

We learned about a great restaurant from our hotel owners, and ate a huge dinner for about 3 bucks each. Tonight will be our third night eating at Rincon de Lucy. Lots of trucha - trout. Fantastic.

The day after our big hike in the valley, we went on a smaller walk out of town the other way. We had considered horse back or mountain bikes, but chickened out due to unpredictable weather. We eneded up having a nice leisurely 3 hour walk that took us down to a rive valley through coffee farms. Nice and relaxing.

So, what�s next? Tonight, after our $3 feast at Lucy�s, Tanner will sit on yahoo sports and hit refresh every 30 seconds while the Cyclones play. Then, tomorrow morning we will catch an early bus to Armenia, moving on to Popayan. Our stay will be short though, we are headed to Ecuador on Saturday. Hope everyone is well. Peace.

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