Day 43 - Salento: walking to Cocora valley

When we arrived in Salento, Colombia on 12th February 2023, it appeared to be quite the tourist hotspot, a tiny town popular for its coffee plantations, wildlife and wax palm trees. Colourful buildings and craft shops lined Calle Real, a popular street of the town. Having only two days in this town we decided to divide our days between hiking to the famous Cocora valley and visiting a coffee plantation.

Cocora valley is famous for its wax palm trees which are considered vulnerable. They are the tallest palms in the world and can grow up to be 200 feet tall in an altitude of 2000-3000m above sea level providing home to many species of birds. We jumped in an early morning jeep from Salento, which took us to the entrance of the trail-head. Here you can choose to do the wax palm route which will take about 30 minutes and takes you directly to the viewpoint or do the longer classic route which is a 5 hour hike through the forest.

We decided to take the longer route which took us through mesmerising landscapes eventually ending in Valle de Cocora where you can see the tallest palms in the world towering through the clouds. The palms are spectacular and unlike anything you have ever seen before, but it’s the walk towards them that I cherished more. The ever changing landscape takes you through flat lands, hills, and the forest. You walk, you scramble, jump across small streams, cross suspension bridges, climb steps, all the while the low hanging clouds add a dreamlike quality to the journey. Half way across our walk we came across a man walking in the opposite direction smiling to himself and appearing in awe, so perfectly mirroring our own emotions in that moment.

Day 44 - Coffee Plantations Tour

Columbia is the third largest coffee producer in the world after Brazil and Ethiopia. After having such excellent coffee in Columbia during our stay we couldn't have left without going on at least one coffee tour. So, on our last day in Salento we went on a coffee tour at The Plantation House with Don Eduardo. A family owned coffee farm with tours offered in English and Spanish two times a day at 9am and 2pm.  The tour starts off with going into details of the life cycle of the coffee bean and then a walk in the coffee plantation where you get to pick the coffee cherries, see how the beans are dried, ground and, roasted and end the tour with a delicious cup of coffee.

Some interesting facts we learnt during our tour:

• Most coffee is grown at an altitude of 1200-1600m
• The coffee plants can grow up to be 10m tall and are usually planted 2-3 metres apart. The plants prefer shade so other trees such as banana or apple are usually planted with the plantations offering them shade.
• Coffee tends to ripen in the rain and is hand picked during the wet season.
• There are over 100 types of Arabica coffee beans.
• In Colombia coffee is graded on size of bean, therefore the bigger the bean the better the coffee is considered to be.
• There are 30,000 coffee farms in Columbia and farms are generally 2 - 3 hectares wide.
• It takes 9 months from when the plant flowers to when the coffee cherry is picked. The cherries are usually red and yellow in colour.
• The type of coffee produced in Colombia is Arabica. Robusta is more common in Ethiopia and Southeast Asia.

The tour was informative and a fun learning experience for us made all the more exciting by the presence of Don Eduardo's friendly dogs. It made us think of where our coffee comes from and how to spot a good type. We ended the tour with a cup of delicious coffee that strangely had a tea-like quality to it. A perfect ending to our Colombian adventure.