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| Home to the tallest palm trees in the world |
As much as I enjoyed the hustle and bustle of Medellín, there were times when there was a little bit too much hustle and/or bustle. After another 20 hours of hard grammar in Blink, I had a few nights in an incredibly noisy hotel in Laureles (in fact, it wasn't the hotel that was noisy, just everywhere outside it), so I was ready for a spot of R+R in the country.
Bus Ride from Hell
The bus trip was an estimated 8 hours and half way in, we'd barely left Medellín city limits due to the number of traffic jams and roadworks. So it was quite the surprise that we arrived close to the estimated time - mainly because the driver took it upon himself to overtake MILES of queuing traffic, barrelling round corners on the wrong side of the road, and generally risking the lives and limbs of everyone on board. Still, we got to Salento in one piece, and what a lovely wee town it was.
Salento
It was probably for the best that the journey took 9 hours, as it took me almost all that time to book my accommodation thanks to a lack of phone coverage and the laughable on-board wifi. The place I ended up in was certainly very clean, and the owner was pleasant - and on reflection, a bit too pleasant. As I was the only guest, he INSISTED on waiting on me hand-and-foot. In fact, he went as far as to tell me he was my wife. (his actual real wife turned up on Day 3 which could have got a bit awkward). I got up early one morning to make a cup of tea, only to hear him sprinting up the stairs and appearing behind me wearing only a towel and snatching the kettle out my hand. I guess this is what it's like to be royalty. Still, I can't fault the view from his terrace, which also doubled as my office for the week.
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| Just ignoring the fact I could barely see the screen and the wifi kept dropping out |
Anyway, Salento is a lovely wee colonial town where all the houses are painted pretty colours and there are more tourists than locals. Bloody tourists.
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| The town square |
Coffee and Palm Trees
A couple of chaps from Blink (who'd taken a different bus ride from hell to Salento) took a jeep (called a Jeep Willy) to a coffee plantation. Quite an interesting day, and we even got to pick some beans and not get paid for our efforts.
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| That's me sitting in the second O |
We also had a day out at Cocora, a nearby national park that is only half an hour's journey clinging on the back of another Jeep Willy (you can sit inside Willy's jeep but that's even more uncomfortable). The park is home to the world's tallest palm tree, although after wandering for hours, I still didn't know which was the tallest.
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| I think it's ... that one |
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| No wait. It's definitely that one |
Armenia
The original plan had been to keep heading south and venture into Ecuador. Unfortunately, due to the rioting and various lack of bonhomie in the region, I changed my plans. I did plan to keep heading south to Cali - which is apparently the salsa capital of the world - until I remembered that I don't dance the salsa so it was probably a waste of time.
But I had already booked a couple of nights in Armenia, a city on the way to Cali. It certainly wasn't a touristy city, but I had plenty of work to catch up with, so that was fine by me.
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| I wish I was in Armenia, the country |
Sadly, Armenia turned out to be a total bin of a place. It was the only place in Colombia that I've felt nervous walking about in daylight. And the landlady chucked me out of my nice (but hot) room overlooking a lovely wee garden and into the even hotter attic with views of their kitchen (really). So after one night, I came to my senses, bade my farewells, and hopped on a bus to another "nice town up in hills", this one called Filandia.
Filandia
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| Filandia from the top of a hill |
Filandia was very much like Salento, except with far fewer tourists. I also got back to winning ways with my accommodation, that was spotlessly clean, comfortable, and remarkably for Colombia, quiet!
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| More WFH fun |
Sadly, there wasn't much that the accommodation could do about the earthquake that shook me awake at 6 o'clock one morning. It was a proper house shaking / things smashing in the kitchen / "we're all going to die" type affair. Not fully cognizant with earthquake etiquette (and still half asleep), I hid under my covers until I accepted I was going to live another day. I'd only been remarking to Jackie the other day that I'd never experienced an earthquake. Another item to tick off the bucket list.
I was also joined for one night in the hostal by Dom, my Swiss compañero de piso from Medellín. We signed up for some jungle trek to see monkeys and a waterfall. Sadly, the monkeys were on holiday, but it was good to hang about with him (I'd like to say it was nice to have someone to speak English to, but Dom only ever speaks Spanish to me, which explains why he's now basically fluent and I'm still using schoolboy Spanish).
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| On the hunt for monkeys (no monkeys were hurt - or seen - during the making of this picture) |
I had the option of either getting the bus back to Medellín at silly o'clock with Dom, or having a nice lie in, then taking a leisurely flight back where I wasn't going to fear for my life on every hairpin bend. I opted for the latter, and hopped on a plane back to Medellín to return to my Colombian family, and await the arrival of Alina :)
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