Our first stop in Colombia was the heart of La Zona Cafetera – the coffee region. Now, it seems coffee can actually be grown in many parts of Colombia, but this just happens to be the most concentrated area.
We pulled into Salento, Colombia – a quaint, quiet town near coffee farms and the Cocora valley. Our first day, we walked around town, tried our first Jesus Martin coffee (delicious!) and at about 11 am, got our act together and caught a Willy’s jeep up the Cocora Valley to do a bit of hiking through the jungle.
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The Cocora Valley is famous for its Wax Palm trees, which grow really, really high and stick out above everything. After hiking for about 2 hours, we reached our lunch stop at a home up in the jungle – after a quick egg salad sandwich and snapping a few photographs of the resident hummingbirds, it was on our way up to a Mirador.
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After a bit of effort (and lots of sweating), we reached the top. At first, it was a bit disappointing, all we could see was across the valley and a big rock. Impressive, but not as grand as it had been built up to be.
Click to continue reading “Coffee, Wax Palms and the Good Life in Colombia”
