Cali and Salento - home of salsa and caffeine

Before getting to Cali we first had to return to Popayan, and we knew from the trip out to Tierradentro that it would be rough but holy shit, it was so much worse going back.  The dirt road was so fucked up that we were bounced around so violently it was impossible to get comfortable, and then, like every second vehicle on that road, we broke down.  What a surprise.  After about an hour the driver and his boy assistant got it going again and we finally made it to Popayan so we could transfer to a bus for Cali.  Kurt was feeling a bit shit at this stage, so thankfully it was only another 3 or 4 hours away.

Cali is actually a pretty big city, the 3rd biggest in Colombia in fact, and it's known as the capital of salsa.  They're pretty obsessed with it, both the music and the dancing, and if you're Colombian and you don't know how to dance then you're basically a leper who'll never find a man/woman.  Harsh but true apparently.  There were the usual churches and museums to see in Cali, but because Kurt was pretty sick we didn't actually do anything while we were there except go to the zoo.  It's one of the top 5 zoos in Latin America and it was pretty impressive - it covers 25 acres and has about 1200 species, some of which we'd never seen before.  There were the crazy looking tapirs with their funny trunk/snout, and the capybara which looks kind of like a giant hamster.  One of my favourite animals we got to see was a white tiger, which I've never seen before.  And while I hate seeing these big wild animals confined in a zoo, it was awesome to see such a beautiful animal.  He even came and sat in the viewing window so I could get a good photo.  So after a few days lazing around in the heat, we thought it was time to move onto Salento, a small town in the coffee region.

Tapir

Capybara

The coffee region isn't just about coffee thankfully, as neither of us drink the shit. Salento and the nearby Cocora valley are beautiful and it was a nice place to spend a few days.  We stayed at a great eco farm/hostel called La Serrana, a 1.5km walk from Salento which had views of rolling green mountains and valleys all around.  It was such a peaceful place to stay and come back and relax after a hard day's hike.  Salento is a quaint little town with just a few streets and a main plaza, and about 250 steps leading up to a lookout point with views over the town, the Cocora valley and the surrounding national park.  The Cocora valley is the main attraction though, and we spent a couple of days hiking around the trails.  

Main street

Sunset view from the hostel

View of Salento from the lookout

The first day we met an Aussie couple, Stacy and Chris, so we all headed off together.  It was a good hike, criss-crossing over a river and in amongst the trees, but there was also a lot of uphill, including a bloody hard slog 30mins straight up to a lookout.  If only someone had pruned a few trees in front then it would have been an awesome view down over the valley.  We all thought we'd make it out to the end point of the trail which was called Estrella de Agua (Star of Water).  Fuck knows what was out there but we intended to find out.  However, after about 2.5-3 hours of walking we got to a sign that said it was another 2.5kms to the end, so we calculated that by the time we'd walked out there and then all the way back to the start we'd miss the last jeep back.  Balls.  So we had to turn around and hike back out, which was thankfully easier than the hike up.  Kurt's boots were totally fucked by the end (they'd started coming apart about a month into our trip), and we were pretty buggered ourselves.

There was a whole other trail that we'd missed on the first day, so we decided to go back and check it out.  It was totally worth it because it was more of the actual valley, so we got to see shitloads of the towering wax palms close up and all around us.  And this time the path was a nice wide dirt road, so it was much easier to walk.  Although, it was a steady uphill climb for about 1.5-2 hours, so it still got the heart rate going.  At the top, La Montaña, there were good views back over the valley, and we even spotted a bright blue/green hummingbird hovering around.  Of course it was gone by the time I got the camera out though.  The walk back down was nice and easy, and we even saw a snake.  Luckily it was only a tiny little thing, about the size of a worm, otherwise I would've shit my pants.  

La Serrana was a popular hostel, and it was there that we met Kat and Cam, a kiwi couple from Christchurch.  We ended up spending a few hours talking shit one night, mostly music, and on our last night pretty much the whole hostel sat around a fire outside and drank and talked more shit.  Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.  So the next day, slightly hungover (well, I was anyway) we jumped on a night bus for the capital city, Bogotá.