Salento

After a sleep on the night bus out of Bogota we awoke to sunrise in the Andes mountain range as we climbed and winded through the mountain roads to arrive in Armenia around 7am. Overall the night bus was a positive experience, we both managed to get two seats each which allowed us to stretch out and sleep clutching our day packs. We definitely think we slept better on the night bus than on the flight over from London.

After a quick change of buses we headed up into Salento , a popular tourist town deep in the coffee triangle, where we stayed for the next 2 nights.

Salento is a place where many of the buildings still retain its bahareque architecture style with old fashioned buildings painted in bright colours all over the town. Around the town is stunning countryside with mountainous and tropical hills being the backdrop to your stay. I don’t think we knew how much we wanted to leave the crazy city of Bogota until we arrived in such a beautiful tropical town

In the centre of the town is a square where old fashioned jeeps act as a shuttle bus service to the main excursions around the local area. Once we had dropped our bag off at the hostel we were staying at we decided to book onto a tour of a local coffee farm, for an experience that has been on my (Dom’s) bucket list for some time.

At the coffee farm we learnt all about the process of growing the coffee beans to them ending up in a coffee shop, ready to drink. We even got the opportunity to pick some coffee ourselves. At the end of the tour we took part in a coffee cupping , the practice of tasting and learning all about the different flavour profiles that different coffee has due to the differences in the roast, and the conditions it was grown in.

The next day we decided to get up early and take a jeep to the Valle de cocora famous for having stunning scenery and the world’s tallest wax palm trees. Here we embarked on a 5 hour hike around the hills taking in all of the sights which included a hummingbird sanctuary and many waterfalls.