Salento

After the bus ride we were done, and we wanted to go to Valle de Cocora early in the morning, we just went to the hostel. Salento is supposed to be very touristic, and very safe, so we planned to go out on the next day.

After the hike, in the evening we walked around Salento, which is a very cute town with a lot of hilly streets and colourful houses with many shops and pubs. We found a billiard pub, Cafe Danubio, where many elderly locals were drinking rum and playing billiard. It had a very nice atmosphere, with Colombian music playing, and football on TV. We discovered, that in the basement there were courts for tejo, a traditional Colombian game from prehispanic times. An old man from the bar explained us the rules and played the first round with us. You have to throw a metal disc to a box of clay, and in the middle there is a metal ring, with some paper filled with gunpowder, and the aim is to hit them, so they explode. It was harder than expected, we had a lot of fun, and we got clay all over us, as after throwing the disc, it always gets stuck in the clay, and it's very hard to get it out.
On the way home we bought some snack, which looked like lángos (it was even 'served' with a white-red checked napkin), which turned out to be fried cooking bananas with cheese on it, super tasty.

On the next day we went to a coffee farm where we got a tour of the coffee plantation, and an explanation of growing coffee. We tasted the raw coffee berries, tried some coffee and got soaked in the rain. The guide told us, how hard it was to be a worker there, as you have no insurance, you are paid based on the amount of coffee you harvest, and it's physically very demanding. He also explained us, that the good coffee all gets exported, and the locals only get the bad quality beans.

After the tour we got our luggage and took a bus to our next stop, Neiva. For the ride we bought some pastry, we tried the donut with caramel and cheese inside, and chocolate on the top with sugar. Everything tastes better with cheese here 😋Read more