Salento

Salento is located three hours north of Cali and there is a huge difference in the scenery between Cali city life and Salento. Salento is a small town surrounded by rippling hills and mountains which are covered in Palm trees. From the town you can get a Jeep called 'Willys' to the small national park called Valley de Cocora. Here we walked up part of one of the steep hills to get a better view of the palm trees. It was very beautiful and quite different to other areas that we have visited. We watched as the clouds above us moved down through the valley. It was a lovely area to chill and relax watching the natural world do it's thing.

The other thing that Salento is famous for is growing coffee. Salento is located within Colombia's coffee triangle. This is the area within Colombia that has the highest production of coffee. We did a tour of the coffee plantation called Finca del Ocaso outside of Salento. We learned about how coffee is one of the most important industries for Colombia's economy. We learned about how coffee grows and then we hand-picked coffee fruit from the coffee plant. We saw how the coffee beans are separated from the fruit and then roasted and air-dried. It was interesting to learn that modern machinery has not aided this process much because modern technology declines the quality of the coffee. The most exciting part of the tour was the tasting part. Firstly we did a smelling test to help us figure out different smells from honey, straw, smoke, potato among other smells. Next we compared the difference in taste between over-roasted beans (grounded coffee) to normal - roasted beans. Finally we saw the different methods used to brew coffee. My favourite method was the Japanese version which uses a process similar to a Bunsen burner to make coffee, it looked very funny. I really enjoyed this tour as it is something I have never done before. I never realised the complexity involved to make a good coffee.

The following day we booked a mountain bike tour with Salento biking. We got dropped off at the top of the Valley de Cocora and cycled downhill to a different part of the valley. The field had thousands of palm trees. Our guide told us that the owner of this land was 84 years old who didn't have any children so she is selling the land for three million US dollars. Afterwards we got back onto the truck and drove up to the cloud forest where it got pretty cold in the clouds but we hopped back onto the bikes and cycled downhill again towards Salento 40km away. The road was very similar to Death Road without a cliff edge to the side of the road so it was fun being able to freewheel downhill avoiding rocks and potholes. The scenery was also very pretty so when we stopped for a break it was nice to look around at the beautiful green hills.

That evening we met up with a Canadian couple who were on our mountain bike tour. We went to the local bar to try the traditional game Tejo. The game involves throwing a metal disc at a board covered in clay. There is a metal ring at the centre of the board which is covered in targets. The aim of the game is to be as close to the metal disc as possible and there is extra points for causing the targets on the metal ring to explode. The winner is the first person to 21 points. It took time for us to get used to the game but when the first explosion went off then everyone got competitive and wanted more explosions. It was very fun. Salento was a nice little town with beautiful surroundings, we were glad that we had decided to come and visit it.Read more