Departamento de Risaralda

We have spent a couple nights in Santa Rosa de cabal in order to go to the hot springs that the area is known for. When we arrived here it was super busy with people spilling out from every possible doorway.it was pretty overwhelming having arrived from a peaceful finca in the countryside to now in the middle of a small city, pollution very noticeable.

Jesse really wanted a coca cola and I offered to go get one,but it was pretty intense out there so we headed out together to round the corner,passing many different bars with people playing pool and everyone out and about. January is the Colombian summer holiday so it's pretty busy at the moment.

The hostal we were staying in (like a guesthouse) had a little dog called pumba, who was the most scared dog I've ever met. Very nervous boy.

I made us some gross buttery pasta (trying to recreate a Meera sodha recipe with only half the ingredients), sorry Jesse.

We had many lovely interactions with locals. On the way to the thermales, we met a man called Jackson who sells coffee products and plants, he wanted to open a business with us where we would sell his products in the UK. He gave us some gorgeous coffee nougat! He asked if we were together and reassured us it's fine in Colombia,it's normal . We tested this out at the thermales later, but got a lot of stares!! It might just be that we were also the only gringos there.

The termales were interesting. We caught a bus up to the site and got flustered at the reception when the lady asked us for our passports and we didn't have them. Luckily we had a pic of them so that was enough. We were hungry so ordered a veggie hamburger and then went into the pretty murky waters of the termales. There's 4 pools and a waterfall, it felt like going into a big bath with lots of people. It was hot and sunny ,so it felt weird sitting in a hot pool. There were loads of Colombian families there who were enjoying themselves.

We had a good few hours there then decided to come back down to Santa Rosa. The buses here are very relaxed, often half an hour late. There's lots of waiting around but it's part of the relaxed culture I think.

We popped into the veggie shop on the way back and got very confused about prices; we thought the lady said 70,000 and we only had 60,000 on us. We were confused and unsure and then the lovely lady said it was 7,000 not 70,000. Oopsie. ( For context around 5,500 is £1)

We had a better dinner that night, with guacamole and arepas. Arepas are a maize and pancake-esque. Nom.Read more