October 23, 2013

Salento is surrounded by beautiful mountains, so Chandler and I figured we should do some hiking. The Valley of Cocora is known for tall palm trees, high on the hills, that are often shrouded in fog. It sounded like a perfect place to check out. We took a very tame jeep ride to the park and hit the trail.

The route was along the same path that the horses used, so things were a bit muddy. The palm trees were the most obvious features and just awesome as we had heard. We started out next to pastures with cows, but quickly moved into the jungle. The temperatures were mild, but it was humid, so as usual, we were covered in sweat in no time.

Misty palm trees

Bridge walk

The path led to a small farm up in the mountains which is known for the congregations of hummingbirds that the owners attract with feeders and bowls of sugary water. We had to pay a small fee to cover the cost of maintaining the trail and bridges. They gave us a large glass of warm Coke, which actually tasted pretty good at the time. The hype about the birds proved to be true.

Wings up

There were hummingbirds everywhere. They were zooming around between the four different feeders. It was amazing how close I was able to get to the birds. I was able to identify three different species of hummingbirds.

The Long-tailed Sylph

The Collared Inca

The Western Emerald Hummingbird

After our break, we opted to continue hiking to the top of the mountain. The path was less muddy, but the sun came out as we were climbing. Of course, once we reached the top, the clouds came out and it started raining. Oh well, we had a nice time.

View from the top

Chandler the palm trees

October 21 – 22 , 2013

After constantly being on the move, Chandler and I were ready to go at a slower pace. Our hostel had great internet and Salento was a sleepy town, so we took the day easy. We updated the blog, which was over two months behind and took a walk through town.

Salento

The highlight of the day was playing tejo. Tejo is a traditional sport in Colombia and a lot of fun. Basically, you throw a metal puck at small, exploding targets set into clay. The targets are triangles filled with gunpowder that either make a big boom or light on fire when hit. The targets aren’t too hard to hit, but it is advised to have a beer or two to improve aim. We played for several hours.

Playing tejo

Chandler lining up his shot

The next day, we went on the Don Elias coffee plantation tour just down the road from our hostel. The tour began with a little walk to a bush sporting green and red berries. The small family finca was perched on a steep hillside. All the coffee is shade grown, so there were lots of avocado, banana and plantain trees to supply shade and food for the family. Our guide plucked two red berries from different plants and explained that they grew 2 different types of coffee, Colombian and Arabica. The more red of the two was the Colombian variety. All berries are hand picked and only when fully ripe.

Colombian and Arabica coffee berries

The beans are squeezed out of the skins and allowed to dry in a small greenhouse type structure. Another shell is removed and the beans are ready for roasting.

Ready to roast

The beans are put into a big metal bowl, put over a wood fire and stirred continuously. The beans turn brown and expand a surprising amount.

Roasted and raw beans

The beans are now ready to be ground and brewed. We were treated to a delicious cup of coffee at the end of the tour.

We got caught in a big rainstorm on the way back, but luckily it was warm rain, and was kind of fun.

October 19 – 20, 2013

We spent the 19th on a couple of buses traveling to Salento. Salento is a small town located almost 200 miles west of Bogotá. We went up and over large mountains covered in jungle and spent the whole time reading. It was a relaxing ride, except for the guy in front of us who enjoyed singing along to his ipod very loudly. Record companies will not be calling him up any time soon. We arrived in town after dark and headed straight to the hostel for an early night.

We woke up early and had a delicious breakfast of eggs, corn balls, toast, arepas (thick corn tortillas) and hot chocolate. Then we walked through town. Salento is full of shops featuring local artists work and pretty touristy. Most of the tourists were Colombians though, so it wasn’t just a bunch of gringos.

After our tour of town, we opted to do something we had avoided through most of the trip: enjoy one of the touristy activities set up through our hostel. I wanted to go horseback riding. Chandler is not a big fan of horses, so I was surprised I was able to convince him to go with me.

Chandler on a horse!

Our ride started with a mellow walk out of town and then down a gravel road. The moment we hit the gravel it began to rain really hard. Luckily our guide, Diego, had rubber ponchos ready to keep us dry. Then the fun began. Our horses took us down a narrow and steep incised path, lined with rock and mud. It was extra scary with the rain making the path muddy, slippery and essentially a temporary creek. We had a good time, but it was a little hard trusting the horse to not trip and fall.

At the bottom of the hill, the rain stopped and we were able to put our ponchos away. We rode along the main road before turning off for a national park and headed towards a waterfall. The scenery was beautiful and the rest of the ride was mellow. We crossed a few streams, which Chandler’s horse did not like, and we also went through a couple unused railroad tunnels.

Stream crossing!

I’m on a horse

The waterfall was pretty and Chandler immediately wanted to go swimming. It was a little too cold for me, but he striped down and was in the water in minutes. There was another couple there and the guy would not be shown up. He ripped off his clothes and quickly joined Chandler. It was amusing watching the guys as they tried to pretend the cold water wasn’t that bad.

Waterfall

Us

Swimming buddies

The Egyptian on a bridge

The ride back to the hostel was up the main road, so not as exciting as the ride to the waterfall. We did get to trot a bit, but our rears couldn’t handle it for too long. It was nice to do something a little touristy and out of the ordinary for us.

Our group

October 18, 2013

Bogotá has a number of free museums and Chandler and I decided to take advantage of a few. We went to the Botero museum in the morning. The museum features a huge collection of paintings, drawings and statues not only from Botero, but also from other international known artists.

Man sitting with pipe by Picasso

Great genius by Max Ernst

Botero is probably the most well known Colombian artists and has a style that is all his own, Boterismo. Botero makes everything chubby and exaggerated. There were chubby people, horse, cats, chubby objects and buildings. It was very interesting.

Dancing couple

Earthquake in Popayan

No need to see the original now

The next museum we visited was the Museo Histórico Policía or the Police Museum. All 18 years olds are required to serve one year with the national police force and we had one such individual as our guide. He showed us a number of confiscated items, historical items and a room of weapons. It was a strange mix, but we had a nice time.

It’s a guitar, no a shotgun, not both!

Cold war James Bond pen gun

October 17, 2013

Despite little sleep for the last two nights, we woke up early and hit the ground running. We didn’t really know what to expect, and we were a little nervous because we had read several accounts of people being mugged and worse.

We headed off to the gold museum, but got a little lost and stopped in a park to look at the map. Immediately, a man approached us and asked if we wanted to go on a graffiti tour. Our guards were up and we immediately said no just trying to get rid of him. He must have realized that and spent about 10 minutes talking about himself, the tour and Bogotá while the other members of the tour gathered. We figured he was legitimate and decided to tag along. Best idea ever.

Bogotá is covered with incredible street art and Crisp, our guide and an artist, knew the artists, their stories and the best locations. We walked for about 3 hours around town. It was a great introduction to the city and its issues. We were also able to get oriented and realized that Bogotá was not as scary as we expected.

Flaming bird

Graffiti fox

Crazy-eyed beast

Bullfighting protest art

We learned that street art is not just spray cans. Many artists use stencils or regular brushes and rollers. Some of the art was beautiful and realistic, while other pieces were wacky or political. There are a lot of truly talented people making art in Bogotá. The level of skill was amazing and the vibrant murals everywhere really gave the city a personality.

Political stencil

Little monster

Colorful graffiti girl

After the tour and lunch, we continued onto our original goal, the museum of gold. El Museo del Oro holds the largest collection in the world of pre-Hispanic gold work. There are two floors of extraordinary pieces.

Beautiful jewelry

Amazing gold work

Monkeys

Gold chicken

There was an interesting movie, which showed the ways that people made the amazing gold items. The more intricate pieces were first made out of wax. The wax was then surrounded by clay and fired. As the clay hardened, the wax melted, leaving a void in the clay. Gold was then melted and poured into the clay mold. When cooled, the clay was broken open, leaving the gold piece. No two pieces were exactly the same, because each mold could only be used once.

Tools for gold work

We were pooped at the end of the day, but it was a great introduction to Colombia.