Valle de Cocora

Day trips...the life blood of the traveller. Rain...the wrecker of day trips. It rained today, but stopped as soon as I got to my destination and walked around. Then it rained again on the way back to my hostel. What cooperative weather!

I went to Salento today. Salento is a little town, about an hour's bus ride away from Pereira, that has boomed since being mentioned in Lonely Planet. As a result, it's all tarted up for the tourists and that's who's there. I didn't like it very much at all.

It's mostly a weekend place, but there are still some amenities available to the weekday traveller. It seems to be a place visited on the weekend by locals and tourists alike. Kind of like a Niagara Falls for the residents of the Zona Cafetera. That's the name given to the main coffee growing area in Colombia. The main reason I wanted to go to Salento is because they have jeeps that go from the main square to the Valle de Cocora.

The Valle de Cocora has some of the most beautiful landscapes in Colombia and is also home to Colombia's national tree, the wax palm tree. These monster trees can get higher than 60m. It was incredible to be there on the weekday when no one else is around. Except this dog, who wouldn't stop following me after I gave him a little bit of chicken. I guess they're like seagulls too.

Enjoy the photos. It was just so amazing, I didn't know what not to put up.