One of the great things about traveling with Wifi Tribe is that it encourages me to be more adventurous than I might be on my own. So, after just 6 days in Medellín, I had already packed my bags again and headed off for a weekend trip to a small pueblo called Salento.
The adventure began the moment I arrived at the airport and realized that I’d be taking a tiny prop plane for the 40 minute flight to Pereira, a larger town about an hour away from our final destination (this was preferable to a 12 hour, windy bus ride). As I walked through the airport toward the gate, I noticed there was a whole display on on some Colombian celebrity that died in a plane crash. Not exactly confidence-building, to say the least!
A few moments after take off, we experienced one of those nerve racking, pit-in-your-stomach drops that caused a handful of passengers to inadvertently release an audible shriek (I’ll admit, I was one of them!). Even more nerve racking was the fact that from this tiny airport in the Medellin valley, the plane needed to quickly ascend to a high enough altitude to clear the tall mountains on the valley’s perimeter. For a moment, it felt like there was a chance we wouldn’t clear them. In reality, I’m sure I had nothing to worry about, but that didn’t stop me from involuntarily grabbing the arm of my seatmate for a few harrowing moments until we had safely made it out of the valley.
This was actually one of the biggest planes there!
The view from our airbnb
Salento was absolutely stunning.
The town square
The town of Salento
After an hour long taxi ride through lush jungles and mountain views, we arrived in the colorful town of Salento. I quickly made friends with one of the neighborhood stray dogs, who I named Julio after the tour guide I mentioned in my last post. Salento is known for it’s trucha (trout), so my first meal was tacos de trucha with patacones, another local delicacy made of smashed and fried plantains.
The town square was filled with food trucks that had makeshift seating areas in front of them. They all served almost the same thing - various trout dishes served with rice & beans and plantains.
Cocora Valley Hike
On Saturday morning, we awoke bright and early to hike the Cocora Valley, Salento’s main attraction. We hopped in a couple of jeeps for the 20 minute ride to the trail head. We were 9 to a jeep - 6 in the wagon and 3 hanging off the back! When it was my turn to hang off the back on the return trip, I was glad to be wearing sunglasses when a couple of branches whipped me in the face as we tore across the windy road.
Riding in the jeep
Guys standing on the back of the jeep
The hike was absolutely incredible. We started along a stream that wound through the valley floor, where we were surrounded by meadows where cows and sheep grazed, and enormous, lush mountains towering over us. A couple of stray dogs decided to keep us company through this part of the hike. We then entered a more jungle-like section of the trail, where we inched our way across tiny wooden bridges suspended above a babbling stream. Slowly, we started climbing…
And climbing…
And climbing…
It was exhausting, but when we finally made it to the top, it was all worth it! Just check out these views..
I also made friends with a horse. duh.
The view from the top.
After reaching the top, we slowly made our way through the valley, famous for its wax palm trees. Standing at a whopping 200 feet, these are some of the tallest palm trees in the world. What struck me was how they grew so sporadicly, giving the palm forest an almost eery feeling as fog crept between the towering trunks. We spent a good hour just sitting on a hill, admiring the view. One triber brought out his drone, which I have to admit irked me a bit (why can’t we just enjoy the nature?!). But I will say that it took some pretty epic pictures.
One of my tribe-mates playing Tejo. Of course, as soon as I stopped filming, he hit the explosives! So I didn’t catch it on film :( But you can see the packets of gunpowder in the middle of the mud target.
A party game with explosives
When we returned to the town, we decided it was time to try our hand at Tejo, a Colombian version of Cornhole involving explosives. Yes, you read that correctly! Basically, imagine a game of Cornhole, except instead of bean bags, you throw rocks, and instead of a painted target, you’re aiming for a small circle of about 6 carefully-placed packets of gunpowder. When you hit the gunpowder with the rock, it explodes! Very exciting.
Getting back on the horse
At this point it had been a whole week and a half since I had ridden a horse, so the next morning I (along with 5 others) woke up bright and early to squeeze in a ride before my flight that afternoon. I took the lead on finding the place, since it was extremely important to me that the horses were well cared for (which is not always true in South America). Luckily, we found an amazing place that offers fantastic trail rides on horses that seem happy and healthy and not over-worked - for less than $8 an hour! Starting in the town center, we wound our way down into the valley past the famous coffee fincas. Once we reached the valley floor, we spent about 30 minutes forging our way through the river and the lush surrounding jungle. Our guide followed on his horse, literally clearing stray branches and weeds from the trail with a machete as he went. The horses were also really small, technically pony-sized. The owner said they were all Criollo mixes… which I believe is like a Paso Fino (for my horse friends, they’re gaited). He said mine had some race horse in him! This was great for when we took off galloping… :)
What really struck me was how well-trained these horses were. As we walked along the dirt road into the valley, cyclists in bright colored outfits flew past us out of blind corners, and trucks rattled by with tarps and strings and all sorts of odd and ends hanging off of them. Anyone who knows horses knows that this would NOT fly with most horses. As if that wasn’t enough, the horses carefully navigated their way through slippery rocks, steep hills, fallen branches… all with beginners on their backs. When the more confident riders galloped ahead of the group (no helmets of course), the other horses dutifully stayed behind (many horses would hate being left behind!). Of course, the trip leader was completely unphased. Not something you’d ever find in the States!
Riding through the river
Back to “real” life
I returned to Medellín exhausted but happy. During the week, I’ve been trying to work at least 5 hours a day (though with all the distractions here, this has been quite challenging!). I’ve gone dancing on average 4 times a week (1 group class, 2 private classes, and 1 open dancing). I’m really improving and LOVING it! Last class I learned how to do a triple spin!! I’m also getting to get to know some “regulars” at the dance club and it feels great to start to feel like I actually live here. I just booked my airbnb for Feb 9 - March 9 with my roommate, Heather, so I am officially staying here 2 months!
Wifi Tribe has a tradition called “tribal tuesday”, which involves making weekend plans, having dinner & drinks, and then going dancing somewhere. So Tuesday nights here are always exciting… one of my favorite hangout spots is a bar that literally has a BALL PIT. It’s just like the McDonalds play pen!! Dream come true. Filled with germs, but a dream come true.
Not much else to report.. next post will be on my weekend in Guatapé!