Salento, Colombia

Salento is a really cute and colorful town set in the middle of coffee fincas and farm lands, which means it's surrounded by lush green hills and valleys. The surrounding vegetation is varied - from banana and palm trees, to forests, to bamboo.

In the town, there is a colorful tourist street lined with shops and restaurants. Real Cowboys are walking around town or riding their horses, even pulling up to bars for a beer. They wear the traditional cowboy hats and ponchos. It really is like stepping into another world. The town is small, only about 13 streets total. But most of the action is on the tourist street and the main plaza.

I stayed outside of the town at La Serrena, a really nice Eco lodge / farm. Every morning I had these views with my cups of coffee.

The first day I set off for the hike of the Valley de Cocora with two friends I met at breakfast. The hike was more difficult than we anticipated. We walked through forests and criss crossed the paths over hanging bridges. 

We headed off the circular path to Acaime to see hummingbirds. There were loads, but they were also congregated around the nectar feeders, not in the wild flowers like we expected. Nonetheless they were very cool and very pretty and we saw a few different kinds. The noise the rapid flapping of their wings makes is very loud!

We continued our hike to see the main attraction- the valley of amazingly tall wax palm trees. Just when we were getting sick of hiking and questioning what was so special about this hike, we rounded the corner and saw the palms. And as we continued, it kept getting better!

The second day I took a tour at a coffee finca, El Ocaso. It was very informative and very fun. The tour was set up to provide a real immersion into the coffee process. We started with education of the planting process, and then actually planted seeds. Next we went and actually picked and harvested the seeds off the coffee plants. We took them through the processes of separating skin and seeds, washing and roasting. The machines for this are similar to those for wine making and grapes. Finally was the lesson in making a proper cup of coffee and the taste test.

a coffee plant with seeds

seeds in various stages

From now on, I will be drinking Medium roast. This receives the first class beans. Contrary to my previous belief, dark roast is not better - it is made from second class seeds and needs to be dark roasted (or roasted for longer) to bring out the coffee flavor.

The finca recommends 1 tbsp of medium ground beans for 1 cup of water (small 100 ml). The water should be heated, not boiled, to a simmering level with just the start of small bubbles. Water should be poured over the beans slowly and in a circular manner to make sure they are brewed evenly. (This is for the traditional Colombian "grandma's sock" method where the grounds are places in a pantyhose like strainer over a pot. But it would also apply to the French press)

The finca was a 45 min walk from my hostel and even farther from town. For my return, I waited for the jeeps, which act as the towns bus / taxi transportation, but it didn't come. However a nice old man Alberto picked me up and gave me a ride. He had moved here a year ago from Bogota on his pension, after working for over 30 years. All of our conversation was in spanish, but I definitely needed him to repeat some things a few times, and others I'm not sure if I responded correctly, but it was good practice and my first real, untouristic interaction with a Colombian.

The third day I went for a horse ride through the valleys to see a waterfall. I used to love riding horses when I was little and this was the first time I rode in 10 years or so. It was fun! The views along the way we're beautiful of course.

In the evenings I hung around a bonfire or relaxed with the views - it wasn't a place where you wanted or needed to go out since it was so peaceful and relaxing.