Cocora Valley
Saturday, September 30
Before we would finally have to leave Colombia and move on to the next country, there was one place that I really wanted to visit in Colombia. The village of Salento, located at an altitude of 1900 meters in the Colombian Andes. Above all, we wanted to go hiking there and marvel at the beautiful nature surrounding Salento.
Starting from Medellín we reached the village of Salento after an 8-hour bus ride to the mountains. To save time, we decided to drive at night - basically a good idea, unfortunately we hadn't taken the very, very winding roads into account. Overall, the night on the bus was quite exhausting due to our severe nausea, but the journey still went faster than expected and we reached Salento early in the morning. At the hotel we went to sleep for another two hours. We then got up, had a quick breakfast and set off on the hike we had planned.
The starting point of the hike is located a few kilometers away from the village of Salento and to get there, small busses, which are actually old jeeps, leave from Salento's main square every 30 minutes. Christoph and I managed to get the best seats in the very crowded and narrow Jeep because I politely asked the driver if we could sit next to him on the passenger seat. Not only did we have more space than all the other passengers in the back of the jeep, but we also had the best view through the windshield. As it is often the case in South America, we drove through amazing landscapes.
Eventually we arrived in the area where we wanted to go hiking. The “Valle de Cocora”, the Cocora valley, and the incredibly green hills and the tall palm trees could be seen from afar. Here in the Cocora Valley you can do hikes of different lengths and because we were very surprisingly motivated that day and wanted to enjoy the landscape, we spontaneously decided on doing the long, 7-hour hike. The great thing about this hike is that in those 6-7 hours you walk through a huge variety of landscapes and there’s so much to see!
Starting the hike you will first find yourself in a beautiful green valley of meadows and if there werent tall palm trees everywhere, you could almost think you were in Switzerland or Austria. After passing the green meadows you slowly walk into a forest which could have also been somewhere in Europe, but which then very quickly develops into a tropical rainforest. The hike itself is relatively easy, but you always have to watch your steps. The paths are quite narrow and are often overgrown with roots and plants and there are many suspension bridges with which you are able to cross the rivers and lakes along the way. After a few hours of hiking through the jungle, the landscape slowly changes from being a moist rainforest to a dry coniferous forest. The path becomes steeper and you notice that it is slowly going up. Due to the steep climb and increasing altitude, the hike becomes more and more strenuous, but still manageable. The next section of the hike consists of green but steep meadows. Eventually you’ll reach the highest point of the hike and find yourself at an altitude of 2,800 meters. From there it goes downhill again for a while until you reach the highlight of the hike which is the Cocora Valley with its countless, huge wax palms (which are actually the tallest palm trees in the world!) Although Christoph and I have traveled a lot, this type of landscape was something completely new. The beautiful green hills are dotted with tall wax palm trees which, however, look completely different to tropical palms that you might also know from Southern Europe. If you're as lucky like as we were, you'll even get to see Andean condors circling above the valley. Overall, this hike in Salento, Colombia was one of the most stunning hikes we did during our entire trip!
