This week has been incredible.
Tuesday, I spent my last day in Medellin, riding the cable cars, seeing the city, and spending time with Irfan and some new friends.
Wednesday I left Medellin for Selento. The entire ride was beautiful, driving through mountains, valleys, forests, and farm land. It was a six hour bus ride to the place where they dropped me off on the side of the road. From there a mini bus picked up me and some other backpackers and took us to the small, quiet, adorable little town of Selento.
Selento is nestled right in the heart of the mountains, and even the view from my $8 a night hostel window was Incredible.
Immediately I fell in love with the little town that had one pretty church, a town park where the same familiar faces always sit, and beautiful painted buildings along with their tourist shops of all kinds of clothing and trinkets.
I spent the first day in Selento lonely and wondering why on earth I was having such a hard time meeting people. I walked around for awhile, then sat in the park for a long time, just watching the people. Tons of kids ran around, and old farmers and casually dressed women (welcome change from classy Medellin.) After sitting for awhile, I smiled at an older gentleman who then sat on the bench beside me. We then had a short conversation about life and travel, and then another gentleman came and sat besides us. Somehow we got talking about horses, and he said he knew someone with horses. Long story short, I met a nice horse named Hitano who over the course of two days took me to a little waterfall and then on a long, quick, bumpy four hour ride to Valle de Cocora.
(Then Hitano lost a shoe and had to get it fixed! Luckily there were nice horse owners there with the right tools...)
Unfortunately, I was also with a very awkward, quiet boy as a "guide" who by the end of the day had gotten on every nerve of mine by constant whipping Hitano to go faster and pretty much not saying a word. So awkward. So, I enjoyed meeting Hitano, but not so much the ride, and was pretty annoyed by the end of day two in Seleto and ready to leave.
I made plans to meet a volunteer friend in Cali the next day, but then...I met the Germans. (Insert scary face.) ((Just kidding. Kind of.))
Julian became my roommate. He was traveling with Sarah and Fabian. They invited me to dinner with them, and the rest is history. They convinced me to stay the next day to hike the Valle, and I am so glad I did!
If I had just gone riding and not gone back to the Valle a second day, I would have missed this...
The first five hours of the hike were pretty normal...
...and consisted of hiking through (sometimes) muddy pastures of fat cows...
...and fuzzy newborn babies...
...up intense mountains, running out of water, taking a million selfies...
...and catching our breath at the beautiful mountains.
Our first stop, after about six kilometers of hiking, was at a hummingbird feeding station where tons of the coolest and biggest hummingbirds swarmed around.
We were treated to hot chocolate and queso, took a million photos, and continued to hike 6 kilometers up mountain. It was the second most intense hike of my life, (after 26 kilometer Baru in Panama) and when we got to the top (which wasn't the top at all)....there was really nothing worth seeing.
Our hiking crew tried not to complain and to make the best of it, we bought some sugar cane tea from the farm at "Estrella de Agua", took more selfies, and admired the few animals.
We then took a break and napped on spongy grass before heading down, then back up another mountain where we were finally able to buy more water. (Note to self. Always bring extra water on hikes.)
Then, finally, finally, we started to see what we had come to see. Tall trees started rising out of the ground; random sticks with a green crown.
The more we walked, the more trees appeared, and the view was absolutely breath taking.
I was shocked that I had almost left without seeing this world. We ran down through the valley, among the trees, tripping on the most spongy earth is ever walked on.
The Valle easily rises close to the top of the most amazing things I've ever seen. There really are no words, and photos don't begin to do it justice...
After taking a million more photos and walking up one more hill, we arrived at the end of our journey where "willys" - aka jeeps - were waiting to take us back to Selento.
How many people can you fit in one Jeep? We fit 14, but I'm sure you could fit more.
Back in town we got a much needed and much appreciated huge dinner of burgers and fries followed by a delicious peanut butter brownie and ice cream (so Colombian, we know.)
The burger place was filled with backpackers, and they invited us to join them that night for "techo" (pronounced tay-cho) - a game that involved throwing heavy 2 inch rocks into a box of mud, trying to hit explosives in the middle. Yeah. It was pretty epic. We joined a bunch of farmers (clad in hats, dirty clothes, and mud boots...)
...in a little poker place with techo lanes set up. It reminded me somewhat of the corn hole game we play in Wisconsin (most people have never heard of it,) and just like the corn hole game I was absolutely terrible. But, it was fun to spend time with almost 20 other world travelers in such a local place.
After a few techo games, Sarah and I spent the night leaning to dance Salsa (Again - we white girls will be learning forever) with one of the most amazing dancers I've ever seen in my life. We felt pretty special that among all the girls in the room, he chose to mmmmdance with us. Thank you, blonde hair?
Saturday, I was again going to leave, but those crazy Germans again convinced me to stay. We had a breakfast (I had more sugar cane tea and cheese...)
...and then, much to our horror (and to the horror of our aching bodies) we were to walk another hour to a coffee farm tour!
Luckily it was all downhill, and the tour was pretty cool, seeing exactly how the famous Colombian coffee is grown and processed, from the tiny seed, to the pruning, and wearing the baskets used to harvest the berries - all by hand.
After the tour, we were lucky enough to catch a jeep back. Our boys decided to walk to a waterfall, and ended up walking for hours and not finding it. Sarah and I were pretty happy we hadn't decided to walk more - instead we made chickenless noodle soup.
The night was pretty epic. Selento is a quiet town with an empty park during the week, and then the weekend roles around and suddenly there are tons of vendors, Inflatables, and tons of people everywhere.
So, the night was spent between discotechs and salsa and the park where local hippies played Cumbia music and taught met a simple but fun cumbia dance. The whole atmosphere was so chill and beautiful, happy and freeing...besides the few intense fights that police had to break up, but a local, Andres, assured me that it was very normal...
And now, I am in Popyan...I said goodbye to my wonderful German friends and took a three hour bus ride to Cali (so glad I decided to skip it. Just another big city. I may catch it on the way back though to experience the "salsa Capital of the world."), a quick switch (I arrived to the ticket window and the guy said the bus was waiting for me. Good timing!) and another three hour ride. Colombia is such a huge place! On my second bus, I sat next to a beautiful Colombian mother and her two year old son, Andres Philipe. We spent the ride laughing and hitting high fives and fist bumping. Such a cutie!
And now, on to new adventures. As always, I am missing familiar faces, and again wishing I had someone to travel with, yet I am so thankful for everything I get to see and experience. Travel has a way of making everything so beautiful. :)
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