Day 8- Valle de Cocora (16/7/25)

 

This has been on my ‘things I must do in Colombia list’ for a very long time. The iconic image of the tall wax palms nestled in a deep forested valley is commonly seen whenever you look for images of Colombia. The wax palm, the tallest palm tree in the world, is a slow growing palm. Many of the palms you see there are hundreds of years old. The wax palm is the national tree of Colombia and is protected by law.

After a somewhat uncomfortable night’s sleep on the hard mattress, I woke still feeling the nausea that I have had for a few days now. I had a large meal the night before and that was a mistake. It seems that, whenever I eat, I get these stomach pains. Shame really because the meal was very nice; Bandeja Paisa, a dish that you find everywhere in Colombia apparently. There is enough meat, rice, beans and egg to satisfy the heartiest of appetite. I couldn’t finish it.

The trip to Cocora Valley is about 30 minutes by Jeep (or Willys as they call them here). These small, and very basic vehicles can hold 3 in the front, 8 in the back, and 3 more standing on a running board on the back of the jeep. I opted for an inside seat, which was fine because there were several young travellers who were keen to take a selfie on the back.

There are two routes around the valley: one that is 2-3 hours and another, more challenging route that takes 5-6 hours. I naturally took the shorter route.

It was hot for the first part of the hike as I was out in the morning sunshine without any shade. Once the path went into the forest, it was much cooler. I had to cross 5 very crude wooden bridges, none of which felt at all safe. There were several waterfalls where I stopped and rested. After this, the path went up, and up, and up some more. This nearly broke me. It seemed that I was climbing forever, with no sign of the top of the hill in sight. The path was mostly made up of large rocks, many of which had become quite slippery. Towards the end I was resting more than walking. Finally, I reached the first of 3 miradors, which thankfully was the highest point on the route. Then it was all downhill, for mile after mile. There were two checkpoints where you had to pay a small amount to access the route. The second checkpoint was to enter El bosque de palmas, the palm forest. Here is where the iconic scenes were to be seen. Tall palm trees emerged from the forested hill sides. The scenery here is absolutely stunning.

By the time I returned back to the Jeep parking, I was completely finished; a broken man. I had been out on the hike for nearly 6 hours; I just wanted to sleep.

I was given a front seat for the return journey, which was good because the outward journey lacked any view from the back of the Jeep.

I got into my room and went straight to sleep for a couple of hours.

On waking I went for a walk around the town. The air was warm, the sun had just set and the whole main square was alive. I thought about eating but decided against it, a day without solids probably would do my stomach good. I had had plenty of sugar in my Coke and Lemonade, oh and I did have a Kit Kat.
I noticed that the Jeeps in the main square were now being decorated with balloons, lights and, in some cases, statues of a saint (or maybe the virgin Mary). Last night there had been a small procession go past when I was in the restaurant. This was clearly going to be a much bigger event. There was an interesting bar just off the main square that had taken my attention, it was basically a sports bar that was used by the locals to play pool, watch football and drink coffee. I went in for a beer and sat at the bar.

After a short while, there was the sound of police sirens outside. It was deafening. Going outside to see what was going on, it was clear that the police motorbikes were acting as a vanguard for the parade, which involved about 15 vehicles all sounding there horn or playing very loud music.

There is one thing that I have noticed about Colombians; they live life loud. Whether it is playing music, singing, or just talking. Everything is full-on and lively.

It’s been another exhausting day. Tomorrow, I move onto another town, just a short ride away in a Willy. I still don’t have much planned after that. I probably need to get onto that tomorrow morning before I check out of Salento.