The country we left a little piece of us behind inWhere do I even begin with this country? Despite warnings about the reputed travel phenomenon of the Colombian claw of needing to stay longer than planned or rerouting your travel plans to return neither Dani or I felt we would find much of interest to us here. Boy were we wrong! We fell for this country and we fell hard. Within 2 days of arriving in this wondrous place we were like giddy school girls with their first crush, when they've just been told that someone told so and so that somebody had heard that they like you too. Or for you gay girls out there, that moment when you get the definitive answer that that girl you had your eye on, but weren't sure which way she swings, plays on the same team. Big beaming grins were plastered on our faces as soon as we woke up and I (who had been suffering from some serious travel fatigue) felt the heaviness seeping out as we basked in the glow of our new crush that seemed pretty keen on us too. I grew up next door to a Colombian family and vividly remember hearing Ruth's laugh from across the street. Her warmth would grasp you from the moment you spoke to her and her smile just made you feel safe. This is the reason I had always wanted to come but due to it's reputation and other Colombian friends/students Dani and I had, it wasn't high on our priority list. It turns out Colombia had everything I had been looking for in South America. The warmth, the music, the colour, the food, the energy and above all else a feeling of comfort and safety we were not expecting. We crossed the border with some confusion over where to get our exit stamps from Ecuador. It turns out that the car drops you off near Colombian immigration so you have to head back over to Ecuador and stamp out. To avoid any confusion the entry and exit lines for Ecuador are in fact the same so just stand in the queue and wait your turn. We then headed over to Colombia and we're stamped in with no hassle. A glorious sight beheld us on the other side...a woman with our favourite type of polystyrene box filled to capacity with freshly made local snacks, right there as we opened the door into our next country. Now if you have read our Ecuador post you may already know that we had pushed through to the border straight from the airport in Quito. This had meant that we hadn't eaten anything substantial by this stage since breakfast the day before. This woman stared at us in amazement as we basically asked for one of everything she had. This was a great start to our Colombian culinary journey. Following this acquistion and very speedy consumption, with a bit of negotiation we hopped into a taxi (6,000 COP/$2.70 AUD/2.05 USD) and headed for the bus station to get to Popayan. The bus station had many friendly service providers who had buses leaving within an hour of our arrival. We went with the company that was leaving first for 30,000 COP ($13.60 AUD/10.25 USD). The scenery between the border and Popayan is incredible. Beautiful green rolling hills, dotted with plantations and the prettiest little farmhouses. There are also waterfalls that cascade down by the side of the road. We were in total awe...no one had mentioned how stunning Colombia was. We arrived at the station and weren't in the mood for finding our way into the city to find a guesthouse so after a couple of attempts at finding reasonably priced accommodation we stumbled across a sweet family run place which looked ok above a mechanics shop. As soon as we were connected to Wi-Fi Dani booked us on a walking tour of the city for the next day and then we headed out for some food. Even around the bus station there were culinary delights on every corner. Dani settled for a pastille, which are large parcels off meat, rice and beans wrapped with banana leaf. I opted for a couple of arepa con queso, which are a staple in Colombia and come with almost every meal. The city of Popayan is a gorgeous example of a colonial city and it is completely white. It dazzled in the sun as we wandered through its cobbled streets sampling every snack we came across (I'd like to say it was because we hadn't eaten by this stage properly for 2 days but it hey lezbehonest we probably would have done it anyway) our greatest discovery was on our walking tour when we were taken to a place to have Salpicón Payanés this is a common drink all over Colombia but this place does it slightly differently to the street stalls blending mora berries (South American blackberries) with lulo (for those kiwis out there it tastes surprisingly like feijoa) and orange with ice. It's delicious and perfect for a hot day. Now there was some debate as to whether we continued on to our next destination after only 2 nights but we found out that our friend Jen we'd met in Ecuador would be in Salento the next day, so our decision was made. We could catch a minivan to Almania and then a bus to Salento…easy. Salento is awash with colourful traditional houses amidst the low lying coffee plantations of the Colombian Andes. This was my dream. As I was a barista in a past life I have a huge passion for not just making and drinking coffee but also for the details around harvesting and roasting coffee. It turned out that Plantation House (one of the guesthouses set on a coffee plantation) had a tour that contained a talk about growing coffee, the history of coffee in Colombia, a tasting and a roasting demonstration. I learnt so much about coffee here and it has given me the desire to roast my own on return to New Zealand. The owner has a fabulous idea he is trying to get off the ground, which is leasing plants that they grow so that the yield is yours. I can tell you after sampling their coffee I will be the first to sign up when he gets it off the ground. One surprising fact we did learn is that Colombians don’t really drink real coffee. All the amazing Colombian beans we get overseas are there finest quality while Colombians are left with the low-grade beans. This is why they’ve developed Tinto which is more like a weak coffee scented sugar drink that is available country wide. Salento is also a great base for Valle de Corcora which is a valley set with wax palms (the tallest palms in the world) where you can walk through farmland and up in to the forest to a “hummingbird sanctuary” I say this because it is more like a café that puts food out to attract the birds than a sanctuary but it’s well worth the climb for the close up experience and the hot chocolate and cheese (see Foodie Friday for it’s full description) that comes with the entry (5,000 COP/$2.25 AUD/1.70 USD). After a good catch up with Jen and a few days of drinking some fabulous coffee it was time to manoeuvre our way to Jardin. It is a tiny village in the mountains about 3 hours south of Medellín. This proved to be slightly more complicated than we had imagined. Even with Jen (who speaks fluent Spanish) we still weren’t any clearer on how to get there after asking the man at the Salento bus station. We did know we needed to get to Pereira first before continuing on our journey this stage one is only about an hour and was very easy. We arrived there and had it confirmed that we were heading the right way and that we had enough time to grab a good breakfast. We caused a bit of a stir at the bus station when the stern policeman approached Dani to examine her bag. I can’t say that given Colombia’s reputation we weren’t a little nervous but this feeling swiftly drifted away when he broke into a great big smile and simply questioned why we did not yet have a Colombia patch! Full and ready for the next, inevitably more complicated stage, we made our way to the next mini van and off we set for Bolombolo. After yet another spectacular drive we were ushered off said minivan into a dusty car park. Slightly nervous now as we had no way of knowing where our final bus was going to stop and realizing quickly that everyone around us was drunk because it was the first day of Semana Santa (Easter Holy Week) we followed a local woman who had been instructed by a fellow passenger on the last bus where we were going. Finally we found the bus station, which was about 500m up the road and enquired about a ticket. The man looked slightly confused but then nodded and showed us the waiting area. This is when it really started to look bad. There were 4 of us waiting and several buses had chugged past filled to the brim with people off to spend the holidays with family. A bus finally pulled up and after being forcefully shoved to it’s driver we were told that there was only room for 2 people. Desperation setting in as it was starting to get concerningly late we begged him to allow us travel like locals and sit in the aisle as the other 2 passengers were travelling alone (we have noticed in many countries in South America unlike Asia, bus drivers are more reluctant to let gringos sit in obscure places to fill in space). We settled into the last leg of the journey and were starting to relax into the idea that we may arrive just before the rain started in and the sun set. It turned out we relaxed a little too soon, as our bus was pulled over by the military for a random search. We were taken off the bus to be searched on the side of the road. Soldiers (complete with guns and sniffer dogs) took turns to go through belongings and pat people down. Again, like earlier in the day this should have been a slightly scary experience however the soldier leading the search had one of the warmest smiles I’ve ever seen. Having decided we were all clean and that the sniffer dogs hadn’t found anything left on board he wished everyone a happy holy week and we were on our way. We arrived in Jardin as the sun was setting having been on the road since 7.30 that morning and were again surprised by the willingness for people to help us. Dani asked a woman in broken Spanish where we could find the guesthouses and suddenly she was on the phone to her friend to get a good recommendation. Unfortunately for us we didn’t really understand her instructions so we just headed in the direction she pointed in and found a little guesthouse just off the main square. It wasn’t great (this is a bit of an understatement) but it had a room with a private bathroom and the second one even had a plug socket (that he wanted to charge us extra for). The beds were like sleeping on concrete blocks but it was warm and we were done for the day.
Up early due aforementioned beds we thought we’d start with a breakfast in the main square. We found a little spot that did an excellent breakfast complete with hot chocolate and cheese before making our way around the little town. Jardin is tiny but it is beautiful. It is the most colourful place we came across in Colombia and the square lined with old timers chatting and sipping on tinto was great. It also has a wonderful walk up to the cable car which is more like a closed basket on a wire rope that swings you over the ravine back to the city (I’m not going to lie my heart was beating more than a little fast as I climbed in) but gives you a great view of the town as you whistle down. Jardin was definitely my favourite stop.
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