23/05/2019 – Cocora Valley, Salento, Colombia

The place we are staying in is more like a hotel than a hostel, very clean and comfortable. Our room is on the floor above where the host and his mother live. There is a separate entrance and a communal kitchen and then a corridor of about 6 en-suite bedrooms. We got up and out reasonably quickly and went out for breakfast at the same place as yesterday, a hostel café called ‘Meraki’ then we passed a café selling packed lunches so we picked two of these up on our way through to the main plaza. At the main plaza we bought our tickets and then jumped into the next Jeep about to depart. When I say jumped in I mean on. The jeep was full of passengers, so Josh and I stood on the metal grid platform at the back of the vehicle. It was fun and we saw a lot of scenery on the 20-minute ride, however it started raining on route so we were drenched by the time we arrived at the Cocora Valley! We started our trek up through the river route.

It was absolutely beautiful, so green and lush. The path went went into the forest and we crossed a load of rickety troll bridges on the way.

After just over two hours of walking we got to a hummingbird sanctuary. We were offered a coffee from the family that live there, so a bit cold and wet (it rained the whole day!) it was gratefully received, and there were some wooden benches and tables so we could eat our lunch we had brought with us. Just in front of where we re-fuelled were two little bird houses and two bird feeders hanging from the tree with sugary water on offer. There were uncountable hummingbirds of all different types flying around. They weren’t shy at all, they even flew to feed from Josh’s hand and then one flew into my hand whilst I was taking photos! They are so mesmerising, tiny and with petrol green and blue colourings, their wings moving so fast, you could see and feel and even hear them whizz by you.

Beautiful hummingbirds.

There was a pet dog there that kept trying to catch the birds, but they were far too quick for it, they were also not scared, I even think they were teasing him at times! Unfortunately Josh’s camera wasn’t too happy with the amount of water from the relentless rain, despite the waterproof bag in a bag in a bag, so it was having a bit of a moment. Josh had to go into the kitchen (basically an outdoor hut) and take the camera apart and hold it near the fire that the family was cooking on to try and dry it out a little. He still managed to get some wonderful pictures, and wrapped it up extra tight for the way home. We went home another way, down through the wax palm valley. You basically walk down through the clouds and see the silhouettes of huge wax palms, the tallest in the world, up to 60m! It looked very mystical, the whole hike looked like it should be a film set, we just need to think of the story!

It was another good couple of hours back down to the Jeep pick up point. Josh wasn’t going to risk taking his camera out in the rain again so we just took a few pictures on his phone. There are bears and pumas and all sorts of wildlife in the forest, which we didn’t come across (probably a good thing!) We got back to the pick up point and we squeezed a good eight cold and soggy tourists into the back of the jeep. It was a quiet journey! We got dropped off at the main plaza and walked back to our hostel where we peeled soggy clothes off and had hot showers to warm up. Our host brought us coffee and Josh took his camera apart to dry it out a bit further. After recovering for an hour or so we went to a hostel restaurant called ‘Shakshuka’ where we had a quick falafel dinner. Weary after hiking over 20km today, we got ourselves into bed and watched another episode of Narcos before falling asleep.