24/05/2019 – Travel day, Salento to Cali, Colombia

We got up and packed, reluctantly shoving still wet clothes from yesterday into our rucksacks. We got our stuff out the room and then went to our usual place for breakfast. We grabbed another packed lunch like yesterday, then went to a café ‘Jesus Maria’ which had been on our to do list since arriving in Salento, since it has such good reviews from both Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor. It certainly didn’t let us down! We got a coffee and then went back to the hostel to grab our stuff. The bus left from just round the corner so we hopped on amongst the locals to travel an hour to Armenia. On the way a few things fell off the bus and broke but the driver didn’t seem too fussed so neither were we! We eventually got to the bus station which is basically a big hall of ticket vendors from different tour companies selling tickets to different destinations at different prices and in different types of vehicle to one another. Thankfully I had done a little bit of reading about who to go with, so we bought our tickets to Cali with ‘Expreso Palmira’ - a 3 hour journey for under £6, not bad! We got stopped by an armed policeman in the bus station who demanded our passports and made notes of them and our next destination, not sure what that was about! We made use of the toilets and then went through the boarding gate and onto the bus. It is another comfortable 15-seat minibus. They always tag and number your big bags as you load them into the boot. The rucksack plane cover I bought from Decathlon is a massive win, one of the best things I brought with me, it locks and stops my bag from getting filthy from the back of the bus, I can even use it over the back of the rucksack when I am wearing it so it isn’t too much of a faff either. Josh might see if he can get hold of one too now. Beautiful scenery on the way! We got out at the bus station in Cali and got a taxi to our hostel ‘Casa de Aldry’ – it's perfect, a little double room with a fan and a shared kitchen and roof terrace. It is in the San Antonio area which from what I can gather is fairly central. We settled in then walked a couple of blocks down the road to get a pizza from ‘Bao Pizza’ and ate beautiful homemade food before walking back and chilling in the room for the rest of the evening.