On our first
day in San Agustin we walked the 3km out of town to explore the Archaeological
Park, a UNESCO world heritage site full of pre-Hispanic stone monoliths. Most of the statues were part of the funerary
paraphernalia of the ancient inhabitants of the area and were related to
funerary rites, the spiritual power of the dead, and the supernatural
world. We spent a peaceful couple of
hours wandering around the park before heading back in to town and up to our hostel
where we spent the afternoon reading in hammocks, drinking cheap rum and
chatting to other travellers.
For our second day in San Agustin we had booked a jeep tour to take us to some outlying sculpture sites that we couldn’t reach on foot as well as some to some waterfalls including one of the highest waterfalls in Colombia at 400m. It wasn’t the most amazing trip we’ve done but was nice to drive around the countryside watching the campesinos harvesting the sugar cane and the horses dragging cut cane through the country lanes.
We left San Agustin early the following morning having bought some homemade wholemeal bread to enjoy with the marmite mum brought out for us. We arrived back in Popayan early afternoon and were introduced to the wonderful world of Exito – a massive supermarket that would be at home anywhere in Europe or North America where we spent a small fortune on a tiny piece of cheddar cheese, mars bars and cake. Rhys spent the afternoon playing on the computer while I headed in to town for a delicious coffee with orange liqueur. Popayan is a pretty city, all the buildings are painted white and every couple of blocks you come to another ornate church.
Another early start and we were on a minibus at 8:30am headed to Armenia 6 hours further north. Once in Armenia we caught another minibus an hour further to Salento and from there we took a Jeep Willy to our hostel, La Serrana. We were in a separate building about 300m down the track from the main hostel so were a little bit ostracised but the house was amazing, three rooms around a communal area with huge windows looking out across the valley. The first day we walked the 2km back in to town to get our bearings and had a short wander through the streets around the main plaza. Salento is beautiful, lots of brightly coloured houses with boutique shops and little cafes. That night we cooked at our house before watching a storm roll in over the valley and heading to bed.
We were woken the next morning by a knock on our bedroom door. Tim had checked in (having arrived a couple of hours earlier and sat in a hammock at reception waiting for someone to show him to the room). He was surprisingly perky considering he’d flown from London and then had a 7 hour bus journey to deal with. After a coffee in our house and a quick breakfast at the hostel we walked back in to town and up to the swings at a view point on the opposite side of the valley. We spent the afternoon back at our house catching up and playing croquet on the lawn with a few too many beers.
The next day we were in the main plaza for a 9:30 collecivo Jeep Willy to the Valle de Cocora where we hiked a popular 5 hour route. The valley is part of the Los Nevados National Natural Park and is the principal location of the national tree and symbol of Colombia, the Quindío wax palm. A couple of hours along the track you enter the Acaime Reserve where you can stop at the lodge for a hot chocolate and slice of cheese and to watch the hummingbirds at the feeders.
Back in Salento that night we arranged to meet a few people in the Plaza and headed to the Tejo hall where it’s free to play but buying beer is mandatory. Tejo is a traditional Colombian sport where you stand 25m from a square of clay and throw heavy metal pucks at the clay aiming to hit the little paper squares full of gun powder to make them explode. We weren’t very good, as soon as we walked in the guy who owned it moved us to throw from halfway down and even then we had to create a Lucie line another metre or so forward. We ended up making up our own game of Killer Tejo since with 9 people it was a little difficult to keep score playing the real game. After Tejo we stopped in a billiard hall and tried to figure out the rules of a game they play there with 3 balls and no table pockets.
Yet another early start and we were on a bus leaving Salento and heading for Pereira an hour away. From there we caught a bus to Manizales and asked to be dropped off at the San Pereguino bridge about 13km out of town. The road to Manizales was beautiful, you wind through all these coffee plantations and can see crops growing in regimented lines as far as the eye can see. Once at the bridge we stopped in a café to use a phone and call down to Hacienda Venecia to come and collect us. 10 minutes later we had driven down a dirt track and crossed a river and pulled up at the gates of the Hacienda. It was stunning. A one storey white house with all the wood work painted red and the walls lined with books and antique saddles and the like. We were shown to a basement room where they put the overflow from the hostel (the house itself is a boutique hotel and out of our price range to stay there). Then we were abandoned.
We had a walk around the grounds and discovered lots of peacocks and turkeys before running in to the owner who was incredibly unhelpful. We finally worked out that the hostel was a km up the road back over the river and that we’d have to walk there for each meal or for any information. We waded across the river for lunch and ended up staying at the hostel for a while although it was overrun with people travelling on a Dragoman truck so they were a lot older than us and all knew each other. After a swim the boys went to watch TV inside and I headed back to the Hacienda to enjoy the sun by doing 2 hour walk that had been mapped out. The walk was really nice, walking past the workers accommodation and through the plantations, both well developed and the nursery, knee deep in grass. The views down the valley as you wind up the hill are amazing and all the workers I saw were so friendly.
I met the boys back at the Hacienda for a swim before we waded the river again to the hostel for dinner. After dinner we hung around at the hostel for a while to make the walk seem worthwhile and once Rhys had finished watching a film we headed out in the pitch black to traverse the river again. Thank god Tim had his phone so we had some light otherwise we could still be out there now walking around. Back at the Hacienda the gate was locked and we had to climb the 10 foot fence to get back to our room. Despite how beautiful the place was we were staring to regret staying there and being made to feel like we were in the way all the time.
For our second day in San Agustin we had booked a jeep tour to take us to some outlying sculpture sites that we couldn’t reach on foot as well as some to some waterfalls including one of the highest waterfalls in Colombia at 400m. It wasn’t the most amazing trip we’ve done but was nice to drive around the countryside watching the campesinos harvesting the sugar cane and the horses dragging cut cane through the country lanes.
We left San Agustin early the following morning having bought some homemade wholemeal bread to enjoy with the marmite mum brought out for us. We arrived back in Popayan early afternoon and were introduced to the wonderful world of Exito – a massive supermarket that would be at home anywhere in Europe or North America where we spent a small fortune on a tiny piece of cheddar cheese, mars bars and cake. Rhys spent the afternoon playing on the computer while I headed in to town for a delicious coffee with orange liqueur. Popayan is a pretty city, all the buildings are painted white and every couple of blocks you come to another ornate church.
Another early start and we were on a minibus at 8:30am headed to Armenia 6 hours further north. Once in Armenia we caught another minibus an hour further to Salento and from there we took a Jeep Willy to our hostel, La Serrana. We were in a separate building about 300m down the track from the main hostel so were a little bit ostracised but the house was amazing, three rooms around a communal area with huge windows looking out across the valley. The first day we walked the 2km back in to town to get our bearings and had a short wander through the streets around the main plaza. Salento is beautiful, lots of brightly coloured houses with boutique shops and little cafes. That night we cooked at our house before watching a storm roll in over the valley and heading to bed.
We were woken the next morning by a knock on our bedroom door. Tim had checked in (having arrived a couple of hours earlier and sat in a hammock at reception waiting for someone to show him to the room). He was surprisingly perky considering he’d flown from London and then had a 7 hour bus journey to deal with. After a coffee in our house and a quick breakfast at the hostel we walked back in to town and up to the swings at a view point on the opposite side of the valley. We spent the afternoon back at our house catching up and playing croquet on the lawn with a few too many beers.
The next day we were in the main plaza for a 9:30 collecivo Jeep Willy to the Valle de Cocora where we hiked a popular 5 hour route. The valley is part of the Los Nevados National Natural Park and is the principal location of the national tree and symbol of Colombia, the Quindío wax palm. A couple of hours along the track you enter the Acaime Reserve where you can stop at the lodge for a hot chocolate and slice of cheese and to watch the hummingbirds at the feeders.
Back in Salento that night we arranged to meet a few people in the Plaza and headed to the Tejo hall where it’s free to play but buying beer is mandatory. Tejo is a traditional Colombian sport where you stand 25m from a square of clay and throw heavy metal pucks at the clay aiming to hit the little paper squares full of gun powder to make them explode. We weren’t very good, as soon as we walked in the guy who owned it moved us to throw from halfway down and even then we had to create a Lucie line another metre or so forward. We ended up making up our own game of Killer Tejo since with 9 people it was a little difficult to keep score playing the real game. After Tejo we stopped in a billiard hall and tried to figure out the rules of a game they play there with 3 balls and no table pockets.
Yet another early start and we were on a bus leaving Salento and heading for Pereira an hour away. From there we caught a bus to Manizales and asked to be dropped off at the San Pereguino bridge about 13km out of town. The road to Manizales was beautiful, you wind through all these coffee plantations and can see crops growing in regimented lines as far as the eye can see. Once at the bridge we stopped in a café to use a phone and call down to Hacienda Venecia to come and collect us. 10 minutes later we had driven down a dirt track and crossed a river and pulled up at the gates of the Hacienda. It was stunning. A one storey white house with all the wood work painted red and the walls lined with books and antique saddles and the like. We were shown to a basement room where they put the overflow from the hostel (the house itself is a boutique hotel and out of our price range to stay there). Then we were abandoned.
We had a walk around the grounds and discovered lots of peacocks and turkeys before running in to the owner who was incredibly unhelpful. We finally worked out that the hostel was a km up the road back over the river and that we’d have to walk there for each meal or for any information. We waded across the river for lunch and ended up staying at the hostel for a while although it was overrun with people travelling on a Dragoman truck so they were a lot older than us and all knew each other. After a swim the boys went to watch TV inside and I headed back to the Hacienda to enjoy the sun by doing 2 hour walk that had been mapped out. The walk was really nice, walking past the workers accommodation and through the plantations, both well developed and the nursery, knee deep in grass. The views down the valley as you wind up the hill are amazing and all the workers I saw were so friendly.
I met the boys back at the Hacienda for a swim before we waded the river again to the hostel for dinner. After dinner we hung around at the hostel for a while to make the walk seem worthwhile and once Rhys had finished watching a film we headed out in the pitch black to traverse the river again. Thank god Tim had his phone so we had some light otherwise we could still be out there now walking around. Back at the Hacienda the gate was locked and we had to climb the 10 foot fence to get back to our room. Despite how beautiful the place was we were staring to regret staying there and being made to feel like we were in the way all the time.
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| Sculptures in San Agustin Archeological Park. |
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| Salento. |
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| La Serrena, our little house in Salento. |
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| Hiking in Valle de Cocora. |
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| View from the top of the coffee plantation. |
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| Coffee plantation - the nursery, |
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| Hacienda Venecia - who ever said you couldn't backpack in luxury...! |
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