Salento, Colombia
November 16-24, 2023
Looking for our next winter escape, we decide to venture back to South America and begin our travels in Colombia! We fly into Bogota but immediately fly out to a small town called Pereira. From here, not wanting the hassle of figuring out bus schedules after a long day of travel, we book a private transfer from Pereira to the lush and mountainous village of Salento in the coffee triangle of Colombia. Salento is immediately charming and welcoming (albeit touristy) and we settle in for our week long stay to explore the town and the area.
Our Accommodations
We find a lovely little apartment through Airbnb called Parallelo Apartments. Just 5 minutes from the main street of
Calle Real but set down a quiet street, its the perfect place to base ourselves. The apartment is brand new and modern with a kitchen all amenities for a great stay!
Willy Jeeps - Salento's Local Transportation
What's with the Willy's??
The first of the USA military WW2 jeeps arrived in Colombia in 1946 for military purposes since at the time, the USA had a massive oversupply of the jeeps. They were imported by the Colombian Ministry of Defence for the army but apparently never used for war purposes. The local Colombian farmers quickly took a fancy to them to replace the mules that worked in the mountainous coffee growing region of Colombia. The jeeps could navigate the difficult roads with ease and they became extremely practical for the locals to transport all kinds of goods such as banana's, bags of coffee, or even TV's! They are used daily for all kinds of purposes and also found a niche for transporting locals and visitors to nearby towns and attractions. They are outfitted with bench seating and when that's full, you'll often see a few extra people standing on the back bumper!
Around Salento
Salento is the tourist destination of the 'coffee' triangle', popular with backpackers and Colombians alike. Yes, there's a lot of gringos here and every other shop is hawking bags and badly made ponchos but the countryside surrounding Salento is unquestionably beautiful. The town sits at 2000 meters making it a temperate destination year round with most days seeing rain and some nights feeling chilly. Salento is well known for trout, the gun powder game of tejo, and of course coffee! Its a colorful place with friendly locals and we really enjoyed this first stop in Colombia!
Finca Luger Coffee Tour
We had an amazing time on this tour! Just a 15 minute willy jeep ride from Salento centre sits the small coffee farm
Finca Luger. Our guide Stephen was excellent and we enjoyed a full 2 hours walking the farm and learning about each step of the process from picking beans, washing and separating, drying, roasting and brewing! Colombia exports its quality beans to North America and sadly keeps the low quality beans to sell in local supermarkets to the locals. In order to buy the good stuff, you must purchase directly. It was an eye opening experience and changed the way we see and drink coffee!
Day Trip to Cocora Valley
It's easy to see why most itineraries include a trip to the Cocora Valley. It offers visitors magnificent trails that take you up through the cloud forest and jungle and boasts some of the most incredible views. The Corcora Valley is most famous for its 60 meters (200 feet) tall wax palm trees - said to be the world's tallest palms and are the national tree of Colombia. The trees are insanely photogenic...Instagrammers abound! We were lucky to spend a few moments sitting on the hillside taking in the beautiful lush green views before the fog rolled in....which added a unique kind of moody ambiance to the whole experience that we really appreciated. We decided against the 5 hour loop hike and chose instead to walk to the lookout points. We encountered some heavy rain so we were pleased with our choice and very much enjoyed the day!