Thewesternprovinceblog

Hola todos! After that whole episode in Ibagué, I  left off being sat on the bus to Armenia, I wanted to chill somewhere for a bit before Cali. Hoped Ibagué would be like that but no. However on the bus out of there I remembered a list of places my good friend Owen gave me for Colombia, among them was a colorful little town in the mountains called Salento. It looked very promising from pictures and so decided to book a place there for a few nights and go give it a look.

I soon arrived in Armenia and it wasn’t hard to find the collectivo heading to Salento. £1.60 and 40 mins later I was there. Do the usual thing of check into the place, sling the bags in and have a wander round town. Yes it was a very relaxed and nice place that felt like a more colourful mini version of some of the nicer colonial cities we visited, like San Cristóbal or Antigua. After getting the lay of the land I had some dinner in town then stopped by the Viajero Hostel and had a drink and chatted to some folks. 

The next day I decided to go have a look around some of the different Miradores on the edge of town just to do something for the day. It was quite steep to get up but they offer a great view of the whole town and the valle de cocora (which we will cover on a separate post). The weather up here is also similar to Manizales, as such at each stop I found myself sheltering from rain like it was the end of summer in Wales.

After the weather breaks I go back to my hostel. Decide to extend my stay for 4 nights as there are a few things to do here and it is a nice place. I work out how to get onto some trips and then chill out for a bit then go back to the Viajero for some food and a few drinks and then turned in. Tomorrow I visit Finca Buenos Aires, a coffee plantation outside of Salento.