Venturing Out

After sitting around Medellin for close to 10 days doing close to nothing, I decided it was time to get out for a bit. My adventures started at Peñol, a really big rock about an hour and a half outside the city. There are upwards of 700 some steps that climb the rock, for a sweeping lookout over the surrounding area which has been flooded by a dam (hydroelectric plant) and now is populated with summer/weekend getaway homes for rich paises (Medellin citizens).

My next adventure happened kind of by accident. I had been contemplating heading out to the Zona Cafetera (the coffee growing region of Colombia) for some time, after hearing multiple reports of how beautiful it was. The night before I was thinking about heading out, a large group of University students from a college in that region came and stayed at the hostel for a night. They were on a field trip to visit companies in Medellin. Opportunity knocked, and I ended up catching a free bus ride out to Zona Cafetera the following night on the University bus. Arriving in Pereira (one of the access towns, not much fun for a tourist) at 1am, the professor and his wife generously invited me to stay at their house instead of at one of the rather expensive hotels. I gratefully accepted. They then told me that they were going to Santa Rosa (my destination) the following morning on business, and again invited me to tag along. After feeding me breakfast, we packed in the car and picked up a colleague. First stop was a random little pueblito (tiny, tiny town) up in the mountains where the professor had the business to take care of. The drive was beautiful, coffee plots stretching down the impossibly steep slopes. Around 2pm we finally arrived in Santa Rosa to pick up their son (currently staying at the grandma´s) and to drop me off. I was taken into his mother´s house and fed lunch without a bat of an eyelash, and an introduction so quick I think I missed it. No questions asked, a 4 course lunch and my many expressions of my deepest gratitude later, I was standing with my pack on my back in front of a hotel in Santa Rosa.

Santa Rosa is famous for its hot springs, which I must say, are some of the best I have been to. A steaming hot waterfall (two, actually, one for each main pool) cascades down a rock face and into the massive hot tubs, all carved out of the natural rock bed. In case you get too hot, you can jump in the 100m tall ice cold waterfall on the other end of the pool and sprint back over to the warm before you get too numb.

After about 5 hours of hanging out at the

pools with only two other people in the complex, I headed back to town. Caught a local bus back to Pereira, and hopped on the connecting bus to Salento. Salento is the home of the wax palm, which I´ve heard only exists in this specific region of Colombia. Headed out at 730am with a small group (randomly ran into someone I had met back in Taganga and had lost contact with) to embark on the 6 hour hike through the Valle de Cocora. A beautiful lush green valley curiously dotted with palm trees, who look confused and out of place on the mountainside. On the top of the trail is a small nature reserve that served delicious hot chocolate and happened to house over 8 different species of humming birds. (Grandma Bolhouse would have loved this place.)

I got in and got out of Salento, staying for one night and then taking the night bus back to Medellin. I´m settling back in for the last few days of waiting I have until Angel comes down. :-)