The Mighty Colombia....Part Seven
Finally I reach the end of my blogs from Colombia and we ride back up the 45, across the Andes on the 40 and down the other side on the 25 until we reach the 'frontera' with Ecuador.
We left San Agustin and rode back up the 45 to Espinal where we had a 'one nighter' before riding the 40 across to Salento. The 40 should by rights be a good road. It's all tarmac/asphalt but they're also building a new road running parallel to it....apparently that's been going on for a while.With tons of wagons on it the 40 is slow and prone to landslides. We had to stop twice for them. Thankfully our longest hold up was only about two hours. The only good thing about being held up is that you get to ride to the front of the queue and get in front of the wagons, plus the time passes quite quickly if you're talkative like me and just end up 'yapping' to all the other motorcyclists you meet at the front.
Moving away from what we thought was our last hold up we motored on a fair way......until we came to going down a rather steep hill. Now any wagon drivers reading this will know how much room an artic needs to get round steep,narrow, blind bends......coming up and going down. The whole process of this with wagons coming and going in both directions caused the road to come to a complete an utter standstill. There were ha, ha 'bend bandits'.....lots of them......not bandits.....as we think but poorer people helping the wagons get round the bends by stopping traffic and then asking for a tip. As we were on bikes we managed to get past most of the queuing but at one point found ourselves facing downhill, just before a bend, on the inside of our side of the centre line.....does that make sense......and ...oh my gosh......we heard it before we saw it in our mirrors.....a wagon hurtling down the hill towards us, obviously lost his brakes.....and us with nowhere to go......that moment when you brace for an impact, knowing you could be chucked up in the air or flattened within seconds was not a good one......thankfully and I mean THANKFULLY on the opposite side of the road to us a wagon was parked in a layby in the trees....the driver saw the wagon coming....and waved him frantically into a space between the front of his wagon and the trees in front of him......the loose wagon somehow managed to avoid us and mercifully rolled to a halt before an impact with the trees.....PHEW...….let's get out of here.
The rest of th day passed without anymore hair raising incidents and we arrived safely in Salento.
We were staying in Salento for a few days and going hiking in the Cocora Valley, home to the World's tallest palm trees....the Quindío Wax Palm......also the National tree and symbol of Colombia.
Salento was quite picturesque, a little touristy but when we visited the amount of people there was not excessive and our B & B ,Hotel Salento Real Eje Cafetero , was just outside the centre,peaceful and walking distance to the main square.
Notice an iconic jeep in those pictures? The 'Willy's Jeep' is very popular in Colombia. Imported originally for military use about 1946, they were hardly used and Colombia ended up with an excess....soon to be utilised by the country's coffee farmers instead of mules in some areas. The 'Willy's Jeep' was to be our transport from Salento down to Cocora where we would start our hike. So how many tourists and locals do you think they'd hold.....6 ?.....er 12.....yep 12.
The jeeps can be caught in the main square, no need to book, they run up and down all day and were only about a $1 each.To do the the main hike in the Cocora Valley you will need about 5 - 6 hrs depending on your level of fitnesss. I have a pinned and plated hip and Chris has a damaged knee so this is how long it took us. When you arrive you'll see cafes and tourist stalls as your jeep pulls into the car park.
1. Turn left out of car park and walk up the road until you leave the village....the entrance is about 400metres from the village. If you go this way you will be walking the 7miles 'clockwise' and walk through the palms first before forrest/jungle. 2. Turn left out of car park and walk up the road until you see a blue gate on the right. This is the entrance to walk 'anti clockwise. If you go this way you will walk through farmland and cross swinging rickety bridges before reaching signs to the humming bird house. If you visit this it's only a slight detour then you have to return to main trail. Walking this way is mainly uphill and quite steep in places. We went this way and it was fine. Take money. At each end of the trail you will come to a pay tent as the trail goes through a couple of private fincas…..not much I think it was 2000 each at one and 3 thousand pesos each at the other and you also need 5000 pesos each for the hummingbird house but you get a drink included with this. You may see pack horses/donkeys/mules on trail....so nimble footed...bless em.
To see how we went on just watch 😀
For anybody reading that doesn't want the 'thrill'.....ha,ha…..of the Willy's Jeep, the road is paved all the way to the Cocora Valley and if you don't want to do the walk, you can view a few palm trees from right there in the car park.
From Salento we continued down the 25 towards Popayan having another overnighter on the way.
Popayan is a town renowned for it's whitewashed Spanish colonial buildings and in 2005 voted a city of gastronomy. Unfortunately for me, I suffered a small dose of food poisoning and didn't get to see too much of the town but Chris walked round and got some great photos. One interesting fact from here is that in the main square the clock in the 'clocktower' is from England.
Our couple of nights stopover in Popayan was short lived, me having spent most of it in bed. Time to move again....this time down to Ipiales. Another overnighter on the way down saw up pulling into a hotel about half a mile off the main 25 to a little hotel located on a hillside with a fantastic view.....Hotel Panorama Sol in Chachagui.
The next day our arrival into Ipiales for a couple of days meant also visiting one of Colombia's most famous tourist/pilgrimage visited places....Las Lajas Sanctuary. This impressive church has been a place of worship since 1754 when a miracle occurred involving the silhouette of the Virgin Mary appearing. The current church now standing in the place of a shrine was built between 1916 and 1949.....and it's impressive....surrounded in folklore and legends, it's a sight to behold regardless of whether you're religious or not. Only seven miles from the Ecuadorian border this is simply a place you should most definitely see before leaving Colombia.
Ipiales is approximately 5 1/2 miles from the sanctuary. There's plenty of parking and all the usual tourist cafes and stalls but my best tip to you reading, is to visit just before teatime. Visiting at this time means many people are already leaving and you won't have to wait around too long for the lights to come on....it's worth waiting for......watch...….
So our visit to Colombia ended on a high. We have thoroughly enjoyed this country and it's wonderful people, new friends made and a desire to return to Colombia in the future.
Adios Colombia ….Hasta Que Nos Encontremos De Nuevo❤
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