We awoke to the bus pulling into Armenia in the pouring rain. Bryan had actually woken up a bit earlier. He got cold during the middle of the night and went to the back of the bus to find a blanket. He found one on a shelf and brought it back. An hour later he was awoken by a guy in his underwear who claimed to be the backup driver, raving something about his blanket being stolen. We averted incident and were off.
We found a small collectivo bus and made the hour trip to a small colonial town of Salento. We were now deep in coffee plantation country. I wanted to stop here because the Coca Valley had some beautiful hikes and was also famous for a game called Tejo, which we will get to.
The bus dropped us off in the main square around 7am and we had 2 hours before the jeeps would depart for our hikes
After reserving a dorm room at the Plantation House we made our way back to the plaza and waited for the jeeps. The jeeps were all loaded up and my brother seemed to have disappeared. At the last second he shows back up with empanadas, for himself, talking up the presence of a pool hall down the road. I wanted to run him over with the jeep.
I will say here, that there is very little if any English being spoken in this country. So when they driver kept pointing to the jeep, I would look and see that there was no room in that jeep. After about 4 of these interchanges he demonstrated I was to stand on the rear bumper and hold onto the roof. I just looked at my brother smiling, eating his empanada.
About halfway through the trip, with 3 of us hanging on the rear bumper we stopped to pick up 2 more people. They crammed next to me and one sat on the roof. It was actually pretty exciting, but just like the motorcycle taxi, the line between excitement and disaster was a fine one.
We made it to the trail head and determined we had about 5 hours before the jeeps would return. He started the 4 mile trail up to the top of valley.
Here is a very large beetle we saw. Bryan claims it is a rhinoceros beetle, but he has very little knowledge in that department so I am unsure. The first part of the trail was along the valley floor, covered with lush grassland and random 100 ft palm trees.
We then entered the forest and begin the climb up the mountain, following the river, with frequent crossings along the way
Eventually we reached the top, where a husband and wife lived in a small shack serving hot sugar tea and cheese to travelers. Although it was raining, I was still sweating like crazy and tea was not exactly what I wanted, but I was willing to take anything at this point
We followed the trail back, waited in a makeshift bar for the jeeps and rode back to the Salento city square. Here is a shot of our hostel for the night along with the landlord, much improved from my last one.
We showered up and made our way towards the main street for dinner.
We ordered some fish cooked in coconut milk for dinner. It became rather confusing as I figured I could just point to something on the menu and she would bring it. I pointed and she asked numerous questions. I would alternate yes or no with no given pattern. I figured we were ok, but she kept coming back asking questions pointing to the menu. I did not see what was so complicated; finally after she came out 4 times I thought we were ok. I was now expecting to have her come out with the leg of a horse on a platter. She brought the concoction, which was rather tasty, but could have done without the head of the fish in mixture.
After dinner we asked around and finally found the bar where they play the game of Tejo. No one was around but the owner so he attempted to explain to us the rules. Basically it was like the American Bean-bag toss game. Except instead of bean bags you threw rocks and instead of a hole you were aiming at little paper triangles filled with gun powder. How this has not caught on at drunken college parties I am not sure.
At one point I asked to go to the bathroom and a guy led me inside and pointed to a corner. All I saw was a curtain. I pulled it back and there was just a floor with a drain hole. I wish there were more people when I got a shot of Bryan pissing because it would look like the Wizard of Oz, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”
Sorry to say that Bryan beat me in extra-innings and I fear I will never be able to have a rematch and will not hear the end of his Tejo skills.
Until tomorrow
Darren
« This is Not Your Father's Colombia (Day 5 of 10) | Main | This is Not Your Father's Colombia (Day 7 of 10) »
