Hiking the Cocora Valley - By Katie

None of the kids wanted to write about this hike, so since it was one of my favorites, I decided to throw a quick entry together for it. 

On Saturday, we crossed an item off my bucket list for this region. We hiked the iconic Cocora Valley. 

This hike took us through all sorts of terrains and mini adventures: crazy jeep ride, cow pastures, jungle complete with Indiana Jones style bridges, a hummingbird sanctuary, mountain (tall hill?) peaks, and then finally ended with a magnificent view of the towering palm trees that are hundreds of years old speckled across the smooth terrain.

First, to get to this valley, you catch a "Willy". A Willy is a Jeep that transports large groups of people around. They wait until they are full, and then they take off... Full means that two people have to stand on the backside. Since we were the first people to hop in ours, we got to take some pics! 

View of the inside of a "Willy"

View out the back of the Willy 

Coming from the dairy industry, I'm always interested to learn more about how other countries farm. When we were walking along the first part of the hike, the cow pastures, we passed some men who were walking with a mule that was carrying two large metal jugs full of freshly expressed milk. (My mind immediately goes to this is not efficient!!!) But it is also a bit of a feeling like we're getting a glimpse into the past. 

This part of the hike was pretty muddy, even though we hiked after the FIRST dry day since we arrived in Salento. Seth loved showing us the 'best paths' to avoid the mud. 

Too bad he didn't show Maria the best way to avoid road apples (trail apples?)

Two cows in their pasture

After hiking about 45 minutes through the muddy terrain, we entered the jungle. This was my favorite part. We didn't really see other people, and it felt like a true adventure (but for those of you who have hiked with Nick and I in Colombia before...there was at least a clear trail this time). As we started climbing in elevation a bit, the mud decreased, and it was just green all around us. We came across several waterfalls and multiple bridges that felt like they were sets for a movie. Fortunately, we had hiked another location the week prior with similar bridges and waterfalls so we all had full confidence and crossed them like pros. 

Our first bridge 

My favorite bridges were like this

Taking a rest

After we were through the forest, we could choose to continue on with the loop, or take a turn towards a nature preserve. We decided to tack on the extra hour and go to the nature preserve. (Though, calling that facility a nature preserve compared to what we had to hike through in order to get there is bit of a misnomer.) You get to the preserve and meet some people who seem to stay up there all the time. (We ran into a man with an 'extra strong' mule on the way down bringing their provisions up.) They serve you either hot chocolate or panela agua (a warm sugary drink) and a slice of cheese, which you're supposed to put in the hot beverage and it will melt... though it has never melted, and no one in our family really enjoys this custom. We happened to have some cookies along for a snack which the kids enjoyed more with their hot cocoa. 

Maria dipping cookies into her hot cocoa rather than cheese

There were several hummingbird feeders up around the facility, and it was fun to see such colorful hummingbirds visit. I've never seen hummingbirds with long tails before, so that was exciting. Nick really loved this part. 

After the return to the main trail from the hummingbird sanctuary, we started a steep accent over clay sludge. We read online that this takes an hour, so we braced ourselves for an hour of uphill torture. We even bribed the kids saying if they could finish quicker that they'd get some pesos to spend in town. Fortunately, everything we read online was wrong, and we all finished the uphill portion in just under a half hour. Unfortunately, we were out some money, as the kids finished well before both Nick and I. However, since I was panting the entire time, I was too busy trying to breathe than thinking of taking photos. We did come across many cheerful people who took the loop the other direction and were working their way down though! 

After making it to the top, we started the descent, which was phenomenal. The trail was wide and clear. There were lookouts where you'd get a glimpse of the valley that was to come. 

Possibly the coolest insect I've ever seen. Can you spot it? 

First glimpse of the iconic palms

As we worked our way down the valley, it got more touristy, as you can just go see the palms and do the 'short hike' rather than the full loop. However, the presence of more people didn't take our enjoyment away. There were also lots of great photo ops. 

All in all, this was one of my top 10 hikes that I've completed, and if anyone wants to do it with me in the future, I'll be hard pressed to decline. :-) 

We were very fortunate to have kids with great attitudes, and rain that held off until we hopped into our Willy for our ride back to Salento. (And then it poured, and no one's legs felt good enough to move for the rest of the day, so we just had a movie night.)