After just 2 nights in Medellin, Adam (Saz’s brother), Saz and I decided it was time to get out of the city. Although the city was beautiful, there was a bit of a seedy undertone throughout the entire place, with way too many locals warning us to be careful. “A gritty city with a big heart” – Adam Buchanan, Medellin 2024.
After some research, we booked a bus to the town of Salento, about 5 hours south of Medellin. Salento is known for its coffee farms and wax palm forest, so we were excited for some time in nature. We had a bit of a rough 5 hour journey on a fairly uncomfortable bus, with Sazzie getting dripped on by the AC, Adam sitting next to a very broad shouldered man, and myself sitting next to the biggest manspreader of the time. We only made one pitstop about halfway to Salento, before arriving in town around 4 pm.
Arriving in Salento we were immediately charmed! The town felt much safer and relaxed than Medellin, and the surrounding mountains were absolutely stunning. We walked to our Airbnb and checked in, an absolutely adorable 3 bedroom apartment with a big window looking out over the mountains that Adam had booked.
We dropped our bags headed to the town square on a mission to get Adam some Colombian coffee. We walked around and explored the town, and it seemed like golden hour lasted for like 5 hours in this town! The lighting was just perfect and all the architecture was so cute and charming. We spent the rest of the afternoon at a little restaurant in the town square, where we got beers and chatted until the sun set.
Two of our friends from the boat trip, Marisa and Lindsay, had been in Salento a few days before us and highly recommended booking a mountain biking excursion, with Salento Cycling, through the Wax Palm Forest while we were in town. Adam and I didn’t need a single second of convincing, but Saz was slightly apprehensive. Nonetheless, we peer pressured her to give it a go.
The next morning, we woke up early to get ready for our full-day mountain bike adventure. We were out the door by 7 am to walk to the office and get fitted for our kits.
We met the owner of the shop/our mountain biking guide, Eduardo. He was a very quirky and blunt man, but clearly experienced at his job as he took one glance at our hands and heads, and fitted us with the perfectly sized helmets and gloves. By 7:30 am we were suited up and ready to go, and Eduardo told us that one other guy had signed up for today’s ride but since he wasn’t on time, we would be leaving him behind. Iconic.
We loaded up in our Land Cruiser with the bikes strapped to the top, and started our drive up the mountain. The ride up took about 90 minutes, winding up a bumpy gravel road with beautiful views of the valley below.
It was absolutely FREEZING at the top! It was very misty and lightly raining as well, so we wasted no time quickly putting on our protective padding, helmets, and gloves and getting a quick safety tutorial from Eduardo. “I only have 3 rules: always break with both hands, keep both peddles even at all times, and FOLLOW THE LINE!” Without checking to see if anybody knew what follow the line meant (we did not), he took off down the mountain.
Adam and another Dutch guy were experienced mountain bikers so they full sent it down the mountain, while Saz and I chose to take it slow and steady. It was rainy, misty, and cold, but we just focused on keeping our balance. The further down the mountain we rode, the warmer it got. The first stretch of our ride was about 13 km, where we pulled off for a break at the Wax Palm Forest called La Carbonera. Wet and completely covered in mud, we took off all our protective equipment for it to dry out while we did a little hike through La Carbonera.
Eduardo immediately took off his shoes and led us into the forest, frolicking through the grass with his Bilbo Baggins bare feet. Someone pointed out the poop he just walked in to which he responded, “Life is full of shit. It doesn’t matter, I just loved the feeling of the land beneath my feet.” It was actually so iconic.
The forest was one of the most beautiful things we’d ever seen – huge palm trees shrouded in mist, and fog rolling in through the forest. It felt like we were in Lord of the Rings or something.
Eduardo told us that the Wax Palm Forest was super unique because this type of tree only grows in Colombia, nowhere else in the world! The tree also had a symbiotic relationship with the yellow eared parrot. The parrot was thought to be extinct, but a group of scientists found a family of 13 remaining parrots in 1993. The parrot can only survive and nest in the hollow centre of dead wax palm tree, and the seeds of the wax palm tree can only be germinated if it has been eaten and pooped out by the parrot. Each wax palm tree grows only a few centimetres for the first 56 years of its life. It is only a few feet tall until 56 years later, when it then starts to grow 15 cm every year. Neat!
Eduardo gave us some free time to explore the area, while he set up a little picnic with sandwiches and chips. It was so peaceful and beautiful, we were truly living our best Sound of Music lives.
After lunch, Eduardo instructed us to load our stuff back into the cars where we would drive back up to the top and pedal down the other side of the mountain. It took about 20 minutes to reach the peak again, but when we got to the top 3 people in our group realised that they had all forgot their backpacks at the picnic spot (no idea how that happened because Eduardo reminded us multiple times to grab or stuff), but they were freaking out because they had their passports and a bunch of cash in their bags. One of the drivers went back down to look for it so we all had to kill time at the top. It had warmed up a bit, but was still pretty chilly. After around 25 minutes of waiting, Eduardo hadn’t heard any news so he made the executive decision to split the group up and have the people that forgot their bags wait at the top while we headed down first.
Since it was a single track back down into town, Eduardo gave Adam and the Dutch guy permission to full send down the mountain themselves again, if they took the turns carefully and didn’t get hurt. “Just remember, Colombia is in the middle of FOCKING nowhere, and we are in the middle of nowhere in Colombia” – Eduardo, Salento 2024.
The scenery on the way down was absolutely unreal – we went from misty mountain top drizzle to what looked like Swiss mountainside with blue sky, green fields as far as the eye could see, and lots of cute cows! We took lots of breaks to take photos and enjoy the views, and got an opportunity to chat with Eduardo.
He was honestly so weird but so funny. He told us he was annoyed because had his first doctors appointment in 15 YEARS that afternoon that he was going to be late for because of the backpack debacle. He said that he was going to get his gums checked because he had previously severely damaged his gums to the point where doctors had to partially reconstruct his jaw with a sheep bone, from smoking too much weed. I asked him how much weed he was smoking to be able to damage his gums, and he said he used to smoke 20 GRAMS PER DAY. I asked him if he quit smoking weed after that procedure, to which he responded, “Well, I just started making wax and now I vape it, so it’s healthy!” Hilarious, we love our delulu king!
Adam was waiting for us towards the bottom of the mountain, and we rode the last 5 km into town together. We were absolutely filthy by the time we got back to the office, where Eduardo gave us beers to celebrate nobody crashing. It was an awesome adventure, and highly recommended if you’re visiting Salento!
We were so tired from our bike trip that Sazzie and I crashed almost as soon as we got home, but Adam went out for a solo adventure around the town. He ended up at this tiny, local dive bar, where he befriended a group of 4 old men that dubbed themselves the “Kings of Salento”. They spoke absolutely no English and Adam spoke absolutely no Spanish, but it was straight impeccable vibes. Adam and the Kings spent the night drinking, playing Colombian rules pool, and dancing the night away. A classic Adam adventure.
The next day was Adam’s last full one in Colombia, so we decided to check out the local coffee farms. We did a nice hike up the road to the coffee plantations, passing by beautiful bridges, farms, and mountains. We found a coffee farm with a beautiful view of the valley below, and enjoyed a few cups of Colombian brew.
As we were walking down the hill, Adam ran into one of the “Kings of Salento” that he had partied with the night before! We continued down the path, passing more coffee plantations with beautiful vistas, birds, and animals. At the very end of the path, there was a lookout point over the giant river running through the valley below.
That evening, we decided to go out for Adam’s last night in town. We found a live music venue and listened to a few sets of the local musician. We got some cocktails and enjoyed the relaxing vibe of the venue. Adam then took us to the pool bar he had gone to last night with the Kings of Salento.
The bartender recognised Adam and welcomed us in to play a round of pool. Apparently Colombian pool rules are different, where everyone shoots the same ball until it’s eliminated then moves onto the next number. We ordered whisky cokes and enjoyed playing round after round of Colombian pool at this funny little dive bar. Unfortunately the Kings of Salento did not make an appearance, but it was still such a great time.
We had to check out the next morning, but Saz and I decided to stick around Salento for a few more days. We were absolutely charmed by the town and not ready to leave yet, so we booked a small little hostel in the centre of town. Adam walked us to our new hostel, and we said our goodbyes! We had such an incredible 3 weeks travelling with him, from Panama all through Colombia, and were so devastated to see him go.
We picked up some pizza at a shop across the street, and spent the rest of the afternoon doing some housekeeping stuff, like booking flights, planning our next moves, and researching accomodation.
The next day was Superbowl Sunday, and I never though I’d see the day that Saz was excited to watch a football game (it was because Taylor Swift was there, obviously). “Ooh Taylor’s boyfriend has the ball!” “Is that Taylor’s boyfriend? They all look the same to me” “Taylor’s boyfriend won!”
We were supposed to head to another spot in Colombia called the Tatacoa desert the next day, but Saz woke up feeling a sick. It would’ve been a super long bus ride into a hot hot desert, and she did not feel up for it. We ultimately decided that we had been very on the go for the past few weeks, so it would be nicer to just post up in Salento until our flight out. We wanted to be in full health before heading to Ecuador, so we extended our time in Salento once again.
Our friends from the boat trip, Shirley and Daniel, messaged us saying they were coming to Salento that afternoon, so we made plans to meet up with them for dinner. Saz found a ramen restaurant called Maji that had amazing reviews, so we decided to go there. IT WAS INCREDIBLE. The ramen was top notch and it was such a welcome change from the very bland and boring Colombian food we had been eating for weeks. Shirley is Australian Chinese, so her and Dan both completely agreed with us that Asia is the uncontested superior food continent. They had just come from Carnival in Baranquilla, where they had seen a bunch of our other friends from the boat trip, so they gave us a full run down on how that crazy party had been. We made plans to do a coffee tour with them the next day, since we hadn’t done one with Adam.
Unfortunately, Sazzie woke up still feeling sick the next morning, so decided to just take a day at home to rest and relax while I went out on the coffee tour with them. Our guide was not the best and a bit spastic with his information, but we still got to experience the whole coffee growing process, from planting seeds, to harvesting beans, to roasting and processing the grounds. We also learned about the different types of roasts, and which type of roast is most suitable for which kind of coffee making apparatus (French press vs. coffee maker vs. Aeropress etc).
The next day was our last day in Salento, so we had a nice walk through town, browsing through the shops. We were absolutely obsessed with the ramen from the other night, so we went back there for lunch.
In the late afternoon, we sat in the town square people watching for a bit before heading to get dinner with Shirley and Dan. It was awesome that since our San Blas boat trip together, we got to meet up with them in both Medellin and Salento, and we definitely hope to visit them in Australia in the future.
After an amazing time in Salento, we said goodbye to the city and started our journey to Bogota to leave Colombia. There were no direct buses from Salento to Bogota, so we caught a chicken bus the next morning to the nearby city of Armenia, where we hopped on another bus to Bogota. This ride was significantly more comfortable than the bus to Salento, so we sat in our big seats and watched as the stunning Colombian countryside rolled by. We booked a cheap little airport hotel, where we spent the night before flying the next morning to our next destination: Quito, Ecuador!
