Colombia Part 5: Smells of Cow

Let me start by saying that I spent a good hour in a cow pasture today, just chillin. After the city life in Medellin, we moved further south to check out the good life and apparantly relacing on lush green pastures is one of the things you do. We spent 2 nights in the mountainous city of Manizales (pop 300,000), just enough time to take a voyage to the 5th tallest volcano in the Colombian Andes, El Nevado del Ruiz. We made our way up to just shy of 5000 meters (roughly 15k feet for you Yankees lol) with stops along the way to learn about the land, the plants and the history of this glacier.

I am so taken by this country. For those of you who think Colombia is all about cocaine and the FARC, you are so wrong. As we delve deeper into the country we are seeing beautiful, lush lands filled to the brim with cows and horses, nature reserves, crystal clear rivers, snow-capped mountains and muchas Palmas de Cera (the national tree of Colombia at 60 meters high). The people here love their land and take care of it, it's a treasure they grew up respectimg and now...low and behold here people....have found a way to utilize the idea of sustainable growth that benefits their pocketbooks and the environment. What a concept! Stepping down from my soapbox now...and...okay down.

So Katie and I decided that la vida buena (the good life) was going to be in a town of just 7,000 further south down the Gringo Trail - welcome to Salento! A quant, colorful little city set among the hills and further surrounding mountains. It looks like a scene from a Hollywood movie; men and women saunter about in Colombian cowboy hats, jeans, boots and panchos while tourists and locals alike hang out of their bright balconies onto the plaza, enjoying the fresh air both day and night. Horses share the streets with pedestrians, few cars and lots of motobikes.

Our hostel (Estrellas sin Fronteras) is like a cleaner version of camping. You open the window from our room and you view the horse stables, upon approach you walk down a good 20 stairs made of old tires past chickens and cows, but the water is hot (yay!) and the kitchen has gas, works for me. We feel quite at home already and spent the day trekking all the way to the neighboring town of Cocora, where we hit some trails, bought some goods, layed in the cow pasture and enjoyed the over-the-top views that had you wanted to run through the hills like a scene from The Sound of Music. I didn't FYI, I can't get too dorky too often :)

That said, we will probably be here a bit longer. Tomorrow we are taking a good saunter over to a small coffee farm to get some samples and see how they do it here. I am in coffee heaven right now - missing Starbucks is so not an option here. Sorry Darla!