Bogota arrival and a venture west

I'm writing to you from high on top of a valley in the Andean mountains, a place called Salento. It is so beautiful here! Salento is about 10 hours south west of Bogota in the Zona Cafera (coffee zone). We arrived a few hours ago and have done our first scout around and we are loving what we see! I'm thinking we will stay here for quite a while. There are mountain peaks cuddled by clouds and tropical flowers and plants everywhere, including banana plants and Colombia's national plant the wax palm (which can grow up to 60 metres tall and for 120 years!). The window of our little cabin overlooks the valley (valle de Cocora) and we will go trekking and horse riding in the next few days. We hear horses and dogs constantly trotting past and the cheeps of the birds and the hums of the crickets, just paradise. It's not too hot though, about 24 degrees and the air is fine and fresh filling our lungs. We are staying in the oldest lodgings in the town and they are beautiful. This place is called Plantation House and they also have a farm nearby. It is a working coffee farm and we can stay on it too. They have basic lodges and an open air traditional Colombian oven over there. The traditional Colombian ovens are built of brick, a fire is lit on the top and metal slates placed over it. This oven can be used in many different ways we are told; as a BBQ (without the metal slates), as a hob (cooking directly on the metal slates), as a heating system for your house and in some other ways we are yet to learn. There is a wooden lodge called 'The Penthouse' at the farm and the double doors of it open onto the valley, gasp! A lady has been there for a week and a half and we are now next in line so fingers crossed we'll get our time, and for £10 a night for both of us it'll be a time of paradise!

I'm glad we've made it here. Bogota we found large, colourful, cold and hectic. We then travelled to a large town called Manizales, nine hours west of Bogota and which is on the edge of a national park of volcanoes called Los Nevados. We found both places quite a lot more expensive than we were expecting but here in Salento we have found beauty tranquilo and the prices we were expecting. So we are starting to relax and breathe more easily. We are also finding our feet with the language and the money rates, which whenever you arrive in a country always hurts your head! Plus I have suffered a little from altitude sickness, dehydration and the malaria tablets are giving me indigestion but I'm starting to sort all that out. The jetlag however is giving us some amusing experiences, of which we are still encountering. Once it gets to 7pm here (1am your time) we start feeling quite floaty and these feelings add greatly to the dreamlike state we are finding ourselves in everyday so far, and it's only day three! Already we feel like we've been away for a lifetime! I can't imagine how we will feel after seven months!

We have found all the people we have met really friendly and helpful. We've seen some amazing smiles! There are the usual hoards of beautiful dogs (from what I remember in Peru and Ecuador) and I am getting seriously dog broody (if that is an actual state). I've got to be careful not to try and stash a few in my bag as I leave! It also seems pretty straight forward to get involved with things wherever I can. In Bogota the place we stayed in were moving boxes containing a library, toys, computers and tables and chairs out to ship them to a school on the Pacific Coast. Here at Plantation House there are opportunities to help in the local schools and work on the coffee farm everyday so they are possible opportunities.


We are so near the equator here that the sun rises at 6am and sets at 6pm so we have half an hour of daylight time left as I'm writing. So we better go and find a place to eat our dinner and try and stay awake longer than 9pm (3am your time). I think it maybe time for some cervesas to see us through!

I'll post some photos on here later and we'll also have time to put the ones we've taken already on our flickr account and of which I'll send the link to you all when it's done.

Sending you all our love as ever,

Until next time hasta leugo! xxx