Salento, Colombia, South America

I had a really nice day today, even though I didn’t get to see everything I was hoping to see. I had a great breakfast at the hostel of scrambled eggs, toast and jam, and fresh strawberry juice. It is always surprising when I find a hostel that serves cooked breakfast instead of just bread or cereal. I also had my first cup of coffee EVER this morning! It was brought with the breakfast and I didn’t really want to be rude and not drink it. Plus, I figured that if I’m every going to try a cup of coffee, it might as well be in the coffee district in Colombia. It was okay. I am not a new coffee fiend or anything, but it wasn’t bad. I then sat with Marta for about an hour just chatting about how she came to own the hostel and if she likes it. I’m trying to find out from as many hostel owners as possible if they like running it, or if it is too much of a pain in the ass. So far, everyone loves it. I see a future business opportunity for myself…

I went out and checked out the view from the area of town called Chipre and it was a beautiful view down into the valley to the west of the city. There is also an observation platform that would have given a good view of the city of Manizales as well, but the tower was closed. So, being unable to go up there, I headed back into the city to get the next best view, from the top of the cathedral.

I arrived at the cathedral around 12pm, which is beautiful, and there were thousands of people there. This seemed a bit strange being a Thursday, but it turns out there was a new bishop being ordained, so it was a pretty big deal. There were TV crews there and everything. Of course, this meant that I was not able to check out the church properly, or go up the tower. I figured I would give it an hour or so and see if the church cleared out. I went back to the hostel for a bit and then headed back out at 1pm, but found the same problem. I talked to a guy at the ticket office for the tower and he said that it would be closed for the day due to security issues.

So I wasn’t able to see either of the best viewing platforms in Manizales today, but I still got to walk around and see some of the city, which was pretty nice. I went out for lunch at a typical little Colombian place and had a plate called Suizas, which is basically a big sausage with french fries on the side. The sausage was pretty bad, filled with big fatty bits, and the fries were undercooked, so it wasn’t really a great meal. I did get some great news during the meal though.

I got a call from Melissa and she told me she was able to get a few days off in October, so she’ll be able to join me on my tour of Machu Picchu! We had talked about her coming with me when we were in Santa Marta, but we weren’t sure if the logistics were going to work. But now that I know she is coming, we can start to get everything booked. It’s very exciting! It would have been fun if I went without knowing anyone, but now it’s going to be that much better having someone to share it with.

So after hearing this news, I wasn’t too bothered about the views I missed in the city and I went back to the hostel to grab my bags and head out. I walked back to the cable car, went down to the bus terminal and started looking for a bus to Salento. I had been told that there were busses to Salento all the time, but that was a lie. There were no busses to Salento. I was able to get a bus to Perreira and then from there get the last bus of the day to Salento. I lucked out with the timing again, so that was good. I met another traveller on the bus on the way to Salento. He is an American-Kiwi named Vahe, also traveling around for quite a while on his own, and it turned out he is staying at the same hostel as me, La Serrana.

We walked from the center of Salento, which looks like a nice little town, and about 20 minutes later we made it to the hostel. This is a beautiful area in the middle of the coffee district, surrounded by mountains. It is so nice and peaceful out here. I love it! Unfortunately we got to the hostel too late to request dinner, but I was able to order delivery from a place in town anyway, so I didn’t starve. There are quite a few people at this hostel, and everyone speaks english. I know I’m supposed to be practicing my Spanish as much as possible, but it’s really nice being able to have full conversations with people in English for a change. A few of us are going to go on a tour of a coffee plantation tomorrow, so that should be fun.