It is first come first serve as far as sitting room goes. After that, which is a no reservation type of deal, it a a make-your-own seat or standing room only. This scene of drinking, smoking, talking, street performances and dancing is happening until 4 am until everything is closing down. YES! In a public park. It was amazing. The park is surrounded by bars and clubs whose music is mixing together until it arrives to your ears in the park where it is hard to distinguish which song is coming from where. But you know that it is from all 360 degrees around you. If I had more time to discover the other clubs I'm sure I wouldn't have been disappointed. Any choice you make was going to be a fun one, even if your choice was to stay in the park all night. About a 5 minute walk from this park, depending if your walking straight or swerving, named Parque Poblado (Poblado is the neighborhood). In this park you will encounter a similar scene. Only the 5 minute walk attracts more locals than tourists for a reason I do not know.
After a few hours of passing out, not sleep, it was check-out time and I knew that I wanted to keep my travels moving even though my body was telling me otherwise. I met a Chilean and we were going to go together even though we were feeling the same way. We mustered up the courage and strength and next thing we knew we were leaving the beautiful city of Medellin. A warning would have been nice that the roads were as winding as the coils of a slinky. We only bought one seat each, even though his food and drinks decided to join us in the back corner of a small 10 person shuttle bus. Luckily I was able to hold mine back, barely.
We arrived in the Coffee Region to a town named Salento. Here it was a little cooler, light jacket weather, as we were a little higher up in the green mountains where Coffee grows best. This was a little cute town with a plaza and one main boulevard which reminded me of Guatape with its colorful buildings and spanish balconies. Just because it was small did not mean it was quite. Everybody was outside enjoying their Saturday night. Shopping, eating, drinking and dancing. That is a pretty good summary of a typical night in Latin America. From ages 16 until death.
In Salento, we went on a horseback ride to the different Coffee plantations and to a waterfall. Typically, I do not drink coffee. I find it to be something that people become reliant on to be awake and expensive. That being said, I vowed to myself to drink coffee while in Colombia. If I was ever going to drink coffee now was the time. As I was in the coffee region of one the most famed places for coffee it was time! As one of my roommates in college always asks me when we talk "Are you a man yet?" Me: "Yes, my balls have dropped" Him: "Do you drink coffee yet?". I was going to earn my manhood. It also helped that it was only $1-2 USD a cup.
Salento is the launching point for the must see Valle de Cocora. From Salento we took a 'Willy' aka a Jeep with bench seats and people holding on from the back, me, to the Valle. It is a beautiful Valley that has Colombia's national tree, the Wax Palm Tree. It is an odd looking tree as it is neck-hurtingly tall and huggingly skinny. Yes, I just made up that word. But it is a great tree for tree huggers! Most people from here do the 3 hour loop trail that takes you through the Wax Palm forests and up on the mountain to get a great viewpoint. This was something we wanted to do with the additional 3 hour trek to another waterfall. So we made the easy decision to stay at a little refugio in the mountains called 'la casa de colibrà (house of the hummingbird). This was not a random name as this classic refugio was full of colorful flowers and diverse hummingbirds. An abundance of hummingbirds like overweight people in the Ft.Wayne zoo. This was our jumping point to do a side-trek usually missed by tourists. The trek lead us to great viewpoints as well as dense parts of the forest. Overall, it was worth it just to wake up in the mountains after the coldest night I would ever experience in Colombia (discounting rooms with AC). The next morning we trekked out, but not before walking through these Dr. Seuss trees and enjoying a nice garden grown cup of coffee.
Before leaving Salento I stopped at a place I stumbled across walking back to the hostel. A restaurant that was owned by a guy from Portland and had American food! What is American food? Let me tell you. Hamburgers, chicken wings, sandwiches, brownies, milk shakes and PEANUT BUTTER. Yes, homemade peanut butter. This was a type of heaven for me as Colombian food is well known for being atrocious and fried. If body image weren't one of the most important things to Colombians I'm sure they would all be fat. At least based off of the food in most restaurants. Speaking of fat, I pigged out on the best chicken wings on the planet and bought a peanut butter jar to go. He makes his own homemade peanut butter in Colombia. That is like finding water on Mars. When I travel, I travel with a jar of peanut butter. Mine had run out about a month prior and I was forced, by myself, to buy a shitty jar in a grocery store. This man saved me. Thank you. What a cool guy, so Oregon to move somewhere and make your own PB. His job when he lived in Oregon was 'Inventor'. Great people Oregonians.
Pictures to come once my computer loosens up a bit and accepts my camera.
Salento is the launching point for the must see Valle de Cocora. From Salento we took a 'Willy' aka a Jeep with bench seats and people holding on from the back, me, to the Valle. It is a beautiful Valley that has Colombia's national tree, the Wax Palm Tree. It is an odd looking tree as it is neck-hurtingly tall and huggingly skinny. Yes, I just made up that word. But it is a great tree for tree huggers! Most people from here do the 3 hour loop trail that takes you through the Wax Palm forests and up on the mountain to get a great viewpoint. This was something we wanted to do with the additional 3 hour trek to another waterfall. So we made the easy decision to stay at a little refugio in the mountains called 'la casa de colibrà (house of the hummingbird). This was not a random name as this classic refugio was full of colorful flowers and diverse hummingbirds. An abundance of hummingbirds like overweight people in the Ft.Wayne zoo. This was our jumping point to do a side-trek usually missed by tourists. The trek lead us to great viewpoints as well as dense parts of the forest. Overall, it was worth it just to wake up in the mountains after the coldest night I would ever experience in Colombia (discounting rooms with AC). The next morning we trekked out, but not before walking through these Dr. Seuss trees and enjoying a nice garden grown cup of coffee.
Before leaving Salento I stopped at a place I stumbled across walking back to the hostel. A restaurant that was owned by a guy from Portland and had American food! What is American food? Let me tell you. Hamburgers, chicken wings, sandwiches, brownies, milk shakes and PEANUT BUTTER. Yes, homemade peanut butter. This was a type of heaven for me as Colombian food is well known for being atrocious and fried. If body image weren't one of the most important things to Colombians I'm sure they would all be fat. At least based off of the food in most restaurants. Speaking of fat, I pigged out on the best chicken wings on the planet and bought a peanut butter jar to go. He makes his own homemade peanut butter in Colombia. That is like finding water on Mars. When I travel, I travel with a jar of peanut butter. Mine had run out about a month prior and I was forced, by myself, to buy a shitty jar in a grocery store. This man saved me. Thank you. What a cool guy, so Oregon to move somewhere and make your own PB. His job when he lived in Oregon was 'Inventor'. Great people Oregonians.
Pictures to come once my computer loosens up a bit and accepts my camera.
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