Palm Trees
Intense
Cocora
Salento is one of the major tourist attractions of Colombia, thanks to its impressive scenery, (Cocora valley), and original bahareque architecture. The restaurants, particularly those in the town square, specialise in freshwater trout generally served with a giant fritter of green plantain - even though I am not a huge fan of fish, this was very tasty.
We hopped into a WWII Jeep (Willy) and headed into the elevated Cocora valley for a bit of 'hiking'. While there we saw loads of gorgeous humming birds and a stunning palm tree landscape view, which reminded me a bit like a scene from Jurassic Park; I was half expecting to see some Tyrannosaurus Rex and Brachiosaurus emerge from the hillside as they would not have been out of place there at all. The final hike up to La Montagne was a tough uphill slog; definitely need to get a lot fitter so I can do Machu Picchu without killing myself.
We all tried our hand at Tejo one night, a traditional sport in Colombia. It is played by throwing a metal disc, called a tejo, across an alley to a board covered with clay and set at an angle. The board is filled with clay so the tejo will stick in place. In the center of the board, there is a circular metal ring (bocin). On the metal ring are four triangular paper packets (mechas) filled with gunpowder-like material that explodes on impact. The goal of Tejo is to throw the tejo inside the bocin, strike the mechas in order to create an explosion. Had great fun participating in this activity, however I must sadly admit that I throw like a stereotypical girl - got close to the mechas, but didn't set any of them off. Mikkel was an expert and had a few explosions and many smoking packets by the end of our game.
Colonial Popayan is next up!
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