Monday, May 8, 2017

Valle de Cocora

One of the most iconic Colombian landscapes is the Valle de Cocora...


...and its wax palms--the tallest palm trees in the world, at 70-80m.



I started out hiking with an Aussie at the hostel I was staying at who was heading in the same direction, and as the day progressed, we picked up more and more people, stopping at a hummingbird sanctuary half-way through the 6-hour hike...


...slogging on through the rain, over rivers through the cloud forest...


...and through impressive stretches of mud that made me really glad I sprang for renting galoshes from the hostel.


It was a beautiful, epic walk. And luckily not so draining that we didn't have the energy that night to take our group--by then eleven people--to a nearby bar...


...for a game of tejo. That's the reference to gunpowder. It's a Colombian game kind of like cornhole or horseshoes, where you throw stone discs at a target of clay that has a metal ring in the middle, and little packets of gunpowder are placed on the ring so that if you manage to hit on of them with your stone from a distance, it explodes. Good fun!



1 comment:

  1. How exciting, I’m sure you and your grandma are going to have an amazing time. There are some difficult parts of the Cocora Valley hike, but it really depends on what shape your grandma is in. You can do parts of the course, or reach a certain point and turn back. But I also saw people in a car at one point and on horseback, so there are lots of different options. But I’m not too sure of prices, unfortunately. It’s definitely worth the trip though. The view is amazing. :)

    OneDayTop recently has posted for Travel : 3 HISTORICAL PLACES TO VISIT IN GEORGIA

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