Most of this will be about Dereek and I's time spent in Salento last weekend, but before I get to that, I just want to mention that Angela and I took second grade on a field trip to the zoo on Friday. The kids really loved it. The zoo itself isn't really anything special, but it was nice to see the kids so excited and having fun. I was also really happy to see some of the kids talking about what we were learning. The trip was done to conclude a unit on classifying animals, so I had many kids coming up to me telling me what animals were mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fish, and birds.
Looking at a parrot
Waving to a monkey. She was waving to all the animals. =)
Listening to our guide tell us about the animals.
Happy second graders at the zoo.
Now, more exciting, is that Dereek and I went to Salento this past weekend for the three day weekend. We had really wanted to do some hiking and had heard about a great hike in the Valle De Cocora, which is right next to Salento. We didn't really know much about it besides it was long. Valle De Cocora is known for it's wax palm trees, which are the tallest palm trees in the world. They can grow to 160 ft and live for 120 years. They're amazing and beautiful trees. We also knew that there was a hummingbird reserve that gave out free drinks when you pay the 5,000 pesos (2.50 dollars) for admission. Besides that we didn't know what to expect.
The night before our hike, Dereek and I just did a bit of shopping, had some dinner, and then learned how to play tejo. Tejo is a traditional Colombian game where you have small heavy circles that you have to throw to a clay pit and try to hit one of four small packets of gun powder and make them explode. You play this game while drinking. It makes the explosions that much more fun, and throwing heavy metal disks that much more dangerous. Here's a little bit of what tejo looks like.
The clay pit and gun powder
This guy was much better at tejo then us. Here is what it's like when a gun powder packet explodes. (Thanks to Dereek for getting this video!)
The night before we had met another American teacher who was traveling and planning on hiking the valley, so we met up with him in the morning and we did the hike together, along with another girl who was from Poland and a man who was originally from the Philippines, but is now living in Florida. It was a very diverse group. The hike starts off pretty easy, just really muddy. Not too much up hill but A LOT of small bridge crossings. These were pretty fun as they didn't look too stable and there were signs for only one person at a time, so they swung quite a bit, but weren't so high that it was scary.
The jeep that took us into the valley next to one of the tall wax palm trees.
Beginning our hike, pretty but muddy.
Definitely gorgeous views.
Lots of wax palms in the mountains
The first sign of the Acaime casa de las colibris (or Acaime house of hummingbirds)
Dereek and I next to a pretty waterfall
Crossing a bridge
Crossing another bridge
If you were on a horse, you couldn't take the bridge, so they just waded across the river.
Looking at a waterfall while on one of the bridges
A slightly different looking bridge
A bridge?
After hiking for a while, we began to see more and more signs for the Acaime hummingbird reserve. The bit of the hike up to the reserve was pretty steep and we were getting pretty tired, but it was well worth it. We got up and were given either hot chocolate or agua panela with cheese as a recovery snack. While we ate we were surrounded by hummingbirds. It was amazing how many there were. They were not forced to be there, but rather were simply wild hummingbirds at the bird feeders. After drinking/eating I spent quite a bit of time trying to snap some good pictures; and I got a lot! I never thought I'd have such nice pictures of hummingbirds since they're so small and fast, but there were so many and they'd let people get close to them. Dereek even got one to sit on his finger! It was a really cool place. We learned that you could stay over at the reserve for 45,000 pesos ($23 dollars) a night that includes all food. We're definitely keeping it in mind for our next visit.
Sign for the entrance of the reserve!
My aguapanela (like a warm brown sugar drink) with cheese
The beginning of my hummingbird pictures. There's a lot.
Three hummingbirds and some more hikers
Check out the colors and tail on this one!
This is what a hummingbird looks like when it flies away apparently. lol
Just to get a glimpse of how many hummingbirds there were and how close they would come to people!
After the hummingbirds, we continued our hike. This part was probably the toughest part. We hiked up to a lookout that was beautiful, but definitely had a lot of uphill to get there. Once there we ate some sandwiches and watched the clouds roll passed the mountains.
Hiking up to the lookout
This part of the hike felt a little like a hobbit should live there
Views of the mountain from the lookout before the clouds came
Dereek looking out as the clouds rolled in
Watching more and more clouds come into the valley
Dereek and I
Some pretty flowers with the mountain and clouds behind them
After our break at the lookout, we began our hike back down into the valley. This was the part of the hike where we got the best views of the wax palms. The valley truly looked like a place that dinosaurs might live. There's not too much to say about the hike down, since it was relatively uneventful, but one of the most beautiful places I've been to. We couldn't help but keep stopping for more and more pictures of the valley and palms.
The beginning our hike down through a pine forest
Looking down into the valley
So beautiful. But couldn't you picture a dinosaur in there somewhere?
Two lone, tall, palm trees
Lots of palms
A little dark, but I still like it
I love Dereek and Gary just looking up at the tall trees in this picture
Entering into the valley.
Dereek and I
It's hard to see, but note that there are people in the bottom left center of this picture. These palm trees really were huge!
So that was about it for our adventure. The hike in total (including stops) took us probably about 6 hours. It was definitely 6 hours well spent though. Dereek and I went back to Pereira that night. We were considering camping for a second night, but after a six hour hike, we really wanted to sleep in a bed and get a good nights sleep instead of in a tent on the ground.
