Salento, Colombia

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Salento is a cute tiny typical village in La Zona Cafetera. In the weekends, local tourists come and visit, during the week it's pretty quiet. There is great hiking around this area.

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Places to stay:

The Plantation House (3 comments) Alto de Coronel - Calle 7 No 1 - 04 Tel: 315 4097039 Tel: 316 285 2603 Website: http://www.theplantationhousesalento.com Email: theplantationhousesalento at yahoo dot co dot uk Dorm beds available. Private rooms available.
There's a book exchange, hammocks and free coffee plus accurate tourist information.

Hosteria Calle Real (0 comments) Carrera 6 No 2 - 20 Tel: 759 32 72 Private rooms available.
A typical local house with a patio and friendly service. Rooms are 25000 pesos (US$ 12) per person.

Camping Monte Roca (0 comments) At 4 km from Salento towards the valle del Rio Quindia. Tel: 96 759 31 20 Website: http://www.geocities.com/campingmonteroca Cheapest night: 7 US$/night.
You can rent tents there: COP 15000 per night for 2 people, COP 30000 per night for 4. Bicycles are for rent at 5000 pesos per hour. There's a small museum (Museo del Camino Nacional) in a restored colonial house.

Pasado del Angel Hostal (0 comments) Calle 6 # 7-47 Cheapest night: 11 US$/night. Private rooms available.
On weekdays when there are few visitors and many vacancies, you can get a room in an upscale hotel such as this for a very affordable price. The Pasado del Angel is a homely, clean and quiet guesthouse with a friendly and helpful owner, very close to the central plaza. The 3 main guest rooms are a good size with comfortable beds and en-suite (with hot water). I paid 25,000 for a double with its own verandah overlooking the mountains. There is also a lean-to at the back with twin beds which was offered for 20,000. I was brought coffee and fruit every morning. Use of garage and kitchen by arrangement.

Hacienda El Coral (0 comments) KM 1 VIA PANAMERICANA ARMENIA-CALI Tel: 571-2863286 Tel: 57-3134414544 Website: www.fernandosuites.com Website: Email: fernandohotel at gmail dot com Email: info at fernandosuites dot com Cheapest night: 20 US$/night. Private rooms available.
Located in Zarzal, Valle Del Cauca, only 15 minutes away from El Eden airport in Armenia. The ranch includes: pool, horse rides, bar, nature walk, menu, and full family accomodations. Please don`t hesitate to contact them at 571-286-3286 or cell: 313-441-4544 The price per night is $40.000 this included bed and meal (breakfast, lunch and dinner).

Things to do:

Places to eat

Best place to eat in Salento is Rincon de Lucy in the Calle Real opposite the billiard hall. Great food at 5000 pesos.

Hiking around Salento

De beautiful Valle de Cocora is the biggest attraction. You can walk there, or rent a horse. Salento is also an entry point to the Parque Nacional De Los Nevados. There are plenty of other short and longer trekking opportunities.

Close to Salento (you can take a jeep, about an hour) is the Valle De Cocora, a very beautiful valley surrounded by mountains, with a unique type of palm trees that you'll only find here called palma de cera. You can spend all day walking around there, there's a trail that goes up the mountains into a cloud forest where you have to cross hanging bridges and other fun things like that. It's beautiful and great for taking photos. You can also organize horse rides.

Salento is also an entry point to the Parque Nacional De Los Nevados.

For a short (day) hike, go up to the Mirador de Acaime at 3000m, which has beautiful views. If you are fit and leave early, you should be able to make it to Estrella de Agua (a meterological station which was burnt down during the elections last April) or to the Páramo Romerales.

It is possible to hike to the Laguna del Encanto from here, a lake in the paramo at 3900m. From there, serious mountaineers go to the summit of the Nevado del Tolima (5215m), but be warned, it's easy to get lost, so a guide IS ESSENTIAL - only fools do this sort of trip without one. Don`t use a guide from Salento - they know the routes but nothing of the vegetation, contact the guys from Finca Primavera or Finca Acquilino and with a little organisation they will come down and meet you. Do not use the company Troncha and Montana at the base of the stairs in Salento - they are expensive and useless - a number of foreign visitors to salento have had problems with them.

It's even possible to hike to Juntas (a village near Ibague) from Cocora, via a route known as "Camino del Filtro". These hikes could take 2-3 days .

There are fincas where you can overnight, namely Finca Primavera, Finca Acquilino and Finca Japon. This is a very beautiful place. (The occupants of the finca`s will come down and guide you given a planning).

The Corporación Regional del Quindí­o used to have an excellent 1:40000 colour laminated hiking map. I'm not sure if the 2nd edition, which was due to appear at the end of this year (2006), is available. (2008 update - 2nd addition still isn`t available - the locals have cobbled together a map that they are selling for between 5,000 and 10,000 pesos - it is awful).

Finally employees of the CRQ will try and convince you that you need a guide or a map or both if you are doing the 5 hours loop - Cocora - Acaime - La Montaña - Cocora - it`s a load of rubbish - the trail is well sign posted and easy to follow.

 

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