Colombia Part 13 - Horseback riding to a waterfall and hiking at Cocora Valley (Photos + Videos)

As I told you already in my last posts, Kathi and I where spending the weekend in Salento. We already saw the city and visited a coffee farm, so now it was time for us to go and have some adventure time at the Cocora Valley, which is located about 11km from Salento.

To get there we had to go to the main square in Salento and take a Jeep. This costs about 5USD per person/one way and works like a collectivo. Once the Jeep is full, you are heading to your destination.

On our way, we could already see, how the vegetation changed. For some of the tourists, driving in the jeep was already an adventure. You had also the option to stand up in the end of it, while it was driving about 80km/h.

The Jeep dropped us off in the middle of the valley with campsites and restaurants - other parts of the valley can only be accessed either by hiking on the numerous trails or on horseback.

The Cocora valley is part of the Los Nevados National Park. The park covers an area of 580 km2)in total, including the north-eastern part of Quindío. It is located in the Central Cordillera of the Andean mountains. "Cocora" was the name of a Quimbayan princess, daughter of the local chief Acaime, and means "star of water" (Spanish: estrella de agua).

Cocora Valley is a very touristy destination of Colombia, due to its location of the national tree and symbol of Colombia, the Quindío wax palm (Ceroxylon quindiuense), as well as a wide variety of other flora and fauna (some endangered), all of which are protected under the park's national status.

The majority of visitors make day visits from Salento, or come for the extensive camping and hiking opportunities in the valley and the national park. Other common activities are bird watching, mountain biking, horse riding, rafting, scenic flights, and swimming in the rivers.

We decided to get a first impression by horse, riding up to a hill to visit a waterfall, before we would walk further to the palm tree forest.

Antonio would be our guide riding up the hill. He provided us water, hats for the sun and made a good price ;)

The first part was easy. Kathi was a bit afraid, because she didn´t have a lot of experience riding a horse and it didn´t really do what she wanted, but Antonio was really calm about that.

At first we crossed a bit of the fields along the river with a beautiful view of the palm trees, riding along the river. - We even saw really cute baby cows on our way.

After that part it got much more adventurous, when the horses started to go up the hill, literally jumping up big rocks that I couldn´t have been able to jump, walking there... they went very fast and Kathi freaked :D .... Antonio just said: "lean forward and don´t fall down." , so we tried out best to do so.

The vegetation changed and it got more humid, with plants like in the rainforest, while the past got very steepy and small.

Arriving at the waterfall we left the horses behind and walked down a small path towards the water.

The water was ice cold, but it was a cozy place and we where the only ones around :)

While our guide Antonio smoked a joint, Kathi and me decided to go into the water eventhough it was really fuckin cold.

The way back down on the horse was way worse as they where jumping down now and Antonio was a bit high, so arriving Kathi needed a break. :D

The local restaurants specialize in cooking locally farmed freshwater trout in several ways, mainly baked and served in a variety of sauces with patacones (plantain fritters). - We used this break to try some.

After lunch we decided to see the famous wax palms from closer and started to hike to a view point not far away, to see the palm forest.

Ceroxylon quindiuense is a palm native to the humid montane forests of the Andes in Colombia and northern Peru

This palm species can grow to a height of 45 m — or rarely, even as high as 60 m. It is the tallest recorded monocot in the world.The trunk is cylindrical, smooth, light colored and covered with wax. The leaves are dark green and grayish, 185–540 cm long, with a petiole up to 80 cm long. It achieves a minimum reproductive age at 80 years.

Getting to the top we enjoyed the nice view and the sun! The grass fields and hills remembered me a lot of Germany, especially because you see cows everywhere. The palm trees seem, like they not belong there.. but they are pretty impressive, and the grass was really confortable to rest.

Of course we also used the time to do some yoga ;)

After a while we decided to go back before the sun went down and there would be no more Jeep available to go to Salento.

We had a really great day with a lot of adventure, awesome view and sports. I am still impressed how much diversity Colombia has and I haven´t even seen half of it!!

As always I hope you enjoyed reading my post and I apreciate every Upvote, Resteem and Comment, because you are supporting my travels with it!

Cheers,
Liz

Colombia Part 1: Bogota D.C. - A city full of history and culture!

Colombia Part 2: Guatavita Lagoon, The Muisca Civilisation and The Legend of "El Dorado"

Colombia Part 3 - The Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá

Colombia Part 4 - Adventure time at the Natural Pools of Guejar River in the Jungle

Colombia Part 5 - Flying to Macarena National Park being a Copilot ✈

Colombia Part 6 - The Rainbow River at Macarena National Park

Colombia Part 7 - Riding Motor Bike and Chilling in the Pools of the Tatacoa Desert

Colombia Part 8 - Enjoying civilization in Cali!

Colombia Part 9 - Living with the president of the orchids club,helping her out at the green house

Colombia Part 10 - Hiking and Feeding Hummingbirds in the middle of the impressive Flora of Montanitas

Colombia Part 11 - Visiting the typical colonial city of Salento

Colombia Part 12 - Learning how to make coffee at a real coffee farm in Salento