We met Jairo and Juan Antonio at 06:00 this morning.  There’s a reason why we were meeting so early.  Originally we had planned to go to Valle de Cocora today, to see the groves of Quindio Palms (Ceroxylon Quindiense), the tallest palms in the world and the national tree of Colombia.  But then just a few weeks ago when Justin was in Pahoa, he visited his friend Bo one afternoon and as they were chatting, Bo took out some pictures of a trip he took to Colombia.  In addition to visiting Valle de Cocora, Bo had also visited Tochecito, aka La Carbonera, a different grove in a different valley nearby.  This area was much more rugged and remote, but also arguably more impressive.  But by this time, our itinerary was fixed, and there was no way to move things around, so we substituted Tochecito for Valle de Cocora, and moved Valle de Cocora to the next day, replacing a coffee plantation tour.

Tochecito isn’t nearly as close to Armenia as Valle de Cocora, however, and hence we were meeting Jairo and Juan Antonio at 06:00.  We drove to Salento, a nearby adventure hub town, for about 30 minutes, chatting in Spanish much of the way.  Quindio is the smallest department (akin to a state, sort of) of the 32 in Colombia.  We’d now visited several, including Meta, Guainia, Vichada, the Capital District, Huila, Tolima, and Quindío.  In Salento we stopped briefly at a place called Brunch, which was a bit confusing, “who’s on first” style, as we were there to get a snack to eat on the trail.

We purchased some pack lunches, then waited for a Jeep to drive us the rest of the way.  Salento seemed like the Moab of Colombia, with bikers, hikers, climbers, etc.  Our Jeep driver was a young man named Jason, probably in his young 20s (if that old).  We went almost straight up out of the city, which looked tiny behind us after only 5 minutes or so.  The pavement gave way to a rocky road after 10-15 minutes.  About 30 minutes in we stopped briefly for a rare sight.  There was snow on top of one of the mountains, and moreover it was visible.  Jairo said it was the first time he’d seen snow there in about five years (to be fair, he doesn’t traverse this road more than 2-3 times a month).

In addition to the snow-capped mountain, there were deep green valleys everywhere, and low clouds that gave the valleys an eerie and mysterious vibe.  There were some birds here and there, but with the car moving, we couldn’t really hear them.  There were also tons of cows.  We stopped at an abandoned schoolhouse.  Jairo told us that during the drug wars in the 80s and 90s, a schoolteacher was killed by guerillas at the school.  The inside of the school had a large note on the wall stating “no mas guerras” (no more wars).  As we continued driving we went over a pass at a height of 3378 meters, and began to descend a bit from there.  

When we went over the pass, the weather got a bit less cloudy, and at around 09:00 we had arrived at our starting point.  The valleys were now chock full of Ceroxylons.  Cows were abundant as well, which explained why we were seeing only adult palms.  All of the seeds that germinate never reach adulthood because the cows either eat them or step on them.  Either way, that’s not a good sign for the survival of the species.  We had seen the same thing with the Dragon’s Blood Trees in Socotra - only adult trees, no juveniles.

We walked along some trails through and around the forest, with sweeping views in almost every direction.  We had to watch our steps because of spongy grass that was just full-on wet and muddy in some places, and also for cow patties.  We were careful and avoided any major issues with our shoes, which were going to need to look semi-nice for our time in Medellin the next day.  At one point we saw a large Caracara perched in a tree, and we were lucky enough to get a couple shots of it when it flew off to some other tree.

Jairo told us that way back when, the palm trees were felled to burn for charcoal, and that was the basis for the name La Carbonera.  We stopped our walk when we got to the house called La Carbonera, and we used the facilities there and ate a bit of our packed lunch.  From there we walked downhill to our real lunch - apparently we had totally misunderstood the purpose of the pack lunch we’d gotten in Salento.  We saw more palms, more cows, more birds, and a couple horses along this part of the walk

At lunch there was a giant chicken - not to eat, but in a coop nearby.  It was the biggest chicken either of us had ever seen.  Whilst waiting for lunch a gorgeous hummingbird came by one of the plants to feed, and we got some great shots of its iridescent purple and turquoise feathers.  At lunch Jairo told us that 2800 meters (9200 feet) is the limit for Quindio palms.  They have very specific requirements not only in terms of low temperature but also of high temperature, so between that and the altitude requirements, there aren’t many places on the planet that they can survive.

After lunch we went back towards Salento, the way we came.  This time there were way more vehicles (and bicycles) coming towards us.  On the way in, the road was basically empty, but then again we’d left our hotel at 06:00.  Once again the weather changed precipitously (some pun intended) when we crossed over the pass and re-entered Quindío from Tolima.  The fog got much thicker, to the point that Jason put the cloth roof over the back of the jeep.  The ride seemed bumpier than in the morning, but maybe it was just a result of going downhill rather than uphill.

We got back to Salento a little after 15:00.  We walked around the town for a bit, for 45 minutes give or take.  The town was quite crowded for how small it was - we weren’t sure if it being a Saturday materially changed how crowded it was.  The town was very small and walkable, but there was construction on what seemed to be the main street that made getting around a bit more difficult.  We got back to our hotel a little after 16:00.  Around 17:00 Crystal chatted with her parents over Zoom, and a little after that we went to dinner.  

Lula the Frenchie - who we think belonged to either an owner or a very good customer - was wandering around the dining area, and the servers did a good job of walking around her.  Crystal had pancetta and wine, whilst Justin had steak and a drink made with Chontaduro, made from the fruit of a Bactris palm.  Justin asked that his steak be cooked a bit more, one of the only times he can recall needing to ask the kitchen to fix something.  

We were having some after-dinner cocktails and taking in the views of Armenia when Crystal got a message from her sister Heidi.  There was a family emergency in Denver, and we needed to leave ASAP.  So we messaged our travel agent and started packing.  The travel agency arranged for a car to drive us to Bogotá overnight, and we booked flights from Bogotá to Denver.  We got a couple of envelopes for the tips for Jairo and Juan Antonio, who we were expecting to see again tomorrow morning.  We checked out and got picked up at 22:00.  We changed vehicles in Calarca (this was to save time), and gave the tip envelopes to our first driver.  Two gentlemen whose names we never grasped drove us all the way to Bogotá, and we slept a decent chunk of the way.  There were seemingly only trucks on the highway.  We got to the airport at 04:00 for our 08:15 flight, and that was that.  We spent a couple weeks in Denver, and one more in California, before finally getting home in early December.  Our exploration of Colombia is, as they say, to be continued…