Valle del Cocora

The Valle del Cocora is one of the most beautiful hikes that I have ever experienced in my life. The valley is located just outside Salento, a small town in the Andes region of Colombia that has evolved as a tourist town because of the valley. The valley is known for its wax palm trees (palmas de cera). This tree is the national tree of Colombia.

(Put map that shows location of Salento below.)

This Web page explains well the different ways to get to Salento: https://coupletraveltheworld.c... 

We chose to travel by bus. We were coming from Medellín. It was a scenic, six-hour ride. We used the Flota Occidental bus company. Here is their website: https://flotaoccidental.co/

Here are some pictures from the trip:

There are two trails that you can take to hike through the valley: One short and the other long. The short trail is about 2.5 km long, relatively easy, and takes 60-90 minutes to complete. The long trail is around 15 km, of a moderate difficulty, and takes 5-6 hours to complete. Then, you can choose whether to hike each trail clockwise or counter-clockwise. So, ultimately, you have four options.

We decided to do the long hike counter-clockwise. Many Web pages and people in Salento recommended doing it this way. The best justification for hiking counter-clockwise is that you save the most stunning part of the journey (the wax palms) for last. It was definitely the right way to do the hike. For the first few hours, we knew what we were working towards, and then we finished on a high.

(Post a picture that shows the different routes drawn.)

Make sure you are prepared for your hike:

• Clothing appropriate for weather (pants and t-shirt?)
• Hiking shoes that are fine in mud
• Backpack
• Sunscreen
• Hat
• Sunglasses
• Water
• Food (if you are doing the 5-6 hour hike)
• Camera
• Money (at least 19,000 COP per person: 8,000 for round-trip transportation + 5,000 of hiking fees + 6,000 to enter a hummingbird sanctuary during the hike)

This place was the best. In their front window, they advertise "American-size breakfasts" and "pack lunches" for people hiking through the valley. We passed by the restaurant one night and realized that it would be a great place to go the morning of our hike. We could get a breakfast that would fuel us for our hike and a lunch that we could bring with us. 

There is nowhere to get food during the hike, other than a small hut where you can get a piece of cheese and hot chocolate, so if you choose to do the 5-6 hour hike, you should definitely bring water and food for yourself in a backpack.

The servers at Brunch de Salento were amazing. They were so kind, always smiling, making conversation with us, and gushing with pride about the beauty of their town. And then, check out in the last picture of this section the surprise that they left us in our lunches!

From the town of Salento, the most common way to get the the valley is by taking a Willy, or four-by-four jeep. These jeeps wait in the center of town, their drivers looking to fill their vehicles with passengers who want to go to the valley. There will be jeeps also waiting in a lot at the end of the hike through the valley throughout the afternoon and evening to take hikers back to the center of town.

The Willys can fit 7-11 people. You can see in one of the pictures below a Willy with passengers crammed in the back.

The fee for the ride isn't much at all. I don't remember exactly what I paid in 2019. Different websites reference different figures. Some say you can pay as little 4,000 COP ($1 USD) per person for a one-way trip on a shared ride (with other people who you don't know). Another says that a private ride costs 35,000 COP ($8.75 USD). (COP stands for Colombian Peso.)

Aka, Acaime La Casa de los Colibris