First Solitary Hike in the Southern Hemisphere: Valle de Cocora

My first solitary hike in South America: I arise at 5:30 in the morning, and leave just as the sun begins to highlight the cloud formations and cast its rays to illuminate the brilliant green hillsides. Even in this touristy (and incredibly beautiful) town of Salento, I am early enough to be sitting in the back of a jeep with only locals. It winds on twisted roads, arrives in Cocora, at the beginning of my hike.


I'd skipped breakfast, banking on the fact that one can get food just about anywhere in Latin America at just about any time, if you are willing to compromise quality. Not so here, now. I settle on chips and a sweet coconut snack, hoping it will hold me for the four hour hike.

Rain, lots of rain the night before. (actually, this year Colombia has received more rain than in anyone's memory) Lots of rain makes lots of mud. Through the first part of the walk it was hard to enjoy the incredible landscape around me as I tried to not to sink over the tops of my shoes in muddy horse tracks. But the wax palm landscape (tallest palm and tallest monocot in the world!) was intoxicating in the morning light. Clinging to barbed wire fence to keep myself from sinking into el lodo, I kept on, until reaching the cloud forest.


The day before, a fairly adventurous girl had told me she was glad she'd gone with other people because on this part of the hike there were several river crossings that involved downed logs and bridges of poor integrity. Anticipating this, I was a bit nervous, and decided that I'm experienced enough to know my limits and that if I encounter something I'm not comfortable with, I'll stop, wait, turn around, or make some sort of intelligent decision. However, none compared to the bridges I crossed in El Bolson or the downed log crossings in Chile last year. Thank goodness!

At the far point in the loop one reaches a reserve, which reputedly serves hot chocolate (or other drinks) and a bit of queso for a small price. My lack of breakfast and snacks left me looking quite forward to this. It also was said to have a number of hummingbirds.


Well, the hummingbirds were there, but not a person to be found. I spent an hour taking photos, resting, waiting, changing lenses and taking more photos. Because of this I could not take the hike any further (there's a spur off the loop that heads into paramo), and instead turned around, to have a lunch of trout in a garlic and mushroom sauce (trout is a specialty of the region).