Crossing borders

La Serrana, Salento > El Viajero, Cali, Colombia > Vibes, Quito, Ecuador

On leaving Medellin, we followed the route that most people seem to take in this part of Colombia, and headed to the heart of Colombia´s coffee region, Salento. The bus ride was relatively painful, due to our self-inflicted lack of the sleep, but much improved by, yet again, awe inspiring views of sharp drop mountains flourishing with neat rows of crops and bright green jungle. Contrasted against the clear blue sky (sod´s law that travel days are the most beautiful), I didn´t even need the ´pop-out colour´ function on my camera (!) to make it look spectacular. 

Salento views

On arrival in Salento, we took a rickety old jeep up to La Serrana hostel, a ´country farm´ type hostel on a mountain ridge and 20 minute walk out of town. Being out of the centre bought with it wonderful 360degree views, and the comfort offered by the hostel was very welcome. With plush, leather armchairs, an extensive DVD collection and breakfast included, we weren´t complaining (well, not after some sleep that is...!). Salento town centre was surprisingly pretty, with streets of nic-nac shops and tasty eateries. As is inevitable down here, we bumped into most of the other travellers who have been doing the obligatory Medellin > Salento > Cali route, no more so than in ´Brunch´, a locally owned but not locally themed burger bar which was one ´must-visit´of Salento.

Coffee dry-roasted on a hob

Well fed and well rested on our second and last day, we took on the coffee tour, run by an Anglo-Austrailian who has been running a hostel-come-coffee plantation in Salento for 10 years. Tim was certainly enthusiastic, which helped me to turn a blind eye to the slightly tired jokes he spouted during the tour, and we thoroughly enjoyed watching the journey of the dear Colombian coffee bean from plant to cup. There were, I think, 24 steps in this process, including dry roasting the shelled beans on a hob, and the coffee itself was certainly one of the better cups that I´ve had on this trip. Colombia is number four in the world for coffee production, and it seems it could climb to number one if there was not so much competition between growers, who all want to sell separately but therefore don´t have the means or the land-space to sell on mass like some other countries. Tim admitted that it is very difficult to make money from coffee production, thus explaing that he is taking a new approch; doing personalised coffee so that you can buy a row of coffee plants that they will grow for you, keep you up to date with the progress and finally send over your coffe, fully packaged. A nice present for a true coffee lover methinks.

From Salento, we made the short journey down to Cali, known as the Salsa heart of Colombia. Cali attracts not only tourists, but also many Colombians, looking to go to one of the hundreds of Salsa bars, or get a few lessons. The city itself was not pretty, with high-rise buildings and a hefty crime rate, we tended to stick to our oasis of a hostel, El Viajero (a chain, we stayed in El Viajero in Cartegena too), which had a pool and free salsa lessons in the evening. The salsa lesson was rather beyond me and Bean, starting with the simple 1,2,3-1,2,3 backwards/forwards stuff but quickly jumping to toe, heel, cross, toe, heel, cross with turns. I was crying with laughter at our malcoordination, even the teacher seemed a little dispairing. That evening we went to a salsa club, which was rather more upmarket than our previous salsa venues, with waistcoast-wearing staff and table service. The tables, too, were all positioned around the dancefloor, so that it felt more like a competition than ´just for fun´. Luckily, most of our gringo group were amateur to intermediate, and so I managed to get away with very few dances. Phew.

Aside from the salsa, Cali didn´t boast much else, so after a day of lounging by the pool with books, we embarked on the extensive trip to Ecuador´s capital, Quito. With heavy hearts to be leaving such a wonderful country, we took a ten hour bus to the border, whereby we literally walked between the two countries (although our taxi driver accidentally dropped us in Ecuador (?!?)). The only stalling at the border was for a brief lecture by a number of mask wearing people on a flu virus going around Colombia and Venezuela. This was not the most encouraging introduction to Ecuador, but we soon got ourselves on a bus to Quito and arrived early afternoon.

Vibes hostel was apparently the 2013 winner of best hostel in Ecuador. If this is so, we didnt have high expecations of Ecuadorian hostels. With Lizzie and Bean harbouring strong allergies (Bean has been sneezing for most of the trip, reason unknown, and Lizzie is allergic to dust) we tried not to spend too much time in the hostel. It sounds like we have got too comfortable with fancy hostels, but Colombia´s hostel network is so well mapped out, and reputation is key to this, so they all tended to be well maintained. Saying this, Vibes was at the heart of La Marisca, an area situated between the old town to the south, and new town to the north. The streets of La Marisca are lined with restaurants, bars, clubs, cafes and, in my opinion, had a great atmosphere (although we had been warned of high crime rates). 

El Panecillo, Quito

On the subject of high crime rates, we did discover this on our exploration of the old town the next day. After a fairly fruitless morning trapsing around Quito´s old town (which on paper is a UNESCO heritage sight with many sights to see...just on paper mind), we were considering a hike up to the beautiful El Panecillo, literally translated as ´little bread loaf´which hosts an enormous statue of the virgin Mary. This overlooks the city and I couldn´t take my eyes off it. We got to the bottom of the staircase to this but read in the trusty lonely planet that the stairs were fairly dangerous and so decided against the climb. Just before this, I had put my backpack on my back in preparation for the climb, rather than on my front for safety. As we walked back to the centre for lunch, a boy/man passed us and aggressively grabbed at my backpack. Luckily he had caught my eye as we walked so I quickly turned to avoid him ripping it off my back/ getting into the pocket. The fact that this had happened on a busy street in broad daylight with police EVERYWHERE was quite nervewracking and so, to soothe our souls, we headed to a very safe, if slightly expensive cafe in Plaza Santa Domingo. I don´t want to be unfair to Quito, as we did visit a beautiful Basillica and an extensive museum on Ecuadorian history, but this incident, as well as a slightly below par hostel was not giving us the best impression of the country!

To remedy this, and because it was a Friday, we spent three hours with our books, coffee and cakes in ´The Magic Bean´cafe, had a very cheap local almuerzo (Ecuadorian Menu del Dia) and joined our fellow hostellers for a fun night out. We left swiftly the next morning, heading to Baños, our next (and, hate to say it) final destination in our quick tour of Ecuador.

If you have made it to the end of this one, medal´s on its way.