July 12 & August 13 – 18, 2024.
When we finally left Medellín, we had just over two weeks before our three months in Colombia would come to an end. We wanted to see a little more of the country as we traveled to the Ecuadorian border by bus. We picked 5 small towns and cities to stop in. I’m going to tell you about two of those small towns here. But before I start on our journey south, I will tell you about another small town we visited before we left Medellín.
Guatapé
Getting to Guatapé
There are lots of different ways to get to Guatapé, taking a tour, a taxi, or a bus. I considered a tour, but we like to do things on our own time. A taxi would have been expensive. So it was the bus for us. Luckily, there are tons of blog posts about how to get to Guatapé from Medellín. Here is an especially good one I wished I had seen before we went.
The bus line Sotrasanvicente runs every hour to half an hour to the city from the northern bus terminal, Terminal del Norte, in Medellín. You can buy tickets online ahead of time but since we were unsure of our timing, we decided to just buy them at the terminal. This was the first time we took a bus in Colombia and the start of our bus learning curve. The northern bus terminal in Medellín is big. Really big. Much bigger than some airports I’ve been in. After our taxi dropped us off we wandered around for a bit looking for the bus company ticket office. Finally, we asked someone. That’s when we discovered that there was a whole other level downstairs with numerous ticket offices. Once we found the correct ticket seller, I inquired as to when the next bus was leaving. The ticket seller said, “Ahora (Now).” I thought that meant we missed the bus, but no he sold us tickets and told us to hurry. We made it! The bus was big and comfy with still a few seats left in the back.
Along the way to Guatapé, we picked up and dropped off many passengers who didn’t seem to be standing at a bus stop and didn’t appear to have tickets. I now realize this is very normal and in fact, we have now done it ourselves.
La Piedra del Peñol
When our friend Dian came to see us in Medellín in July, We thought it’d be great to get out of the big city and visit the tourist town of Guatapé, a two-hour bus ride from Medellín. Guatapé is a super cute little town on a lake which is probably best known for its big rock, La Piedra del Peñol. This big rock stands 656 feet high. More than 700 steps have been added to one side of it, taking tourists on a zigzagging journey to the top.
We got off the bus when it reached La Piedra del Peñol (the bus continues on to the town of Guatapé). Greg and I considered climbing the stairs to the top of the rock. But Dian wasn’t interested, so we all decided to get a drink at one of the restaurants sitting at the base of the rock and look out at the beautiful Peñol-Guatapé Reservoir.
Guatapé
After our drink, we caught a tuk-tuk from Peñol to town. The first thing we did was find the bus depot and buy return bus tickets, as I had read that they could sell out. We didn’t want to get stuck in town or have to travel too late.
The town was adorable. We ate lunch at a vegetarian restaurant and then decided to take a boat ride. We wandered down to the shore and someone asked us if we were looking for a tour. We followed the captain down to the dock and registered for the ride. Then we had to wait. We weren’t going anywhere until they had a full boat. A few people at a time joined us while we waited. Finally, we gave up waiting. Our time was limited in the city, and we hadn’t seen much of it yet. We left just in time because it started raining.
We did some shopping and wandered around looking at the super cute streets. And before we knew it, it was time to catch our bus back to Medellín.
Jardín
Getting to Jardín
Getting to Jardín from Medellín was pretty easy. I booked tickets ahead of time with the bus line Rapido Ocho. The bus left from the Southern bus terminal, Terminal del Sur. This was a much smaller terminal than the northern terminal in Medellín and much easier to navigate. We arrived early and found some seats in a nice big waiting area.
The trip to Jardín was windy and bumpy, and I sometimes felt a little nauseous. But the bus was big and comfortable and the scenery, nice.
There is no bus station in Jardín. The bus dropped us off in front of the Rapido Ocho ticket office. The town is small, so we were able to walk to our accommodations without any problems.
Jardín is a gem. As soon as we got to Medellín people started asking us if we were going to visit. At 3 hours it felt too far for a day trip so we decided to make it our first stop when we left the big city. We stayed at a hostel near the city center, but Jardín is small and any place we had chosen to stay would have been in a good location.
The main plaza is quite large. It is surrounded by restaurants painted in distinctive colors. Each restaurant has outdoor seating on the sidewalk painted in the same colors as the restaurant. These same painted tables and chairs also extend into the plaza. Connected to the plaza on one side is a big church. We hadn’t seen many churches in Medellín, so this was a new visual treat. One of my favorite things about the plaza and street of Jardín was the older gentlemen who spent their days sitting on those various colorful chairs watching the world go by. Although Jardín is a tourist town, those old guys made it feel like the scene was reciprocal – they were watching us as much as we were enjoying them and their special town.
The colorful buildings and welcoming plaza weren’t the only special things about Jardín. Just a short hike or tuk-tuk ride away there was stunning countryside, waterfalls, wildlife, and nice hiking.
We did a hike south of town to the Cascada del Amor waterfall and spotted our first Gallito de las Rocas (Cock of the Rock), an unusual looking bright red/orange bird.
We took a tuk-tuk up into the mountain to the beginning of the 7 waterfall hike north of the city. Although this is a long hike that apparently takes up to 8 hours, we figured we’d do a portion of it and then turn around. We made it to the first waterfall Cascada La Escalera but never made it to the second one choosing to turn around when the trail got too rough and hard to follow. Again we saw wonderful wildlife, adding entries to our iNaturalist account with plants, tons of different butterflies, and birds.
After returning to the beginning of our hike we walked along the mountain road to Café Jardín where we had a few refreshing drinks and a view of the city below.
Salento
Getting to Salento
I had to search for a long time before I figured out how to get from Jardín to Salento. At first, the only option I could see was going back to Medellín and catching a bus from there. Although this would be an easy option, it would have been a long trip, and we didn’t want to backtrack. So I kept searching until I stumbled upon an alternative. I found that the bus company Cootransrio offers two routes out of Jardín. Each will eventually get you to Salento, but on one you change buses twice and the other once. The one where you change buses twice is longer and pricier, but it is supposed to have a much smoother ride. Learn more about this option, here. We chose the shorter, less expensive, more interesting, and somewhat death-defying one.
This route takes you up out of the valley and over the mountains in a chiva to the town of Riosucio. A chiva is a colorful open-sided bus. We bought our tickets a few days before to ensure a spot, but even though the bus was packed, I believe they would have found room for us. Most of the riders were young backpacking tourists and there was a party atmosphere as we journeyed into the mountains with the music blasting. The auydante didn’t have a place to sit on the bus, so he rode on the roof, coming down to collect tickets and fares by climbing on the outside of the chiva from row to row. The bus picked up passengers from along the side of the road as well as cargo. The route was unpaved, bumpy, and curvy. There were no guard rails along the steep drop-offs. But the views were beautiful.
In Riosucio we changed to a normal bus and continued on to Salento.
Here is a good link about the route we did.
Like Jardín, Salento is a tourist town. Cute and lively, family-friendly, but also geared more towards young people who like a little nightlife.
One of the most popular things to do in Salento is to hop on a Willie and get out of town. Willies are colorful jeeps that take you to another tourist town, Filandia, or Valle de Cocora, a national park full of wax palms. I think the Willies go to other places like coffee farm tours, but our time was limited, and we didn’t check into that.
We spent our first afternoon in Salento waiting to take a Willie to Filandia. We saw a long line circling the plaza leading to where all the Willies were parked so we got in it. An old couple working for tips entertained the people in line with their dance moves. The line moved at a decent pace. Once we got near the front we realized that we needed to already have our tickets. Greg went to the ticket booth while I kept our place in line. Upon returning to the line I noticed that he had tickets for Cocora Valley and not Filandia. We wanted to go to Cocora Valley too, but we wanted an earlier start. Greg returned to the ticket booth and discovered the Filandia tickets were sold out. We spent the day wandering around town instead and got up early the next day to buy tickets to Cocora Valley.
Cocora Valley
On our second morning in Salento, we were on one of the first Willies to Cocora Valley. Willies can transport up to 13 passengers, 2 in the front seat, 8 in the small jeep truck bed, and 3 standing on the bumper, holding on to the back of the truck frame. Desiring a scenic view, we chose to stand on the bumper for our trip to the Valley but felt safer and more comfortable squeezed into the back on our return trip.
Cocora Valley is part of the Los Nevados National Natural Park and is home to the Quindío wax palm, Colombia’s national tree. The Quindío is the world’s tallest palm tree and can grow up to 200 feet in height.
When we arrived at the park it was pretty calm, but it is a popular place and as the day wore on it became increasingly crowded. It is free to enter the park, but there is also a paid section where you can have your picture made sitting on a large hand, in front of angel wings, in front of signs, etc. We skipped that part, so I can’t tell you much more about it. We headed up the road that we came in on, looking for the loop trail. We walked right past the beginning of the trail and ended up at a river before we turned around. But we got two bird sightings out of our detour, our second Andean Motmot and our first Collared Trogon. We walked back down the road and found our trail. Finally, on the right trail, we took in the remarkable landscape and made more nature sightings for our iNaturalist account. This trail goes over private land, so at one point we had to stop and pay a toll to continue. The trail is supposed to be 6.1 miles long and take up to 5 hours to complete. We didn’t have the time or stamina for such a long hike, so we eventually turned back and went to look for a Willie to return to Salento.
