Next stop was a small town called Salento.
We swapped from the bus to some Jeep “Willys” to travel further up the mountain roads to Cocora valley before starting a hike. Many of the Jeeps were surplus after the second World War, and shipped from the USA to Colombia. Some are now over 60 years old, but are very well maintained. Willy was the name of the man who designed the vehicles – what were you thinking?
The wax palms here are the tallest palms in the world and are very unique. They grow to 60m tall and at an altitude of over 1,800m. They adapted to altitude when the land was raised up by tectonic activity and moved inland by 400km from the Pacific ocean. No other palm species can survive at these altitudes.
The wax palms are a protected species. They were declared the national tree of Colombia and apparently the punishment for damaging a tree is seven years in prison.
In the evening we went for a game of Tejo. Paper triangles filled with gunpowder are placed around the end of a metal pipe surrounded by clay. You then choose a stone and throw it trying to hit the target and set off the gunpowder for a satisfying explosion.
We had a couple of beers while playing the game. Beer and gunpowder… what could go wrong? We discussed bringing the game back to Europe, but decided it definitely wouldn’t pass Health & Safety.
