Valle de Cocora

 

    If you are going to visit the Valle de Cocora know that there are two ways to see this national park. The first is a trek through fairly undisturbed nature, which you can do either by horseback or on foot. If you choose horseback the ranchers will meet you as you enter the parking area and help you select the right horse for you off the open stalls that line the entrance. If you go on foot you will likely see more but know that horse feces will inevitably get into your shoe crevices. In either case, the area is about a day’s direct journey to the Nevados.

    We arrived with the intention of riding a horse and our driver set to work negotiating an animal. The rate the ranchers quoted and would not budge from he judged too high and advised me not to take it. I never learned the rate but was not bound to either mode of transport. I decided to give up negotiating to start the journey and decided that better exploration could be done on foot anyway. And so I began the trek through the dense forest of Cocora Valley. It is a trek of many rivers and, suspension bridges and tight rocky passages. That being said, it is heavily visited so there is never a feeling of solitude. Still, without a proper guide it is probably not wise to go far as the deeper regions lose more and more the semblance of a path, eventually becoming unpassable.

    I got as far as I thought feasible to go through this jungle and then turned back to the entrance where there was the second way to visit Valle de Cocora. A stairway carved into the mountains of the valley lead you to the tamed area of the park where horses as well as other domestic animals are put out to pasture, tourists can take pictures against the giant lettering spelling out the name of the park upon a hill and restaurant line the area. Signage tells tourists the story behind the park’s name which was derived from the daughter of Acaime, the local Quimbayan chief.










This area was clearly designed for leisure seeking tourists but it is a must see if only for the towering wax palms, endemic to the region and a Colombian icon. Since 1985 these giants have been preserved in the area and still draw crowds from all over the Salento area.




    That night saw us back in Circasia where we discovered a neat little diner specializing in crepes, waffles and French toast. Crepe Landia is small but vibrant, channeling the spirit of the 1980s as John Hughes enshrined the decade. It was a taste of Americana but in a way purely Colombian.



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