Hills near Salento - Days 68-71
We'd had enough of the hustle and bustle in the sprawling metropolis of Salento, so we decided to move out into the coffee hills. Knowing we weren't going to have internet for the next few days, we spent the morning at Coffee Tree hostel catching up on a few things - emails, blogging, family chats, etc. Then we packed up and walked about 45 min outside of town to our next hostel - Yambolombia. We immediately were greeted by two
big doggos named Rhasta and Joint, which makes sense once we met the dreadlocked, tie-dye wearing hippie who owns the hostel. The hostel was situated on a hilly parcel of land, with hammocks on the top overlooking the valley. There was also at least one horse roaming around (at one point, right outside our bedroom window). We dropped off our bags, grabbed our books, and headed for the hammocks. No more than 30 min later did it start raining. It rained real hard. While not quite as relaxing, we moved our reading sesh inside and got comfy while enjoying the sounds of rain. Others started trickling in from their day-tivities and the common room started to fill up. Hippie places attract hippies so of course some guy whips out his guitar and they all start to kumbaya together. Dear lord. We enjoy the free entertainment while making our dinner - spaghetti carbonara - then head back to our room and put in some ear plugs. Maybe we're getting to old for hostels. Or maybe it's just because we weren't high.
End of D68 cribbage score: Ben 93 (15 skunks) – Meg 71 (16 skunks)
We head into town for some delicious coffee back at Cafe Jesus and to do a bit of souvenir shopping. Ben spotted a mug a few days ago that he really wants, but the shop has been closed since. Still closed today. Maybe tomorrow. While we're in town, we walk up to one of the viewpoints in town, aptly named El Mirador. Very nice view, but lots of stairs. So we cool down with some refreshing coco lemonade, which has become one of our favorite things here in Colombia. We grab a cheap but adequate lunch at a local place called Rincon El Lucy - soup, meat, plantains, arepa (of course), rice, juice all for less than $3 - then hike back to our hostel. Luckily, the hammocks have dried since last nights storm and the skies look clear. We spend the next few hours drifting in and out of sleep, reading/listening to music, with the sun gently shining down on us. Sadly, the sun had to set (very pretty from up there) and we head inside to make some dinner - pasta, again. We start to chat with a group at the table - a Chilean, a German, and a Dutch - and the Chilean suggests that we play a card game. And which card game does he suggest? Cambio! The same game that we had learned from the Australians in the Amazon. The Dutch girl knew how to play as well! Apparently this game is a common backpackers game. Jazzed to learn that we made it into the backpacking community. Don't remember who won but it was a pretty fun time!
End of D69 cribbage score: Ben 95 (15 skunks) – Meg 72 (16 skunks)
We had to move hostels today. Yambo was neat, but a bit too hippy for us. The next hostel, La Serrano, was supposed to be one of the nicer places in the hills and we were pretty excited for it! We had a leisurely breakfast at Yambolombia - coffee, fruit, granola, yogurt. As we were walking out, the hippie owner yelled out and stopped us. Then he ran to the back of the house and brought back two Colombian flag braided bracelets and tied them around our wrists. Haha everything about this place was so stereotypical.
Our next hostel is only a 15 minute walk back towards town and we got there before our room was ready. The common area was pretty neat and cozy so we stayed there for a bit, reading and whatnot. But we got bored eventually and took a stroll into town. Maybe that place that has Ben's mug is open today? Nope.
Our room was finally ready in the afternoon and the worker tells us that we are actually in a completely different building down the road called Las Camilias (still same hostel though). He walks us there and a few hundred meters later we see an awesome house up on the hill. We've been walking this path every day of the past few days and every time we've talked about how great it would be to live there. Secluded up on a hill with big windows overlooking the valley. We even talked about retiring and moving into that house. And sure enough, that's our place! There are three rooms within that house that they rent out. We were so excited!!
The place was pretty great. Humongous windows, great views. Even had a fire place and some cozy couches. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out there, reading and blogging. The hostel hosts a family style dinner most nights that we had signed up for - taco night! With fresh tortillas! Really quite delicious. At our table, we meet JJ, a Connecticutan (Connecticutite?), and DCer's John and Jamie (one of the other couples in our little mansion down the road). Fun group to chat with. We learned that John was a Packers appreciator since his grandma lives in Green Bay and and Jamie's best friend is from Wisconsin! We chatted about heading into town to play some tejo, but put it off until tomorrow night so Jamie could deal with her suitcase debacle (it was stuck at the airport).
End of D70 cribbage score: Ben 95 (15 skunks) – Meg 72 (16 skunks)
As if we hadn't been having them the past few days, today was going to be a lazy day. Breakfast back at La Serrana was solid - some real tasty soft boiled eggs and smoothies. Then we walked into town for the umpteenth time to see if the souvenir place was finally open. It was! Woo! Picked out a beautiful hand-painted mug of the Valle del Cocora and coffee plantations. Super excited about displaying it in our mug collection. Update: it broke in transit.
Nothing too exciting happens on lazy days. Reading, blogging, cribbage. I took a nap
outside while catching up on some podcasts. Overall, quite lovely. Jamie and John came back after their Valle del Cocora hike and we played a nice game of croquet in the yard. John placed half of the stakes (nicely placed) and Ben placed the other half (outrageously placed, on hills and across driveways). It was a competitive match (except for Jamie) but John edged out a win just as we ran out of daylight.
We invited JJ to our abode and had some drinks while teaching them Cambio - as per the backpacker way, they loved it. The hostel wasn't doing family dinner tonight so the 5 of us head into town to grab some pre-tejo grub. We had all agreed to try La Eliana, but it was closed by the time we got there. John and Jamie decided to split off to have a more romantic dinner while JJ, Ben, and I went back to BetaTown to have some burgers. JJ told us all about his experience teaching in Peru the past year - sounded pretty great!
The group reconvened for some tejo. Just as fun as the last time. Possibly a bit more because now Ben and I were experienced and were awesome at it. There was a group of girls behind us that we started chatting with. Two of them were UW grads! One just moved to Cali to teach English and the other was visiting. So many Wisconsin connections here in Salento! Perhaps it's a sign that its time for us to return back home to Wisconsin? Or it's a sign that we can find bits of home wherever we end up in the world...
End of D71 cribbage score: Ben 95 (15 skunks) – Meg 75 (16 skunks)