The trip has gone better than expected so far. In the last decade of so, I have developed a very poor heat tolerance – which makes traveling difficult sometimes. I feel overheated on a sunny day 70 degree day in Bogota (I have several fans installed at my house to the complete horror of my friends and neighbors.) Sometimes, I am sweating and overheating when my friends are putting on sweaters.. It’s kind of frustrating to deal with – but now I travel with my own fan, and ice packs. So, I was worried about traveling to the Eje Cafetero, because some areas are fairly warm, like Pereira but Andres was careful to plan most of our trip in the cooler areas. Not as cool as Manizales, which is my general comfort zone, but quite pleasant so far in our journey.

Salento is quite close to Valle de Cocora, and during our stay, the weather was cool, with rain overnight. Salento is one of those picture postcard towns, that as much as it’s a touristy place, it still manages to be charming, which was a pleasant surprise. (I am sure volume of tourists plays a big part – we were there during the week, just prior to school vacations (semana de receso) so while there were other tourists around, there weren’t any lines, nothing was crowded, merchants were pleasant, friendly and not at all pushy.

I like color – it’s one of my signatures in both interior design and fashion. I strongly believe that we should “live life in color” and I despite that all white cold, institutional look that is so popular these days. Same thing for grey, and beige schemes – which predominate in Bogota design. My own house in Bogota is a riot of color, and a color scheme that changes on a whim.

Salento is the same, rich with color – in the bright fashion of the coast, and the Caribbean versus the painted ladies of San Francisco. The other nice thing is that it isn’t just one or two streets – it’s the majority of the town.

We stayed at a lovely apartment hotel that was close to the center of town. We were able to walk everywhere. The apartment was well-appointed, and we could make our own breakfast in the morning. Our host, Mario was very nice and happy to accommodate our plans.

After we got settled, we walked downtown – and to the Mirador, which is a point above Salento that allows you to see the entire city below – once you climb the steps to get there. (There’s a less strenuous path to the Mirador, but I needed the exercise).

It’s 256 fairly steep steps, (less than half the steps of La Piedra del Penol, and only a quarter of the climb up Monserrate but it’s enough to make you breath pretty hard.

I found the actual city view a little underwhelming, but maybe I’ve been spoiled by all the beautiful Bogota vistas..

But once you reach the top, there is a trail that leads to another view point – and this one is breathtaking. Instead of city scapes, it’s a panaramic view of the valley and the mountains that surround Salento.

I could take a million pictures and probably never do it justice.. So here’s a couple more.. Just click on the image if you want to see the whole thing.

The older I get, the more I am awed by nature. It’s funny how that happens. Sometimes, I think that we need to see a lot of ugly to truly appreciate the beauty in the world.

On the way back, we did a little bit of shopping to celebrate Andres birthday – and so I could take pictures of some of the crafts. (I know, it’s in almost all my Colombia posts – but the different kind of artisanal art and indigenous and traditional craft here is so beautiful. I don’t need to buy it – because how many mochillas, bags, hats and other things does a person need? Then again – I do try to support local craft by buying it whenever I need a gift because why would you buy someone mass market crap when there is a plethora of beautiful handmade items that actually mean something out there.

(Not this time – this time Andres actually picked out the beautiful leather bag he wanted – and I’ll get a picture of it tomorrow.) But there is such a variety of so many lovely things, that I just can’t help but take pictures of it when they let me..

After that, we took some more pictures – found a nice restaurant before heading back to the hotel to sleep..

Tomorrow – Santa Rosa de Cabal and the thermal springs..