Friday, November 28, 2014

Thanksgiving in Colombia








I woke up on Thanksgiving day not knowing exactly what would unfold. The weather forcast the day before looked like rain. But, I woke up to sun! so decided to go on the 5 hour loop hike through the wax palms and took one of the willies up to the base with some other travelers at 9:30am. I was lucky to sit next to a very nice woman from Tasmania, Australia, and we ended up doing the whole hike together. It was absolutely stunning! and so wonderful to be in nature and hear various birds and insects. The trail was very muddy, criss-crossing streams and lost arc-like swaying bridges, and I was grateful I'd rented wellies for $1.50.

At about the 2 hour mark, we reached a little coffee finca and stopped for a rest and some moca before continuing on up the steepest part. An assortment of brightly colored hummingbirds zipped around the feeders stationed around the finca. As we started to descend on the other side of the mountain, the fog cleared and we had amazing vistas of wax palms. We rested on the softest grass carpet looking up at the 200 plus year old trees. You can really see the height compared to the cows in the fields below. It felt very prehistoric. We caught the willies back at 3:30.

Back at the hostel, we learned there was a thanksgiving dinner happening at 6 that included the 3 course meal for about $16 plus extra for alcohol, so 4 of us from the hostel decided to go. To get there, we walked 20 minutes to an ecohostal where the spread was being prepared. 46 other travelers from around the world also showed up. It couldn't have been easy to cook a non typical colombian meal for that many people. They did a great job - we even had turkey! It was delicious - especially the carrot souflee they'd subsituted for pumpkin pie. We were all stuffed at the end and sleepily walked back another 20 minutes to our hostel and all went to sleep by 10pm. What a wonderful way to spend thanksgiving and the best part was the unexpectedness. I really love Salento and am so grateful I ended up here for thanksgiving and have another few relaxing days here.

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