Cocora Valley, Colombia

Yesterday we hiked Cocora Valley and it was AMAZING. We’ve been trying to figure out how far we hiked and at what elevation, and based on different articles we found on the internet, we guesstimate it was about 7.7 miles with approximately a 2000 ft rise in elevation. At the top we were close to 10,000 ft in elevation. I’m pretty sore today, but it was totally worth it! Pictures never seem to fully capture what you see, but we were impressed by how some of these turned out that were taken with our phones!

For those of you unfamiliar with the area, there is a trail that loops all the way through the valley. We were advised to take the loop counter clockwise, as to see the wax palms last (the big draw of the valley) and in the best sunlight. This also allowed us to take the steepest part of the mountain going up, rather than down, which we now know was an excellent decision.

The trail started with a pretty boring path, contained by barbed wire. The view gradually got better as we got closer to the mountains. We had no idea what was coming though!

We soon found ourselves in a jungle- and these pictures don’t do it justice. There were lush greens everywhere with exotic flowers and at least a 10 degree drop in temperature. There were moss covered vines, giant stones, and rustic bridges crossing over a rushing river that we were able to listen to and walk beside for several hours.

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The bridges reminded me of a trampoline. If we walked to different beats, we just bounced each other around!

Our first long stop was to have lunch at the hummingbird house!

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About two hours in, our first stop was a hummingbird house. There were several feeders set up to draw in the birds and the signs posted named ten different types of hummingbirds you could see – I’m pretty sure we saw them all! I stood within two feet of the feeders and the birds didn’t mind! They zoom around so quickly that it startled me several times when they came close to my head! The one with the long tail was SO beautiful! I posted a short video on insta that is a little cooler than these pictures. Even being so close, it’s difficult to get pictures because they come and go so quickly!

Our next stop – the top!

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Our next stop was the top of the mountain. It was a steep climb to get there, but we were greeted by a precious house with beautiful flowers (huge succulents!), and a picturesque view.

We than began our descent back down using the dirt road on the other side of the house (not near as beautiful as the jungle, but a much more gradual decline!) until we made it to the valley.

Y’all. It was beautiful! If you ever do this hike make sure you leave around 10-11am as to not miss this beautiful lighting! This is me next to one of the taller trees we saw 😳🤗. If you missed it in the last post, they grow up to 200ft tall!

———(I’m not currently injured. The knee brace was for protection from an injury long ago. It was easy on my knees going up the mountain, but hard coming down, and the brace offered some assurance!)

There’s no filter or editing on those pictures 🙂

Also, we didn’t get any good pictures, but we saw at least ten yellow eared parrots flying into their nests inside the wax tree trunks. We learned later that these beautiful birds are endangered and we are now surprised we saw any at all, and especially so many! At first they just looked like average dark colored birds flying together, but as they got closed and turned, the light shone on them, and their vibrant green feathers awed us! I must say, those are some pretty noisy creatures though 😂. They have quite the squawk!

We ended our day as we began it, riding a “Willy”. The only form of taxis in Salento are these very old Jeeps that are in pristine condition that they call Willys. Ours ended up having 14 people in and on it in total. It’s not great quality, but this is a picture of the one that left prior to ours.

I’m telling you, Salento is a charming place and it’s surrounded by so much beauty!