Salento; our hostal, the town, and the vistas

We did what we said we were going to do in our last blog and all the reasons we moved were most successful. It was much cheaper ($15) a night and we traded books and the place was hopping with english speaking tourists from all over the world with a wealth of information for us for our continued journey southwards. Our plans were to stay one night as it is a bit rustic but we were enjoying ourselves so very much we stayed for two nights and we may even make it back for a further stay before we leave this area. There was one fellow that was even older than we but mostly the kids were in their twenties and so refreshing and full of energy. They would do as much in a day as we did in a week. We made good friends with a couple from Denmark who are in their fourties with great dreams and plans of moving to Colombia.
This area of the Plantation House Hostal was mostly the main meeting area but this was early in the morning and not so many other people up but us.
Our bedroom. The beds and pillows were very comfortable but notice how many wool blankets are on the beds. It is high in the mountains and it is cold at night. Nancy´s bathroom was down the path a ways, mine was out the front door in the middle of the night.
A bit of a dark picture of the kitchen of our hostal. The blonde girl is Louise from Denmark and the man with the coffee is her husband Damien. We spent a good amount of time with these two over the two days.
And again, Louise and Damien in the computor room of our hostal.

A view of the front gardens of the hostal taken from the main meeting area where Nancy was sitting in the first picture.
There were many children around the hostal and we never did get them all figured out but the little girl in this picture is the hostal owner´s daughter. He is a Brit and his wife is Colombian and the little girl will grow up not knowing which language she learned to speak first, english or spanish. What a wonderful gift to give a child.

The town of Salento is a typical Paisa town, very pretty and clean and colorful. There are many Colombian tourist who also visit this town and very good trout is the main dish on every menu.
The buildings on one side of the central park in Salento
And another side of the park.

One reason people travel to Salento is to hike in the surrrounding mountains and valleys and to view the national tree of Colombia, the Waxy Pine. But as we did that last year, we did not feel so inclined this year. The hikes are not easy and we are a year older and nothing is as easy as it was last year.
Just a vista of the Cocora Valley, the area where most of the hiking takes place.
Another view of the beautful valley.
And one more just to make sure it imprints in your mind. It is so very green and lush.
A bit of a dark photo of Ron, overlooking the valley at the end of a short walk that Nancy and I made to this viewing point.

Yesterday, we travelled to Armenia, a whole 50 minutes away and checked into the same hotel we stayed in last year. We will be in this area for a few days until we decide what route we will take to get to the Ecuadorian border. We have more than a month to make it that short distance and there are a couple of archeological sites we want to visit on the way but we have been told the trips to get to them are not the easiest. We will see.