The flight from Iquitos to Lima was a quick and relatively easy one, apart from a long check-in line and a delayed flight chock full of small children and babies. We arrived at the airport in Lima and instantly felt a little bit more at home. Lima is so large and there are so many people, and the energy is completely different than the jungle towns and the country side of Colombia that we had so recently been in. It was an invigorating feeling to be in a place where a lot more seems to happen. We had two nights before our friend Melissa from Oregon was joining us to travel for a few weeks, so we were ready to get to our hostel and explore the upscale part of town called Miraflores, where we were staying.

When we arrived at our hostel, however, we were less than impressed and even felt a bit depressed looking at this place where we planned to stay for the next 5 nights. It seemed dirty and lonely. We sat in the waiting area for nearly half an hour before anyone who worked there came to check us in. Then, we were told we had a few hours before we were going to be able to get into our room. This wasn’t such a bother since we were excited to walk the streets in the city and had already chosen a place for lunch that we were very excited to try. Lima is famous for its food, so after traveling through Colombia and being in the jungle, where the pickings are slim and the variety isn’t much, we were so happy to have something new and different for meals. We had a wonderful lunch at a sandwich place, including a freshly-made juice, which brightened our spirits immensely.

When we arrived back at our hostel from our little jaunt, we were able to get into our room. This caused us to be even more down about our hostel. It was musty, with uncomfortable twin bunk beds and a bad vibe in general. We told ourselves we had been so lucky with all our stops and stays, and that sometimes you just gotta rough it. And we knew that most of our time spent in the hostel would be a place to lay our heads down and sleep at night. So we went out to the common area and tried to be social with some other travelers, and found that the place was dead.

With no one around, we left to walk the streets of the beautiful district and found ourselves at an ocean-front, outdoor shopping mall with fancy restaurants with views of the ocean and beach, a nicer mall than any we have back home. There was even a movie theater that showed movies in english! Since it was close to 10pm we decided we would come back to explore this area a bit more the next day and definitely bring Mel when she arrived.

We went back to our room to get some shut-eye and to hopefully wake up with a more positive attitude about our stay in Lima. But when we woke up, it only got worse. Paul took a shower in the dirty bathroom, and found the walls were moldy and the shower was ice cold. When he got out he looked at me and said, “I can’t take this place another night. We have an hour before check-out time. I am gonna go find another place to stay. Pack the bags!” So, I packed our bags quickly and within 40 minutes Paul was back with a new place to stay and we got out of there as fast as possible. The last irritation was while checking out, which was before check-out time, they said that since we had a reservation we had to pay for another night and didn’t even give our deposit back to us for the 5 nights we had booked. This type of policy is unheard of for hostels. Needless to say, if you ever go to Lima and book a hostel, book Pariwanna, which is the place we ended up staying.

PARIWANNA HOSTEL

Right when we walked into the Pariwanna hostel, our spirits were immediately lifted and we were so excited for the next few days. The place was bustling with cheerful staff and other travelers, our room and beds were comfortable, clean and had a very nice private bathroom as well. How great it was! We were taken around by the staff and showed the common area which included a roof-top patio, complete with a restaurant and bar that over looked the main square and park in the Miraflores district. We settled in our room, got ready for a little more exploring and headed out to find something for lunch. While walking around the night before, we had noticed a sushi place that looked promising, and with both of us craving something fun and different to eat, we went straight there. We had a great lunch, wonderful sushi and so cheap! We planned on going to a movie later that day at the theater we had found and were both excited to see a movie in Peru. Plus, it was a Matt Damon flick, so of course I was down for that. We headed back to our hostel took a nice nap in our clean comfortable room and got up just in time to make it to “The Martian”. The movie was in English with Spanish subtitles, which were very easy to ignore, so when we walked out of the movie we had almost forgotten that we were in Peru, let alone South America. That is how comparable the city of Lima and especially the district of Miraflores was to our places back home.

MELISSA HAS ARRIVED!

The next morning Mel arrived bright and early from the airport, which was great since we were able to book a tour of the old city of Lima through our hostel – a perfect activity for Mel on her first day. We took the overcrowded bus system down to the downtown area, where we were able to see the main square of Lima. We were lucky to catch a film crew capturing a dance battle between traditional dancers (in full costume) and modern break dancers (in backwards hats) in the center of the square.

We walked down the old streets leading to the Monastery of San Francisco, a landmark for all the history it holds. It was built in the mid-1600’s and so large it took just short of a hundred years to finish. The age and architecture are beautiful and historical, but what lies beneath the church really makes the place unforgettable – the Catacombs. For around one hundred years there were people buried in coffins and tombs. Around the beginning of the 1800’s this practice ended since the people that would frequent the church were all falling ill. Obviously with decomposing bodies, the stench and the disease that was emerging from the Catacombs was overwhelming. When the city of Lima started to explore the Catacombs they estimated that nearly 25,000 bodies had been buried there. Our tour led us down narrow, dimly-lit stairwells and passageways to see it all for ourselves. Since all the bodies had been excavated, the bones that had survived the test of time were sorted into different bins, and some skulls and bones were even arranged into patterns, forming disturbingly macabre artwork. This activity was one that will stick with us forever. To walk through the tunnels where all the coffins had been placed one on top of the other was extremely eerie and somewhat emotional.

After the Catacombs we stopped at a small distillery that makes the traditional Peruvian drink, pisco. It is a sweet-tasting liquor that is made from grapes. Everywhere in Peru serves the drink, Pisco Sour, which is pisco liquor with sour mix and whipped egg whites on top. We tried one with our sushi lunch and found it to be very similar to a margarita and very tasty! From there, we jumped back on the overcrowded bus and headed back to the hostel.

MEETING FRIENDS IN PERU

We returned to our hostel starving, so made our way towards the center of the district and found a great place for some yummy quick dinner. Since we were out and about, we headed back to the shopping and restaurant area where we had been the night before to show Mel the area. We found a really cool restaurant called Popular and sat at a table with an amazing view of the ocean. We each ordered a nice glass of Argentinian wine and even though we had just had dinner, we had to order some freshly-made ceviche, which is a Peruvian classic – fresh fish, mixed in lime and lemon juice, along with onion and a little garlic. Usually it is served with a side and this time it had a small pickled sweet potato, which was amazing. We had been in Peru for about a week and still hadn’t had the dish, and Paul had never had it, so we treated ourselves to the most delicious ceviche I’ve ever had. That will definitely be something we have more of as our time in Peru continues!

The three of us made our way back to the Pariwanna hostel and sat on the rooftop patio under the moonlit night. Right away, we started talking to a few people who were actually Lima residents and who come to Pariwanna patio and bar just to hang out because it is just that fun. Yet again, we were so very happy that we had switched to the hostel, for if not we wouldn’t have had such a fun couple nights in Lima like we did. It was fun and refreshing to talk to people that lived in the city and who were able to give us tips on where to go, what to see and even more refreshing to connect to people living in a place we were just visiting. Edu and Maribel are two that we both loved talking to and getting to know and we ended up having one of our most favorite nights in Peru. Thanks you two!

BARRANCO

Because we had time to get to know Edu and Maribel, we were able to learn about a neighboring district to Miraflores, Barranco. The district is known as a bohemian area with small quaint shops and nearly hidden places to find a good cheap meal. So, for our last day in Lima, we walked along the ocean cliffs from Miraflores to the district of Barranco. As we were walking through, there were many times when we thought this area was like the Southeast Portland of Lima – we even saw some hipsters. We were there on a Wednesday so not much was happening in the area, but we were able to get some good people watching in and walked through some very pretty parks and church squares. We also found one of those hidden places for lunch and had awesome burritos, something that both Paul and I had been craving since leaving the States. We made our way back to Miraflores, and to our hostel for our final night in Lima and to prepare for our trek up the Pacific coast to the beach town of Mancora.

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Our trip to Salento took four different buses, a total of 20 hours from start to finish. We left lovely Villa de Leyva around noon and headed out on a collectivo to Tunja. Right when we arrived at the bus station in Tunja we were directed towards a bus to Bogota, and that was just the beginning. Once we got to Bogota we navigated through the bus station, which felt more like an airport, with four terminals and walk ways that were lined with restaurants and shops – the most tempting of which was Dunkin Donuts. Once we finally figured out which terminal to buy our tickets from, we ended up having about a 5 hour stay in Bogota. Since we knew that we would be staying in Bogota for a few days later in the trip, we decided that it would just be easier to spend the time at the terminal. Thankfully, the bus company that we had bought our tickets from had an air-conditioned lounge with computers, comfy chairs, and areas to plug in our phones and tablets. We had to get ready for another over night bus ride that would take us to Armenia and then to Salento.

The Jelly Donut Incident

This left us with time to grab some of those tempting donuts, two jelly-filled, powdered sugar-covered treats. After Paul took a bite of one, he happily handed it to me to share in the tasty donut. Somehow, there was a slip in my grab, and next thing I know, not only my face but my black shirt is covered in white powdered sugar. Even Paul had gotten it all over his tablet and pants. As we looked at each other all we could do was laugh, because it occurred to us that being covered with a fine white powder in a busy bus station in the middle of Colombia might look – ahem – a little suspicious. Especially having just watched the show Narcos on Netflix. Luckily we were able to get cleaned up without attracting the attention of any local law enforcement.

A Long Overnight Bus Ride

At about 11:30, we started to board our bus to Armania. One thing that makes these long bus rides pretty nice is that there is WiFi – not fast WiFi, but good enough to send a quick email, or view some ‘Friends’ on Netflix while leaving the city. And on this bus, there wasn’t anyone sitting directly behind us, since the bus was less than half full, so we were able to fully recline our seats to a comfortable position and relax. But once we were out in the curvy mountain roads, not only did the WiFi become useless, but our bus took an abrupt stop. Next thing you know, there is a load of people from another bus that had broken down, boarding our bus and filling up all the empty seats. So our ride that had started out so promising didn’t quite pan out as we had hoped.

When we arrived in Armania it was just about 7am. We quickly navigated through the small bus station and found ourselves at a sign that read ‘Salento’. Within minutes a collectivo pulled up and we got on for a 30-minute ride to the small town nestled amongst the lush green hills and mountains of the Colombian Coffee Region.

An Unexpected Adventure Starts at Brunch

Since we arrived in town nearly right at 8am and couldn’t check into our hostel room until 2pm, we had some time to kill. We dropped off our bags at the hostel and set out to find a restaurant called Brunch, which was recommended by some travelers we met in Villa de Leyva. We had been told that the food was great – home-cooked, large veggie burritos, great coffee – but most of all we had to try the peanut butter brownie. As we walked into the building, we right away felt at home in the cozy space. The walls were painted white, but covered in every inch by messages from travelers all over the world written in Sharpie. We sat down by the window with a view of the street outside and ordered breakfast. Paul had a tasty freshly made juice and I enjoyed the best cup of coffee I think I have ever had. Our food arrived and as we started to eat we both professed it was one of the best meals we had had since arriving in Colombia. As we were finishing up with our meal, the owner, Jeff came up to us to ask how everything was.

We chatted with Jeff for nearly an hour and knowing that we had much time to kill he gave us a proposition. He gave us a route to follow – a street up a steep hill to the end of town, then a small stone trail – that would eventually lead us to an overlook of the mountains and the Cocora valley. He told us that once we were at the lookout, he had a little something hidden, and if we found it and brought it back to Brunch, we would be given two brownies and would be able to keep the small find. Challenge accepted. We were off for our first little adventure in Salento.

After following the route Jeff described, we finally reached the lookout, a small wooden covered structure. In the rafters, we found a little clay jeep with the Brunch logo on the hood. Jackpot. We made our way back up the hill to another overlook that provided a beautiful view of the small town, then headed back to Brunch to pick up our prize. The peanut butter brownies were even more delicious than either of us could have imagined. Jeff makes and sells homemade peanut butter since it isn’t something produced in Colombia. If you can find it in a store, it’s only imported Jiff brand and very expensive.

Exploring Salento

We were finally able to check into our room and settled into our hostel for a three night stay in Salento. That night, we went out on the town and had some tasty wine at a cool spot where we nibbled on some chorizo and arepas and a small salad. We then made our way to the main square, the center of all the fun, and sat outside the busiest bar on their makeshift deck, had a couple more glasses of wine, and watched all of the Colombians hanging out and enjoying their evening. On our way back to our room, we stopped by a small cart where a woman was whipping up the best street food we have had on our trip: chicken sandwiches with every sauce under the sun, grilled onion and tomato. We nearly went back to get a second, they were so great!

Our second day ended up being a restful one. I had been fighting off a small cold and needed a day to just relax, so we spent the day reading, napping, and watching some Netflix. Paul did make it out for a hike into the mountains to the Coffee region and captured some great pictures of the surrounding area.

The Valle de Cocora

The next day was the main event for our time in Salento, Valle de Cocora. The valley is the home of the tallest palm tree in the world, and the national tree of Colombia, the Wax Palm. In order to get out to the valley, we caught a ride in a Jeep from the town square. Paul road standing on a small platform on the back on our way out there, while I opted for the seat inside, and after about 30 minutes we were dropped off near the trailhead.

From there, we hiked through the valley full of rolling hills covered in farmland, amongst these oddly tall palm trees. Never had I imagined to be in a place where I would see a cow grazing beautiful green fields next to towering palm trees. The trail lead us through the valley and along a river up into the mountains, where the terrain changed to dense cloud forests. At times, the trail felt as though we were walking through a land where Indiana Jones would be treasure hunting. We crossed a river multiple times on rope bridges with wooden planks, which were a bit scary and made for a slow walk over the bridge. We followed steep switchbacks all the way up the side of the mountain to end with a view of an even taller mountain (which I must admit was a rough go for me – there may have been a few tears shed). Sadly it was too foggy to see the valley below, but as we made our way back down the mountain via a winding dirt road, we had a few spots to get beautiful views of where we had started, and were able to stand right inside groves of the towering palm trees. As we neared the end of the loop trail, we were walking through the portion of Valle de Cocora that we had only seen in pictures. In some ways, it looked as though the area was straight out of a Dr. Seuss book. A very magical looking place, to say the least. Paul got some great pictures from this part of the hike, but even those don’t do the place the justice it deserves. We caught a Jeep ride back and this time I rode standing on the back with Paul, which I am very happy to have experienced!

Our time in Salento ended like it had begun. We had our last meal at Brunch, a yummy dinner with another enjoyable chat with Jeff. And we bought a jar of his homemade peanut butter to take with us. We got up early the next morning, and caught a collectivo from the main square to Armenia and made our way to the ‘city of white’, Popayan.

Videos coming soon! Check back…

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