The trip to Ibague went as planned. The accommodation was in a private house in a residential neighbourhood which has the third floor for paying guests like me. I was able to squeeze my bike in their shed on an angle behind their car. Its nice when I don’t have to take everything off my bike. Just the stuff I need for the night. The owners were an elderly couple who live on the ground floor and their daughter, and her family lived on the second floor. It was only $20 a night and was a nice en-suited room. The guy was a retired english teacher which I thought would be great, but although he could speak textbook English we couldn’t really communicate in english or spanish. I had to talk to his wife in spanish who understood me and I could understand her. A bit weird. It also made me realise why not many Colombians can speak english even though they do learn a bit in school. That night I decided it was time to leave Colombia and started looking at what route I needed to take.

I was near Salento which I hear about often so I thought I’d go for a look. It was only 100kms but took 3 hours. Even on the bike. The picture with the toll booth shows something I see often. Bikes go through a little lane on the right and don’t have to pay. It’s so nice. But if you zoom in on this pic you can see a couple of the great bridges that are on the roads here. There’s a lot of roadworks but the road will be amazing when it’s finished. It’s definitely challenging terrain.

I arrived at Salento and parked my bike at a Parqueadero. These are like public car parks but many of them are private. They look after your bike and gear and helmet and jacket for about a dollar an hour. There was a nice western style café next door where I had a nice brunch. Salento is very touristy and lots of non-colombian tourists which is unusual. I went for a walk around to find a cheap hotel with parking but no luck. I ended up having to stay at the hotel behind the Parqueadero which was $49 AUD per night and it was almost double my budget and also pretty ordinary. No hot water or shower rose or toilet seat and the hardest mattress I have slept on since I left home. Sometimes it’s like that. At least my bike was safe. The downside of just rocking up to a touristy place without a booking.

Near Salento is the world famous Valle de Cocora which I am sure none of you have heard of. It’s a little valley 15 minutes out of town that has these extremely tall palm trees called Quindío wax palms. They can grow up to 70 metres tall although my guess on site was about half that which is still the height of a 12 storey building. They have been listed as a protected species since 1985 and looking at the dollars they must pull in I’m sure they’ll be well looked after.

When you arrive there is a multitude of people trying to guide you into carparks but I kept riding for another few hundred metres and found a place to park near the start of the trail. It cost me a couple of dollars but he looked after my bike and all my bike gear which I had switched out of into more comfortable hiking gear. The trail was about 3kms and was nice. You could also do a parallel trail on horseback which seemed popular. The trees were definitely tall but it’s hard to photograph tallness. There were a few Instagram props which I couldn’t be bothered queueing for.

I headed back into town and locked up the bike and went for a wander. It was a lovely little tourist town and had a nice sunset lookout hill which I climbed. I definitely got my 10,000 steps in. I didn’t feel like a tourist meal so I bought a cheap shop beer and had a couple of fresh chorizos off a lady down the street from my hotel. While I was waiting, there was a colombian family with teenage boys also waiting . The elder of the boys asked me if I spoke english? It’s a wonder he didn’t ask me if I spoke australian as I stood drinking my beer while waiting for my sausage. He was having a short holiday with his family before he headed to live and study in Canada for three years. It was a nice chat and a bit of translation to his non english speaking family who were obviously very proud of him. We said our goodbyes and they left and I went to pay for my chorizos and the lady said that the family had already paid for them. How nice. So although my accommodation was expensive I’d had a cheap dinner.

Next morning I sneaked back up to the tourist restaurant and had some great bacon and eggs and toast and fresh juice. Australian prices but a nice treat and then I packed up and headed to Cali which I think is Colombia’s third largest city. I had prebooked at the Casa Hotel Impacto for two nights which was a nice place and half the price of the previous hotel. The only thing I didn’t like about it was that you were basically locked inside and had to text the guy to open the door and gates to get in and out. I asked the guy for a key to my room and he hesitantly gave me one and said it was the only key and said please don’t loose it. Why would you jinx me like that? I never loose keys. And I didn’t. But.

My room had a nice balcony and I decided to stand out there for a bit and I closed the door behind me to keep the mozzies out. When it was time to go back in, I found the door was locked. My phone was in my room and there was no one around. I was hoping someone would pass on the street and I could get them to ring the bell and get the guy to come out. It was about 10:00pm. Climbing down the face of the building looked doable but risky and I wasn’t quite that desperate yet. Finally after about 15 minutes I heard someone on the balcony above me and asked them for help. In spanish. The guy come out and said he would come through my room door and open it for me. Fortunately, it wasn’t locked and I was rescued. Luckily it wasn’t one of those stories where the person was also naked and locked outside their room.

I didn’t do the tourist thing in Cali as I couldn’t be bothered and Cali has a bit of a bad reputation for crime. I had a couple of nice street meals and caught up on a few blog posts and then I was on the road again to San Agustin to see some archaeological stuff in the jungle.