We were thinking about our next move while in Guataloupe and our mate Francesca messaged us, "Salento is the tits". We thoroughly trust her judgement so we knew that Salento, a little town in the southern part of Colombia, was going to be our next stop.
THE DROP OFF
With no direct bus to this little town, we were dropped off on the side of the road with our bags and all wondering how the hell we were supposed to get to our destination. We grabbed a taxi and asked him to take us to our hostel La Serrana (recommended to us by Francesca) and we arrived at one of the most beautifully scenic hostels that we have been to. The hostel continued to impress us with family-style candlelit communal dinners every night. We are a big fan of hostels that do this, it's a great way to meet people.
COCORA VALLEY
On our first day we headed out to Cocora Valley, a beautiful scenic route with amazingly tall palm trees. Francesca had told us, "There's this place with really tall palm trees. It sounds a bit gay, but it's actually really cool." It never sounded "gay" to us, we love that kind of shit. At the end of the hike we were rewarded with a hummingbird sanctuary where we were treated to hot chocolate and of course, the company of native hummingbirds.
THE CEREMONY
To top it all off, we were invited to attend a traditional Colombian spiritual ceremony with a world renowned Shaman. We were told about his extensive experience and reputation of being an incredible healer. We were intrigued. We didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into, but we paid the guy and proceeded to rip the blankets off our beds in the hostel, as per his instructions, and take them with us. This should have been a clue.
We arrived at the open hut at 10pm and we didn't leave the place until noon the next day. That's 14 hours. What happened in that time is all a bit of a blur, each of us experiencing something different. Let's sum it up. Music that took us on a journey, mats on the floor, fire, coals, a man spraying herbal water on us with his mouth, "sucking" spirits from us, an Avatar experience (yes the movie with blue creatures), flicking leaves on us with a kind of quacking sound, tobacco smoke up the nose and being carried away by "helpers" dressed in white. We agreed it that it was the craziest night of our lives.
The town Salento was another one of our favourite stops on this trip. It was absolutely unforgettable.
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