Playing with gunpowder and hopping fences

The WiFi was super slow in the hostel so I had some trouble uploading the photos. Now I'm done tho.

There is a game called Tejo here in Colombia. You basically throw heavy iron balls on paper filled with gunpowder. The better you hit, the more points you get. Drinking alcohol while playing is obligatory (not kidding here).

This was the gang for the night, cool people from the hostel.

Next day: Hike to 'Valle de Cocora'. Don't get me wrong here, it IS very beautiful but apparently Salento is the second biggest touristic spot in Colombia (even tho it didn't feel that bad) and the Valle is just as beautiful as all the other mountains around it, so I don't really know why this town is so famous.

It has been really foggy and should start to rain soon, like all the other days.

The way back was drier, the sun came out and it was really nice. The way back was also more jungle like, you only could get there by foot or horse (horse tours for tourists are big here)

And yes, as always I have been in sport sneakers hiking. Needless to say, that they were totally wet but that will be the case many days here in Colombia. It's way wetter than expected.

On the way back we really had some jungle feelings.

To the left of me, the two Australian guys 🤙

I found a travel companion with couchsurfing, this is her:

While I slept really long, enjoyed a large breakfast and had a video call afterwards she did the Valle de Cocora. Afterwards we decided to discover the area around the main road. The fences had small holes here and there to let people in but keep the animals off the road. We found a small path that led down to the river.

This river had a 'normal' bridge like you would expect it. On our way (we had to hop some other fences, I think we have been sometimes on private property but going the same way back was no option 🤷🏼‍♂️) we found another bridge.

We also saw another, even more adventurous looking bridge but this one was definitely in the middle of a private cow farm.

Views have been great as always in that region!

Afterwards we went to play Tejo with two Canadian friends and went to sleep.

Right now I'm sitting at a bus terminal in Manizales, they have free WiFi and will try to go to some hot springs that are not well known. There is no proper public transport, so we will have to hitchhike. Just waiting for a bus to take us out of the city. We are equipped with a tent and food, so there will be no wifi for some days - no need to be worried if you don't hear much from me on this blog. We are (properly) fine 😂

Peace out,

Laurin