Villa De Cocora

Villa De Cocora is a stunningly beautiful area just outside the pretty town of Salento. Often described as little Switzerland., this national park offers incredible views of rolling green hills covered with towering wax palm trees with clouds hanging just below the mountains. The first 6 kilometres of the hike is uphill towards La Montana. The scenery along the trail is breathtaking and not at all what I had expected from Colombia.

Whilst climbing uphill admiring the incredible views of the palm trees casting shadows on the mountains, we suddenly entered the clouds and the palm trees were replaced with pine trees and the path became scattered with pine cones. We eventually reached the top of La Montana and were rewarded with more overwhelmingly beautiful scenery. The bright blue sky and intense sunshine made this view even more spectacular, and as the clouds came floating through it seemed very mystical.

We continued down La Montana past small waterfalls and rivers and up towards the hummingbird sanctuary, where we stopped for a traditional Colombian snack of chocolate con queso (hot chocolate and cheese) whilst the hummingbirds rapidly buzzed around us.

The scenery on the hike back was very different from our uphill climb to La Montana. The pine forest had turned into jungle with fast-flowing rivers and the terrain became muddy and rocky, which meant jumping over stepping stones and balancing on tree trunks and over very rickety bridges. 

We ended our hike back amongst the palm trees and green hills overlooking the river. It was possibly the most beautiful area I have visited and a definite highlight of my trip.