Day–2 (Ibague to Salento)

We wake up to the wonderful sound of rainfall tapping from the sky. The surrounding mountains were covered in low clouds. Ibague is the music capital of Colombia and located in the Tolima province and features a tropical rainforest climate all thru the year. Our hotel had a well laid out buffet breakfast and the friendly staff pointed us to one corner where there was the pipping hot Colombian favourite breakfast dish ‘Tamal’. Yummmy.

After breakfast, we started out on a gloomy morning from Ibaque negotiating the narrow & wet streets with continuous rain that has been pouring thru the night. Although it’s a relatively short riding day, today, we had to negotiate the beautiful and twisty Cordillera mountains, with heavy trailer-truck traffic and at times visibility due to fog down to almost couple of meters. With a few traffic jams high up on this mountain road together with wet roads, our riding pace has been considerably slowed down, however, we get intermittent stretches without traffic and I make the most of riding the GS. Riding on we stopped for quick snack & hydration break.

















































The weather was chilly and from there on our ride was a slow crawl along those majestic mountains sometimes again covered in thick fog, sometime with road repair work, traffic blockages etc. We continue ahead passing on highway 40 thru Cajamarka and a few small villages and then branch right at Calarca amidst the coffee growing belt of Armenia region. Getting off the main highway onto another well paved country road swooping thru the many twists & turns passing coffee plantations and finally landing us onto the rustic town of Salento. It’s a small & charming place located in the Quindio municipality with many coblestone streets perfectly bisecting each other at right angles, but its like a roller-coaster ride with steep climbs & dips. Most of the town has retained its brightly colored colonial architecture and is generally a laid back place where everybody seems to know everybody…at times it looked like a giant Hollywood film setting in a past era, just that the people are real, not the extras and they are warm & friendly to us. We check into the Hotel Salento Real and dump our stuff there.

Later that evening google says this mean “Dangerous curves watch out your lane”









Keep wondering what those axle-cables do? Many small & big vehicles had them







Most road repair stretches had these valuable traffic controllers. Nice























After a small wash, we quickly proceed to the famous Valley of Cocora renowned for its wax palms, the tallest palm trees in the world and the national tree of Colombia. It’s an absolutely mystical scenery once you are at the valley with the tall palms rising on the mountain slopes that are carpeted in rich green grass manicured by nature with the sunlight providing some spectacular visual effects, although today it was being interrupted at regular intervals by clouds. We settled in one of the restaurants there for a mouth watering lunch that comprised of Griddled trucha (trout fish) and Patacon gratinado con vegetarian with trucha soup, all this being gulped down while equally enjoying the spectacular view around.





























































After a long lunch at the valley, we headed to a coffee plantation, but the ride in itself was an unexpected adventure which we hadn’t anticipated. Asking for directions to the plantation, we learnt the hard way that in the Colombian countryside Uno km (1 km) is how every distance, short or long is explained!! We started from the town center with ‘uno km to destination’, but after riding thru some really treacherous and slippery dirt track for about 8kms, we were again told its uno km…..Frankly the ride was like a rally route with all kinds of challenges and at one point we had a seriously close call when I fishtailed my rear in the narrow slushy road with the frightening view of the valley many hundred feet below with no guard rails, it was pure luck that I managed to keep the bike upright.















Colombian art, souvenir and confectionery made locally







On our return journey, we had the added challenge of two stray dogs ferociously barking & running beside us, where one mongrel lost interest soon but the other continued its pursuit…. I had a heavy bike to steer, slushy road with a steep climb and trying to avoid our canine foe biting us!! As expected, I knew the dog would have scared the living daylights out of my long haired general, and I was myself sweating in my helmet with so many challenges and in a fit of rage, I screamed at the dog at 100 decibels in my native malayalam language ‘poda nayinde mone’ (crudely translates as - get lost you SoB) and the dog abruptly shut up and left us thinking we belonged to another planet!!! I asked my wife, did you get that on camera and she replies, “what camera?? my hands were trembling & I was thinking of a colombian dog bite as a souvenir to take back to India!!!” We had a hearty laugh afterwards. We finally ended a wonderful & eventful day in Salento.