As the weekend came to an end we waved goodbye to the town of salsa and ladyboys and set off for the famous coffee region. After a brief shopping hiatus in Periera, we set our sights on Salento. Salentio is a charming little town in a 360 degree backdrop of green mountains and banana trees. We stayed at an English owned hostel called "Plantation House"- a great choice with a layed back vibe and helpful staff. So, eager to explore the surrounding rainforest we gathered 4 other backpackers, hired a jeep and braved the bumpy journey to Cocora ( the home of the cloud forest).

Our goal was to hire horses and a guide in order to cover as much ground as possible. However our negotiations weer met with some interesting challenges: 1) The horses we were offered didnt look fit to carry a saddle, let a lone a human being & 2) The guide claimed he did not require a horse and he could simply run along next to us if our horses started galloping -he claimed he could run "muy rapido" ( very fast)...Fortunately we managed to convince the local horse vendors to: 1) give us healthier horses & 2) that the guide was not Superman´s offspring and would infact need a horse to keep up with the other horses...

2 of our group opted to walk the trail after bad experiences on horses in the past and the remainder of us set off on horseback..It was only my second time on a horse and I was fairly anxious at putting so much faith into an animal that ate grass & hay for kicks..nevertheless, the horses had amazing strength and safely took us up and down the steepest, muddiest, rockiest paths imaginable, all with few troubles. I say "few troubles" as the horses´overt competitive natures provoked them to overtake each other on narrow paths, spilling into deep ravines.. and the adrenaline certainly kicked in there! the scenery was some of the best I´ve ever seen- green hills were scattered with hundreds of wax palms ( Las palmas cerras) and later dense, green jungle engulfed us, traversing clear freshwater streams. we were told the wax palms could reach heights of 70metres ..or maybe that was 70 feet.. Let´s just say they were really tall and leave it at that..

As midday approached, we trotted into a coffee finca set deep in the Cloud forest. We were met by the friendly owners and greeted with fantastic coffee & cheese. So, we sat, sipped our coffee and watched the forest come to life as butterflies and hummingbirds ducked and dived around us. On our return to Cocora we sampled the local Trout specialty ( trucha), while we dried our soaked clothes by the restaurant´s wood fire. The last hour of the trip, the skies had opened up and we had a great time galloping back through the forest as the rain poured down onto us- I considered stripping naked in an effort to heighten the unique "man-against-the-elements" connection but quickly reconsidered this on realising  I was simply high from the black coffee we had consumed. 2 hours later, steve & mario ( the walkers of the group) rolled up to the restaurant soaked to the core and vowing never again to trek anywhere where even the mildest threat of rain existed..We laughed heartily at our friend´s misfortune as only good friends and sadists know how  and promptly took photos of the unhappy, shivering men and laughed some more..