Santa Rosa de Cabal serves as a base for a couple of natural thermal bath resorts and as such we were expecting a picturesque little mountain town. What we got was a well past its prime averageville. It is not quite up there in the Colombian beauty parade, no real sights and few intact colonial buildings to speak of. We checked into Coffee Town Hostel (functional, not yet on Trip Advisor) and had a wander around the town. It's the kind of place where there are ...

A few observations on the journey from Salento to Santa Rosa de Cabal. Soon after leaving Salento you go past an enormous gated property on the ridge of a mountain, complete with watch tower. This belonged to a now imprisoned drugs lord. You can even see the cages where he used to keep his collection of white tigers and other such exotic animals. Seems crime does pay, at least temporarily. As in all countries, there is a void between rich and poor here. Some of...