2012-08-11
Salento is in the beautiful coffee region of Colombia, but is probably most famous for the Cocora Valley, filled with towering wax palms. It was quite a unique site. I'm fairly confident that nowhere in the world is there another place like it. The tall trees with their bald and impossibly thin trunks made me feel like I was in a Dr. Seuss book. It was more a feeling of strangeness than of beauty.
As part of my hike around the area, I visited an organic farm that included population of several species of hummingbirds. I'm not sure I'd ever seen a hummingbird in person before. I knew their incredible wing speed allowed them to hover while drinking nectar, but their flying speed in general was astounding. It felt like I was watching creatures who had realized that there was no spoon.