Having arrived in Bogotà we happily spotted our names on a poster made by the guy transporting us back to our hostel. The first impression of the city was intense on the senses - blinking lights everywhere, from break lights to advertisements, the characteristic smell of motorbike exhaust and the sound of the whole-hearted discussing of locals. We fell asleep very exhausted and woke up excited for the day and the start of our travels. 
To get a good overview of the city we decided to start with a small hike up the local mountain Monserrat, on top of which we were rewarded with a wonderful view of the huge city. It expands over the whole valley on an altitude of 2500masl housing around 8 million people including the suburbs. Having seen the view and some very interesting museums we quite soon wanted to go out of the city to see more of the country, especially since some wonderful people we met at the hostel gave us loads of tips for must sees. 
Therefore, our next destination was Salento, a town 6-7h away in the Andes which is known for its famous Colombian coffee and the iconic wax palms in the mountains. Very quickly we grew fond of the colourful town, the incredibly hospitable and warm people made it easy to feel welcome from the beginning. We decided to do two hikes in the area, one of which was La Carbonera, a valley close by with an astounding amount of the famous wax palms that the indigenous people used as a fire starter. In the 70-80s, it was protected due to risk of becoming extinct and was declared the national tree - it can be found on the 100'000 peso note. We can still feel our bruised backsides from the very bumpy ride, but the trip to La Carbonera and the hike there with our great guide Jayson from Salento Trekking was well worth it!

The second hike was in the much more touristic Cocora valley. A highlight there was first part of the hike which went through the jungle. Next to all thinkable hues of green in the form of plants we saw many humming birds, a selection of which you can see on the pictures. The hike continued up the hill and went on for a couple of hours crossing gauchos with their horses transporting wood and tools, greeting other fellow travellers or hikers, and finding more wax palms. 
With these two hikes, a horse parade in town and a traditional meal (trucha la plancha, traditionally prepared trout) we have concluded our stay in Salento and have decided to move northwards with the goal of going diving somewhere in the Caribbean.