Colombia (Lonely Planet, 5th Edition) - Jens Porup [195]
Hostería Calle Real ( 759 3784; hosteriacallereal@hotmail.com; Carrera 6 No 2-20; r per person COP$30,000) Housed in a typical paísa home with a pleasant, plant-filled courtyard, this place has small and rather basic rooms, but there are rocking chairs to linger in, and it does breakfast (COP$5000). It’s in the middle of things on Calle Real.
Camping Monteroca ( 315 413 6862, 310 422 3720; www.campingmonteroca.com; Boquía; campsite per person COP$45,000) Four kilometers downhill from Salento on the road to Armenia is this campground. It offers ‘exotic lodgings’ such as a trailer and walk-in tents decorated in psychedelic and African safari themes. Two have waterbeds. There’s a full kitchen with stove and fridge, and an open-air shower with hot water. Set right on the Río Quindío next to a nature reserve, it’s a good spot for bird-watching. There’s a barbecue area, plus hammocks to lounge around in. It also rents two-person tents (COP$20,000).
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Eating & Drinking
On weekends the plaza explodes with food stalls and cheap, set meals disappear from every restaurant menu.
Rincón del Lucy ( 313 471 5497; Carrera 6 No 4-02; mains COP$5000; breakfast & lunch) The best set meal in town, it also does the only set meal on the weekends. Sit on great tree trunk slabs of tables to eat your rice, beans, trout, beef or chicken, with a banana and soup. Also serves breakfast (COP$3500).
Sueño de Fresas ( 759 3395; www.salento.com.co; Plaza Principal; 2pm-7pm Mon-Fri, 9am-10pm Sat & Sun) Strawberries and cream. Exotic tropical fruit and ice cream combos. What more can we say? Next to the church.
Café Jesús Martín ( 316 620 7760; cafejesusmartinbedoya@yahoo.com; Carrera 6A No 6-14; 8am-midnight) Open a mere two weeks when we passed through, this groovy cafe serves top-quality espresso coffee roasted and prepared in the owner’s Salento factory. It’s got a distinctly upper-crust feel to it; if swilling the dregs with farmers in the nearby pool hall isn’t your thing, come here. Also serves wine, beer, and light salads and sandwiches.
El Portal de Cocora ( 759 3075; mains COP$17,000-24,500; 11am-6pm Fri-Sun) Located on the road toward Valle de Cocora, about 500m from the main square, this restaurant has views of a storybook green valley. Come for a juice or a beer, or linger over trout, chicken or beef. It also has two self-contained cabins (small/large COP$120,000/240,000) with great views. The smaller cabins accommodates a couple, the larger has two twin rooms, and so sleeps six.
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Getting There & Away
Minibuses run to/from Armenia every 20 minutes (COP$3000, 30 minutes, 6am to 8pm). If you miss the last bus to Salento, take a bus to Circasia (COP$1400, 25 minutes) until 10pm, and take a taxi from there (COP$15,000, 15 minutes). You can also take a taxi direct from Armenia (30 minutes). The official price is COP$50,000 but you can usually haggle the driver down to COP$30,000 to COP$35,000.
There is also direct service to/from Pereira (COP$4700, 1½ hours) three times daily during the week, more on the weekend. You can also take an Armenia-bound bus to Los Flores (two flower shops just south of the Salento junction, COP$1000, 20 minutes) and grab any northbound Pereira bus (30 minutes, COP$5000).
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VALLE DE COCORA
In a country full of beautiful landscapes, Cocora is one of the most striking. The valley stretches east of Salento into the lower