Carl left for the US this morning. He just couldn’t hack it on the road. Just kidding, he has a wedding to attend. So that leaves me alone for a long weekend. I’m currently in my Airbnb sitting in a hammock listening to all of Cali bang pots and pans together and blow into big plastic horns. It’s 8pm and the curfew just started. I’m not supposed to be here still but Colombia is having massive protests throughout the country and the buses did not run today. Carl had to leave at 4:30 am to make sure he got to the airport ahead of the road blocks. 

I’m hoping tomorrow I’ll be able to head south. I’m pretty sure I’ll have to change my route a bit given the change in my timeline and having to meet Carl in Ecuador. But this is all part of the no-plan plan and par for the course. 

Previous to Cali we spent some time in Salento and the surrounding area. All that Colombian coffee you coffee drinkers like so much is from this area. We did a coffee tour and explored the city a little on day one. 

On day two we went to Cocora Valley, home of the tallest palm trees in the world. It was one of my favorite places so far. We did a 6-7 hour hike and my body finally felt happy to do it.  Not carrying the 40 pound bags likely helped a great deal. 

The first half of the hike we had pretty good weather with peeks of sun but the last half of the hike was through some fairly heavy rainfall. Thankfully it was warm enough that I really enjoyed it. 

I really like having my camera on me and usually carry it everywhere. I brought a bunch of different lenses and it is interesting that switching them really makes me explore my surroundings differently. 

For those of you not well versed in lenses, I have a macro lens that make shooting tiny things really fun. (I have a Nikon D850 and was shooting with a 105mm 2.8 macro lens for those that do know cameras). Once I put my macro lens on the hike turned in to a scavenger hunt for bugs, cool flowers and plants. 

To add to our macro fun we stopped by the humming bird house. It’s literally someone’s house miles from any other house in the middle of a cloud forest. They feed the humming birds well and in return the hummingbirds entertain visitors for the small fee of about $1.50 per person. They let you get surprisingly close to them, which made for fun photographs. 

Cameras can get become a barrier at times but at other times it changes how your view the world. Everything becomes interesting. The world is full of textures and color. Lines become prominent and more important.

But I digress. It’s on to a new country and a new hemisphere. Here I come country number 48. 

***Bonus***

Since it’s been a while since I posted you get a bonus update. I made it out of Cali! The buses started running the next day and I traveled down to Popayan just in time to watch some more protests! They were peaceful and mostly made up of young and indigenous people.

After a short stop in Popayan I headed to check out a pretty epic church right on the border of Ecuador. After a quick look around I make it to country 48. Easy peasy border crossing!