DEliTOUR: The coffee zone

Medellin was interesting, for a big city. An endless valley of sprawling barrios, industry and a busy centre, the highlight was the new cable car, that has been built to connect some of the poorer barrios with the bustling metro. It is not really meant for tourists but it gave great views over the city and over the slums - it was also a great shot at urban generation, with many projects and public spaces at the bases of the huge pylons supporting the ski-resort-style gondolas. The low point of Medellin was our hostel, the Pitstop. A right royal rip off complete with Irish bar, pool, TV room filled with 18 year olds who should have been out doing something more interesting, though it was located near the zona rosa - so we found a nice restaurant and ate, yes, you guessed it, fondue. We also found Gato, the cat themed bar. And we waltzed around Medellin´s shopping district and saw all the statues in the squares. We didn´t see Pablo Esobar - in fact, Medellin seemed pretty sensible really.

Our bus journey south was far from sensible. About half way to Armenia in the zona cafeteria, the traffic was stopped as the main highway between Columbia´s two biggest cities was severed by a seies of landslides along a 30km stretch of road. Our daytime 6 hour bus ride was extended to 16 hours though we enjoyed a nice lunch as we waited for the road to be cleared. We finally arrived in the hill town of Salento at 3am, though it took us another hour to find the Plantation House hostal. We got a good night´s sleep and we were lucky. Some people we met left before us, their bus turned back, the slides were worse the day after and they ended up having to fly - so it took them three days.

Salento was charming. The Plantation House was owned by Tim, keeper of the wellies, necessary for venturing into the gorgeous surrounding countryside. We took a half day hike in the Cocora Valley nearby with some new friends (including Danny from Brighton who was given her first job by Ed in the Honey Club - but that´s another story) and we bought and cooked local produce and enjoyed the company of Agatha, the resident white Persian. There were lots of moths and she hid in the kitchen cupboard.