This is Salento in the Colombian department of Quindio, not the Salento peninsula at the heel of Italy. It is a small town of painted balconies at about 1,900 metres in the Eje Cafetero, the coffee axis, which UNESCO listed in 2011 as a cultural landscape because of how the farming shaped the hills.
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The reason people come is twenty minutes up the road. The Valle de Cocora holds the quindio wax palm, Colombia's national tree, which grows to sixty metres and is the tallest palm in the world. They stand in ones and twos across open green hillsides at around 2,400 metres, in cloud, which is not where anyone expects to find a palm tree. Getting there is done in a Willys jeep, a fleet of restored second world war vehicles that has become the emblem of the region.
What Makes Salento Different to Pack For
Altitude means it is cool, and visitors do not expect that
Salento sits at 1,895 metres and Cocora goes higher. Days run 18°C to 24°C and nights drop to 10°C or 12°C. This is Colombia, so people arrive from Cartagena in shorts and are cold by seven in the evening. Buildings are not heated.
A merino wool base layer for women handles the evenings, the early starts and the wet, and is the single most useful thing in the bag for this region.
It rains in the afternoon, most days
The coffee region gets rain year round with two wetter peaks, roughly April to May and October to November. Even in the drier months the pattern is a clear morning and a heavy afternoon downpour. That is why everyone walks Cocora early.
The Cocora hike is muddy, steep and has hanging bridges
The full loop is about twelve to fifteen kilometres over five or six hours, climbing to around 2,800 metres, crossing the river on several suspension footbridges, and it is mud from start to finish in any season. There is a shorter route that goes straight to the palms and back.
Cash, and small notes
ATMs exist in Salento and run out at weekends. Many fincas, jeep drivers and small restaurants take cash only.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Salento Packing List
Footwear
This is the decision. Waterproof hiking shoes with real tread and preferably ankle support, because the Cocora loop is deep churned mud on a gradient and the descent is where people fall. Rubber boots can be hired in the village for very little and a great many people do exactly that, which tells you what the trail is like.
A second pair for the town, which is cobbled and steep, and something to change into afterwards because the first pair will be unwearable.
Clothing
Layers. A base layer, a mid layer and a waterproof shell for the hike, and long trousers rather than shorts, for the mud, the insects and the cold at the top.
Quick drying fabrics. You will be wet from rain, sweat or both, and nothing dries fast at this altitude in this humidity.
Something warm for the evening in town. Colombian highland towns are conservative in dress compared with the coast, and covered shoulders and knees is the ordinary courtesy in the church and around the plaza.
For rain
A packable rain jacket, daily kit rather than a contingency, plus a dry bag or pack cover. The cheap plastic ponchos sold in the village work over a backpack.
For sun
A wide brim sun hat, high factor sunscreen and sunglasses. At 2,400 metres near the equator the UV is severe even under cloud, and the Cocora meadows have no shade at all. This catches people out badly because the air is cool.
Health and practicalities
Insect repellent for the lower coffee farms, where mosquitoes and sandflies are present; the high valley has fewer. Rehydration salts. Altitude here is moderate rather than dangerous, but if you have come straight from sea level you will notice the climb.
Cash in pesos in small notes. A power bank. A reusable bottle, since tap water in Salento is generally considered safe but bottled is the common choice.
What to Wear at Key Sites
The Valle de Cocora
A green valley of wax palms reached by Willys jeep from the main plaza, with a short route to the palm meadows and a longer counter clockwise loop through cloud forest, past a hummingbird reserve, and back down through the palms.
Practically: go on the first jeep, which leaves around six or seven, and do the loop counter clockwise. That gets the steep climb done early and brings you down through the palms in the best light, before the afternoon rain. The suspension bridges are narrow, wet and bouncy. There is an entrance fee, and a separate one for the hummingbird reserve, both cash.
The Willys jeeps
Restored military jeeps that serve as the local transport, leaving from the plaza, with passengers standing on the back step holding the frame.
Practically: standing on the back is the done thing and is also how people get hurt on a mountain road. Hold on properly with both hands. They fill before they leave rather than running to a timetable.
The coffee fincas
Working farms around the town offering tours from picking through depulping, drying and roasting, generally two or three hours and ending with a cup.
Practically: you will be walking on steep muddy paths between coffee rows, so this is a boots activity rather than a sightseeing one. Book directly or through your hostel; the smaller family farms give a better tour than the large ones.
The town and Calle Real
A grid of low houses painted in strong colours, with the main street running up to a viewpoint reached by a long staircase, and a plaza full of jeeps and restaurants serving trout.
Practically: the Mirador staircase is about 250 steps and gives the view over the valley. The town is genuinely small and can be walked in an hour. It gets very busy with Colombian visitors at weekends and on public holidays.
Tejo
The Colombian national sport, which involves throwing a metal disc at a target packed with gunpowder so that it explodes.
Practically: played in the evening at local courts, usually free if you buy drinks, and it is exactly as alarming and enjoyable as it sounds. Closed shoes. Do not walk in front of anyone throwing.
Filandia and the region
A quieter painted town twenty minutes away with a viewpoint tower, and the larger cities of Armenia and Pereira within an hour.
Practically: Filandia is what Salento was before the crowds and makes a good half day.
What Not to Bring
Leave the assumption that Colombia is hot, because this is highland cloud forest and it is not. Leave white trainers, which Cocora will destroy in the first kilometre.
Leave the plan to hike Cocora in the afternoon. Leave the expectation that cards will work everywhere. And leave any illegal drugs entirely out of your thinking: Colombian penalties are serious and buying in a tourist town is a well known way to be robbed or extorted.
Essential Resources for Women in Salento
Emergency numbers in Colombia: 123 is the national emergency number for police, ambulance and fire, and it works from mobiles across the country. English is not reliably available, so ask your accommodation to call where possible. For a mountain rescue, the Defensa Civil and the Cruz Roja are reached through 123.
Tourist support: Colombia has a tourist police force, the Policia de Turismo, with a presence in the main visitor towns including Salento in season, and they generally have some English. A theft needs a denuncia filed with the police for any insurance claim or passport replacement, and it can be started online through the Policia Nacional.
US Embassy: the US Embassy is in Bogota at Carrera 45 No 24B-27, telephone +57 601 275 2000, at co.usembassy.gov, about eight hours by road or an hour by air from Armenia or Pereira. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: Salento has a small health centre for minor problems only. The nearest hospitals are in Armenia, about forty minutes away, with Pereira also within an hour, and both have private clinics used by foreign visitors. Anything major means Bogota or Medellin. Travel insurance with evacuation cover matters, and check specifically that it covers hiking, since the Cocora loop is where claims from this region come from.
Official health authority: the Colombian Ministry of Health at minsalud.gov.co, with the US Centers for Disease Control destination page for Colombia the more practical read on vaccinations and on yellow fever, which is recommended for some parts of the country.
US State Department travel advisory for Colombia: current advisory level and detail. Read it directly rather than relying on this page, and note that it treats Colombian departments very differently from one another.
UK FCDO travel advice for Colombia: entry requirements, safety and health guidance. This one repays careful reading because the geography matters: the FCDO advises against all but essential travel to a number of specific departments and border areas, none of which is Quindio. It also carries current security information about other regions, so read it for where you are actually going rather than for the country as a whole.
Official tourism authority: the Colombian national tourism board at colombia.travel, with the Quindio departmental tourism service and the Cocora valley operators for jeep times and trail conditions after heavy rain.
Solo women safety assessment: Salento is one of the easiest and safest places in Colombia for a woman travelling alone. It is a small highland town with a long established backpacker scene, hostels that are used to solo travellers, a plaza that is busy and well lit into the evening, and very little crime against visitors. The coffee region generally is the calmest part of the country and has none of the security history of the areas the advisories name. Street harassment exists in the mild Latin American form of comments in the street and is noticeably less intense than on the Caribbean coast. Eating alone is normal and joining a Cocora group or a finca tour is easy. Ordinary precautions still apply: petty theft and phone snatching occur in the plaza and at the jeep stop when it is crowded, so do not leave a phone on a table and keep a bag in front of you; use ATMs inside during the day; and take a registered taxi or a hostel arranged transfer rather than an unmarked car at night. Do not go out to the viewpoints alone after dark. The bigger risks here are physical. The Cocora loop is genuinely strenuous, deeply muddy, and involves river crossings on suspension bridges and a descent where falls and turned ankles are the commonest injury; go early, go with someone, and turn back if the weather comes in. Altitude will slow you if you have arrived from the coast. The Willys jeeps are open vehicles on mountain roads and standing on the back step is the local custom and a genuine risk. Afternoon storms bring lightning on exposed ridges. Finally, the region is the heart of Colombian coffee tourism and the drinking culture around it is relaxed; the standard caution about watching your drink applies, as it does anywhere.
Reading On
Salento is the easiest introduction to highland Colombia and the best two or three days in the coffee region. The Colombia travel guide for women is the parent for the country and the Colombia packing list for women covers a trip across it. North, the Medellin travel guide for women covers the city most people arrive from, and south the Cali travel guide for women covers the salsa capital. East, the Bogota travel guide for women covers the capital at 2,600 metres, where the cold is the same problem on a larger scale. On the Caribbean, the Cartagena travel guide for women covers the walled city and the heat. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why wool is the right fibre in cloud forest where everything is damp and the temperature drops at dusk, the best merino wool base layers for women explains it, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
