Sweet Salento.

It was time to head to the coffee growing region of Colombia for some rest and to be back amongst nature again, after way too many concrete jungles. So we made haste for a town called Salento for a few nights of peace, love and music.

This quickly turned into a few weeks as we fell in love with the town, it's great food, cool bars, friendly people and a kitten called Janet.

Our hostel was pretty spectacular, with panoramic views(above)and a good crew running the place. The owner was a cool New Yorker who kept on telling me to 'forget abowd id' and whenever he gave directions, it always started with the words 'ok, whatcha wanna do is go down here.....'.

I actually read a whole book during our stay! I know what you're thinking 'that's pretty damn impressive Freemo, you're the man and I will name my first born son after you'. Well, wait till I tell you that it was a leather bound book! I won't mention it now though, you're obviously over stimulated as it is.

This pic was taken late one Saturday night, the man third from the left has obviously never seen a camera operate in the evening before.

The greatest coffee shop I've ever bean to (that's actually what I wrote in their guest book), not only did it serve the best coffee I've had in South America, but they do the whole process themselves- from the bean to the cup.

Interestingly, they were one of the only coffee growers to keep their best beans in the country. The coffee in South America generally tastes like a Macca's coffee from Australia, mixed with Tabasco sauce and fertile soil. This is because all of the best beans are exported to fastidious coffee drinkers in places like Australia and North Eastern Russia, according to a very knowledgeable horse I was talking to after visiting the Valley de Cocora.

The valley de Cocora was a surreal place. It featured deep jungle, big ol' waterfalls, smart mouthed hummingbirds, massive palm trees, a Gloria Jeans, goats wearing spectacles and apparently it's also dubbed 'The valley of mushrooms' for reasons unbeknown to me.

There was plenty of live performers getting around, pictured is an example of the average Colombian coffee region type dude, which have to be some of the coolest dude types on the planet. Kinda like cowboys, but smaller and more approachable.

So, after about 2 weeks of hanging out, drinking beer and talking to animals we decided to hit the road and do the same thing somewhere else, it was time to change countries and head South to Ecuador via the dodgy and often hijacked bus to the border. As you boarded the bus you were patted down, your luggage searched and they filmed everyone for the record. It seemed pretty intense, but it was all fine/dandy and 15 hours later we were finally in another country.