A Visit to Salento, Colombia — The Heart of Coffee Country

By Chris Wildgen, McMaster Alumna, travel writer, photographer and tour leader.

All those Colombia coffee advertisements made me decide that a trip to Colombia was incomplete without visiting the coffee triangle. I chose Salento, not because it had hosted a Disney movie, which I didn’t even know, but I was won over by the pictures of the colourful houses and the setting overlooking the entire area.

Of course, the first thing I did was a coffee plantation tour at the family-run plantation of Finca El Ocaso to see the journey of the coffee bean from plant to package. Though it is only a few kilometers out of town, I took a Willy’s Jeep from the town square. The tour began with a meeting and introduction to the finca in the main building and then our group of 7 followed our leader up a short hill into the plantation, a jungle of coffee plants interspersed among other trees. We wandered among the coffee plants searching for coffee beans, and if they had been ripe, we could have picked some, too.

Then our guide led us through the various facilities that followed the journey of the bean after picking, finishing in the tasting room where he educated us on smelling and tasting different styles and roasts. The coffee was so good it made me consider returning as a volunteer to pick beans!

That evening, I went to Club Danubio with a couple who I had just met to play the pre-Columbian game of Tejo, the sport and art of blowing things up 10 meters away by throwing small balls at a mud board hoping to hit embedded small pieces of gunpowder! My first reaction was that this was not a smart thing to do, but when in Colombia…! It’s very reinforcing when the thrown rock connects and there is the explosion, a little puff of smoke and then the gunpowder smell, which caused us to jump and cheer. But when it missed, that dull thud of rock hitting mud was a little deflating.

Early the next morning, I again caught a Willy’s Jeep at the town square to go to Cocora for the hike that includes the Valley of the Wax Palms. The Cocora hike ranks among my top hikes ever for the intense beauty and diversity of everything — landscape, type of hiking, level of difficulty, sounds, smells — even the travel to and from Salento in the jeep was unique and fun.

While it is possible to go just to see palm trees, I did the complete loop, which is 3 hours up hill and then three hours down, plus the additional 1.5 km uphill to the hummingbird sanctuary, the Reserva Natural Acaime .

The hike began on a fairly easy wide dirt path through farmland and then opened up to the Valley of the Wax Palms, the Quindio palm trees, Colombia’s national tree. At 60 meters high with the palms sprouting upward from their thin trunks, they seem to soar in the morning mist and clouds.

Part way up there is a café, which provides a natural transition between the wide path and the narrow, steep switchback trail. Just as I was seriously wishing that I had a walking stick, some angel aka fellow hiker reached down and handed me a fallen branch that served perfectly.

That stick remained with me through the rocky, sometimes muddy, uneven surfaces, even crossing the streams by way of seven sometimes shaky suspended bridges or stepping across on rocks. It was particularly useful on the downhill journey which was steeper.

When I reached the steep path to the hummingbird sanctuary, I was tired enough to convince myself that I didn’t really need to see it after all. Luckily, a 15-minute discussion with fellow hikers, excitement replaced exhaustion I carried on. I was so glad I did. Perched on a stool in the rustic cafe and sipping the hot chocolate (included in the entry fee), I listened to the hummingbirds as I watched them flit among feeders. I felt like I was in cloud-forest heaven.

Very tired but exhilarated and uplifted at the end of hike, I was ready to do it again — after a few days of rest! Those rest days were side trips to Finlandia, another colourful village, and Pijao, the only Slow Food City in South America.

Between these activities, I used my acquired coffee tasting skills in the various brightly coloured cafes in Salento, savouring every cup of local coffee.

Check out the 2026 McMaster Alumni and Friends Travel program ***Wonders of Colombia* if you are interested in travelling to this area!

After an international career in sports medicine and sales and marketing, McMaster graduate Chris Wildgen is following her dream of connecting with people and diving into local cultures around the world through travel. Now a digital nomad, Chris is a travel writer, photographer and tour leader. With a natural flair for languages, she can converse in German, French, Italian, Spanish and English. Visit her site www.travelbetterlivebetter.com.