Colombia 2012 Day 6

Today started later as we really didn't need to be anywhere early. Aurelio picked us up a bit after 10am. We had breakfast as eggs with tomato and onion, fresh cheese and passion fruit juice and a coffee. We also had to pack up because we were moving to a different hotel for the night. The first stop was to visit Salento which was a small town with a lot of colonial style buildings and very nice scenic look of the river valley below it. We walked down from the scenic look down the Camino Real (Royal Way) back to the center of town where we got back into the car and then rode on to the Valle de Cocora.

This was basically the river valley we had seen from above. When we got there we took a horse ride along the river and back. My horse was really intent on moving fast and Daniela's was not so keen on keeping up but the guide held things together fairly well. He took a bunch of pictures for us and even posed the horses to take some of the pictures. It was fun. That was only the second time I had been on a horse in my life, the first being when I was young in Bar Harbor with my family.  After the horse ride we had lunch at the restaurant Donde Juan B.  We ordered the local trout which was a multicourse meal. It started with a trout soup which was good. Then a salad which had pineapple in it.  Then the fish which was like salmon more than trout to me.  Anyway it was good and served on a gigantic plantain chip. I had a Club Colombia beer. Daniela had  fresh fruit juice then a warm drink that was flavored with cinnamon and lemon and had a local alcohol in it. After the valley we drove to the Hotel Matisses which is where we were going to stay for this night to drop off the bags and get read to go to the Termales Santa Rosa de Cabal, which is a hot springs.

After quickly getting settled we headed right back out the door and Aurelio drove us to the hot springs and we parted ways with him when he dropped us off.  It was a fair walk from the entrance to the actual springs along a river. It took us a few minutes to get situated and ready but once we did it was straight into the pool which was at 37.5C. It was very comfortable. We probably got there at about 6 and stayed till past 10pm.  Then we had to call for our ride back to the hotel where we settled in for the night.

The pictures from today can be found here.