Armenia

We arrived in Armenia in the late afternoon and after checking a taxi (who of course tried to rip us off), we strolled into the town instead and got settled in Hotel Los Viajeros.

Next day we visited the Parque National del Cafe, which is supposed to be all about coffee but is really just a big amusement park. It's very well laid out though, being impressively manicured and set discreetly within a forest on a hillside. We got a short tour from a lovely guide who explained the basics of coffee production, which was all very interesting. The park also has a couple of lovely walks, one through mad huge bamboo groves and another through various varieties of coffee plants.

We rode the rollercoaster too, which was brilliant, if a little short (we probably should have taken it for a second spin really). And of course I had to try a couple of coffee's, both lovely and the second one from a fantastic view over the valley of coffee and banana plantations, with Armenia in the distance.

I also got to see my first ever sloth here - although I'm pretty sure it was being kept as a pet. It was just hanging by 3 of it's feet from a chain-link fence eating a tropical fruit from it's other hand. After asking the girl standing beside him I was allowed pet him and he seemed completely unperturbed. He did that sloth-thing of actually falling alseep a couple of times whilst he was eating, each time just for about 20 seconds or so, then waking up and eating a bit more, all gorgeously cute of course.

The next day we got a short bus ride to the town of Salento, a lovely little market town set in the mountains. We climbed the 260 steps up to a lookout (the books say one of the best viewpoints in all of Colombia), but the weather was dark and overcast, and so the view didn't seem like much.

After a lovely trout lunch (there is a trout farm nearby), we took a jeep to Cocora and hiked 5km through wax palm forest (one of the tallest trees in the world), to a reserve set deep in the forest. It has a cover charge, but you get a hot chocolate and a lump of cheese (weird really), and just relax watching all the hummingbirds coming to drink and feed - apparently there are 6 species here, but we only saw 4, one of which had an amazingly long, iridescent blue tail.

Next morning we got up early and took the bus to the terminal for a bus to Bogota. But when we arrived we were told that there was a landslide on the main road, and so most of the buses were taking a longer, more roundabout route (Sarah actually felt an earthquake at 4am, but I slept right through it). Anyway, the cheapest bus company is hoping the road will be clear by the time it gets there, and I wanted to travel the main road anyway as it passes through a stunning valley, so hopefully it'll all work out...