Valle de Cocora

Great day out from salento. To get there just walk to the main square where you’ll find a willy jeep. Buy a return ticket (4+4mil) to ride in the jeep which takes you to the cocorra valley (30 min drive). Highly recommend taking money you need 8 mil for jeeps 5+5 mil for entrance to private property and some cash for coffee + cake, 1.5L water, sunscreen, cap, hiking boots or trainers as the path can be very muddy. If you want a short route to see the wax palms just head straight up the road uphill. However If you want to do the 4.5 hour whole trail through the jungle with rivers waterfalls and bridges I highly recommend doing it anticlockwise as it is very steep and muddy in places and much easier doing that uphill. Instructions copied from a website but worked for us:

1. Where the jeep drops you off you’ll see a blue gate. Turn right and enter through the gate. Immediately, you’ll see a wooden sign saying “Bienvenidos, etc”. You can’t miss it. Continue walking straight, while descending down the hill. After about 40 minutes, you’ll arrive at the wooden signpost with “Fundacion Herencia Vero”, among other signs. Stay to the right of it. Even if it looks like there is a fork in the road, if you take the wrong way, it’ll be obvious within minutes and you can backtrack to the main trail. You’ll cross numerous rickety suspension bridges (5 or 6). Arrive at an actual T-junction in the road with a wooden sign saying “Acaime La Casa de Los Colibris” and another sign with a big red arrow pointing right. This is the way to go for hummingbirds, before backtracking back to this same junction. If you don’t want to go to the hummingbirds (we didn’t), then continue up the hill on the left. You will go up, up, up for about an hour Arrive at the Finca La Montaña with great views. You can stop here for a drink and a break. Bring a picnic! Descending down from the Finca, you’ll hike for about an hour and a half on a wide dirt road before reaching the Wax Palm Trees. From there enjoy the view and you can easily find your path back to where you started. To get the jeep back you just return to where you were dropped off and once it fills up to 10 people they’ll drive back!

Enjoy!!