So I've been an extremely lazy girl the last 2 months and haven't updated our blog...so I'm going to try and condense our last 2 and a half months in Colombia into two entries...deep breaths everyone! After saying goodbye to Kim we swiftly got on a bus to Manangue (about 6 hours south of Cartagena...once again - see map!) where we needed to change for a boat and then a taxi (through extreme flooding) to get to our destination Mompóx (pronounced Mompos). It was like jumping into Huckleberry Finn world with baking heat, rocking chairs in every doorway and intense humidity. It didn't take long to see the entire town so we moved on after a couple of nights (and after being followed around the town by the only tourist guide trying to get us to buy a tour). It was more of a struggle to get out of there than it was to get in and we found out when we returned to Manangue that we'd have to pay an arm and a leg to get to our next destination Medellin...we considered our options and eventually hopped in a car with a friendly Colombian who brought us to the nearest big city, Sincillo, where we would be able to catch a bus the next day.
Unfortunately we had to stay in the hotel of horrors next to the bus station...shtinky! We arrived in Medellin pretty hassle free in time for Halloween and boy was the city pumping! Before all the madness began we decided to get some sight-seeing done and visited Botero's art gallery which had me in fits of giggles (...he is truly obsessed with fat things) and then on to the cable car to take in the views the city. After some lame attempts at costumes and very sore heads we left Medellin to relax in the sleepy little colonial town of Santa Fe de Antioquia (a couple of hours outside) for a few days. We quickly bunked down in a gorgeous guesthouse on the main plaza in Santa Fe. There’s not much to the town – about 5 blocks by 5 blocks so it doesn’t take long to get around. We quickly got familiar with the town and enjoyed the laid back vibe and what was supposed to be a 2 night stay quickly turned into 5 nights. We spent a fantastic evening with the owner of our hotel and her friends (one of whom was a famous Colombian painter of about 80 and decided to draw me that evening) where Mitch got to practice his newly (fantastic) found Spanish skills. We reluctantly parted ways and hopped back on another long bus down to the coffee region to the town of Salento. 
We checked into our hostel which was actually built on a coffee plantation and the owner owns a coffee farm just down the road. We arrived late at night so were stunned to wake up to the beautiful sights all around the next morning. We quickly got the feeling that what was supposed to be a quick few days would turn in to longer…and so it did. We took a fantastic tour of the owners coffee farm the next day where we got to taste some delicious freshly ground coffee and found out some great coffee facts. In fact we enjoyed the farm so much that we decided to spend a night there and volunteer to pick coffee cherries the next morning…and got a free lunch out of it as well! We could only relax for so long until we had to haul our asses on another trek through the cocora valley to the valley of the wax palms about an hour from Salento. After the Lost City we thought we could conquer anything else that was thrown at us…apparently heat has a lot to do with taking away achy muscles! As it was rainy season in Colombia it didn’t take long for the rain to arrive around midday and last all day long. So we got up early and started trekking around 8am. It actually wasn’t as bad as everyone made out…until the rain came! Then we were sliding all over the place. But we made it to the top ok and turned around to see the fantastic sights of the wax palms only to be greeted by cloud, cloud and more cloud! Oh well! We made our way back down and managed to get some good glimpses as the clouds began to fade away. Roasting hot coffee was very welcome back at the farm that afternoon and it was with heavy hearts we said goodbye to Salento and hopped on a bus to Bogotá…
