Up the river into the woods to the humminbird house we go...

The Valle de Cocora is famous for several things: the 120 foot, 100 year old Wax Palms that line the valley and have become Colombia's national tree; the humminbird house, nestled in the cloud forest high above the valley; and the Rio Quindio, named after the tribe that used to inhabit this valley.
Before we even started our hike, I had been so excited about the sunshine and riding on the back of the jeep, that I had used up all that remained of my camera`s battery. Fortunately, we met Sam, a young Brit who had been traveling the continent for several months and was heading in our same direction, so the following photos, which show our accent up the valley through local fincas (farms) to the river, up hte river into the cloud forest, our visit to the hummingbird house and subswequent further hike deeper into the cloud forest and then down into the Valle de Cocora and the region know for the Lorax-esque Wax Palms.

You will have to once again forgive the format of the pictures, as it is quite difficult to manipulate them around the text.

One of the local cows who lounge beneath the Wax Palms and throughout the valley.

The beggining of the valley:

There were not any maps available in our hostel, but Sam came armed with a photo of this which the owner of his hostel had said was the only copy avaialable. For a hike that is over 15km, crosses a raging river many times, roams up a valley filled with private fincas and barbed wire fences and doubles back and forth up muddy trails through the cloud forest, it seemed like they could have done better...