Valle del Cocora

The Valle del Cocora is home to the world's tallest trees, the wax palms. In order to see the trees I had to conquer one of my greatest fears: horses. I had a two hour bus ride and an hour in an old Jeep to alternately talk myself in and out of getting on the horse. But when we got to the valley I decided to be brave. We wanted to see the whole park, the hummingbird reserve, the cloud forest, the finca, the wax palms, the waterfall and that meant four hours on a horse. FOUR HOURS?! Okay, I´ll do it.
As soon as I got on the horse my knees started trying to knock together, but of course there was a huge horse between them. Brad was nervous too and the horses knew it. They took off running and I can only imagine the enjoyment the locals got out of seeing two terrified gringos being hurtled down the road on horseback.
We settled down once we realized that the horses knew what they were doing and weren't going to try to buck us off onto the rocks below. My horse´s name was Pulvira, by the way. I decided that sounded way too much like Pulverizer and called her Petunia instead.
Our first stop was a waterfall, which is the end of the river that we ended up crossing six times. The first time we crossed it I squeezed my eyes shut and made a whimpering noise. By the sixth time it was almost fun, but not really.
Next we went to a hummingbird reserve, the people that live there set out sugar water and the hummingbirds come flocking. It was neat to see so many and to be able to get that close, they really are loud.
After that we went to a farm on top of a hill where the park ranger lives, a true Colombian cowboy. He and his dog led us into the cloud forrest and then into the trees.
To my terror the horses knew that after we passed the forest we were close to home and they ran the whole way. Do horses run? No, gallop. See? I don't know anything about horses. But they took us safely through the whole four hour journey and I have a new respect for the things.
After patting Petunia-Pulvira goodbye we went to the local restaurant, which is famous for its river trout. It was delicious. The coffee region is full of these old jeeps called Willys, which I guess were used in World War II

Six times we crossed this river




Maria and Petunia-Pulvira


I love this picture




Pretty tall huh?