Day 423: Halloween in Salento!

A year ago, we were celebrating Halloween in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We didn’t exactly celebrate, per say, but we were there. Halloween in Salento, Colombia is a significantly bigger deal. Everyone seemed to congregate in the town square and the main road just off the square. There was a parade – and by ‘parade’ I mean some police vehicles leading a lot of mothers and young children through the town. It was adorable. We strolled around town, sat and watched children run from storefront to storefront screaming what I believe was the equivalent of “trick or treat!” and enjoyed what felt like our first festive holiday on the entire trip. It was nice to feel like we were a part of something, even though we were very much the visitors. It also made me look forward to celebrating holidays back home. I just might turn into that girl who wraps her front door in wrapping paper on Christmas, makes heart pancakes on Valentines Day, and dresses like a leprechaun on St. Patricks Day.

Andrew really wanted me to get a picture of the square (and the church) with the mountains in the background. Unfortunately the cloud coverage got in the way. I don’t think this picture really does the scene justice, but I’m sharing nonetheless.

I LOVED the doors and walls of Salento. All of them were beautifully painted and it just added so much character to an already lovely ambiance. I would have photographed absolutely every door if the light would have allowed. Instead, I managed to squeeze one of the main street as dusk and more trick-or-treaters took over.

Day 422: Horseback Riding in Salento

Truth: We spent the entire day on a bus again. But our following afternoon and evening (Halloween) in Salento was so much fun, I thought I’d break them up so you could see more! Salento is a little town about forty minutes or so outside of a bigger town called Armenia. We merely stopped through to change buses and were pleasantly surprised when we jumped off our final bus in Salento. It’s small. It’s picturesque. It’s friendly. It has a lot to do. We decided to go horseback riding instead of trekking mostly because it had rained the entire day prior and continued to rain as we walked through town hunting down a couple of horses. Luckily two oversized ponchos were strapped on our horses and we were more or less covered for our four hour ride down the mountain, through the rainforest, to a waterfall, and back!

You know when you’re home and you have plans to do something outdoors, and then it rains, and you decide to stay indoors and watch a movie instead? Unfortunately (or fortunately) traveling around the world doesn’t always allow for those kinds of days. If I were in Korea (or Kentucky), I would have definitely curled up on the couch, ordered food, and turned on a movie. In the middle of Colombia- in Salento for only two nights, we climbed on a couple of horses. You can’t really tell by any of the pictures, but it was raining for most of our ride. Thankfully, I was warm enough under the poncho.

We weren’t exactly expecting the ride to follow the road down the mountain. I think I assumed we would be driven down to the rainforest and palms, where we would then climb on a horse and ride for a few hours. Riding the horse through town, and down the mountain took about an hour and weaving around cars and bikes along the way made the horses a little bit skittish. It was nice once we got into the valley and were on a trail instead of a paved road. We also thought we were going through the palm forest (think really, really tall palm trees) but instead we rode through some beautiful fields, crossed some streams, went along the old railway track, and walked to a waterfall that was simply gushing with all of the recent rainwater. It was a great ride, not exactly what we were expecting, but nice nonetheless.

Our climb back up the mountain was tough. Instead of winding our way back into town on the paved road, instead we climbed a muddy ravine that both of our horses struggled with. By the end of our ride, our backs and legs were sore, we were covered in mud, our shoes were squishy from all of the rain and river crossings, and we were starving.

et and very dirty, we went straight for lunch (instead of showers) mostly because we were afraid the restaurant we wanted to try the most would close before we could get cleaned up. I think I may have gotten too comfortable with being dirty on this trip. Or perhaps simply too used to it? Either way, hot showers and washing machines have become a luxury. I’m not sure if the average American would think the same.