the home of the peanut butter and
coffee milkshake, which I couldn’t
get enough of. On the adventure side
of things, a local biker called An-
dres showed us a fantastic route, out
through the back of Salento towards
Toche and then Ibague. It boasted
significantly more wax palms than
the nearby tourist hub of the Cocora
Valley and was free of the hordes of
people and vehicles also found there.
The views were outstanding, and af-
ter the wax palms ended, even more
awesome roads were lined up, with
steep drops and lush greenery. It tru-
ly was a great day of riding.
Close to the coffee region is Los
Nevados National Park home to Co-
lombia’s most active volcano, El Ruiz.
Sadly, the weather would not settle,
and I was unable to get a glimpse of
the snow-capped summit however,
TRAVERSE 86
the roads and views did not disap-
point, and we spent half the day tak-
ing photos. At this stage, we had made
friends with some fellow travellers
from South Africa (Michnus and Else-
bie) and were able to explore the area
together.
The road meandered through the
mountains, with strong evidence of
landslides, some of which we learned
had been truly devastating, killing
around 20,000 people in 1985 when
El Ruiz erupted. In some of the small
streams, coloured algae gave the wa-
ter an enchanting appearance, and in
many places, crisp, clean waterfalls
shot out of the mountainside. The
roads were just what we liked; no tar-
mac, gravelly yet grippy, and in some
places sported a rather large drop off
on one side. We ended up camping at
a little spot in the middle of the moun-
tains in a place called El Sifon. It was
basically in a rangers back yard, and
they offer trips to the local natural hot
spring, which was truly magical and
has spoilt us for any other hot spring.
It was a natural hot spring river, and