Activity Summary
Saturday 12th August - Day 312 (continued)
Travel to Jardin
Book onward bus to Salento
Walk around town
Dinner at Cafe Europa
Arepa con Chocolo in the square
Sunday 13th August - Day 313
Hike to Cascada La Escalera
Coffee at Cafe Jardin
Lunch at Bon Appetit
Hammock chill
Reserva Natural Jardín de Rocas
Summary
Jardin
Jardin came to us at a time of need. Nicola was feeling pretty low from travelling Colombia which ultimately has come from our entire time being spent in not overly nice cities.
Jardin was the complete opposite. A small rural town that was nice to walk around, be in at all times of day with surrounding nature, great views and plenty of waterfalls (apparently). The temperature was in the mid 20’s and perfect. Getting a little cold at night was great.
We had a lovely time chilling in the square, having a walk around the surrounding hills and despite being small, it was what we needed. Some say it can be skipped, but for us it was one of the best places in Colombia.
Transport
Jardin
Cabify to Terminal del Sur
Bus to Jardin - Rapido Ocho or Coonorte
Walk to hostel
Accommodation
Jardin - Hostal Naty Luna
Number of nights - 2
Price per night per person - £9
Positives:
Cheap
Has a kitchen
Double bunk bed for queen Nicola
Location to the main square
Nice hammock chill area on the balcony
Negatives:
Loud when dickhead guests exist
Shared bathroom - although it was never full so never was a problem
Church did like chiming early nearby but imagine the whole town hears it
Top bunk was super hard
Recommend?
For two nights it was fine
Diary
[Continued]
Once in Jardin we walked the short distance to our hostel to check in. Probably one of the more awkward conversations we’ve attempted in Spanish as we could not understand a word the owner was asking us. Even Google translate made what this lady was saying confusing. Eventually we stumbled through but she didn’t help us out much, a clear and obvious solution of using simpler language seeming to go straight over her head when asking for signatures rather than the dumbed down version we would know with hand gestures. A continual source of anguish.
It was recommended we book onto the bus to Salento as soon as we arrived so after a few minutes of trying to work out where the office was (asking people always works and it turned out to be in the back of a cafe) we were sitting down discussing route options with the guy.
There were two; one going purely on built up roads requiring 3 busses, the other requiring 2 busses but the first had a 50% chance of being either a normal bus or a Chiva bus (an open air chicken bus) that would traverse dirt tracks fit for tractors and dirt bikes for 4.5 hours. All the blogs we read recommended the Chiva option so we went with that one without understanding what a Chiva was. Citing we would be ok with a windy and bumpy road we readily accepted.
There were a number of tour options in Jardin, most catered to the numerous waterfalls in the area plus the big one in Cueva del Esplendor. We didn’t fancy paying P100k for these so decided on a self styled day for tomorrow.
Jardin is a really nice small town so after getting some groceries we had a short wander around. The main square in particular with the church and courtyard where a load of people sat al fresco eating & drinking coffee or simply on benches was lovely. Being Saturday it certainly had a very busy feel to it but in a way that was calm, relaxing and felt totally safe. In turn we felt completely at peace here.
After a short wait for the restaurant to open, we had an al fresco pizza dinner at Cafe Europa. The pizzas were decent enough in that the toppings were plentiful and good quality but naturally the thin crispy base fell far from Luke’s expectations. Nicola was the target of some attention from a rather forward dog who was vying for either food or a stroke and pawed her legs. He was a good looking boy but was not in the habit of petting strays and certainly not before eating.
Despite the pizza’s being pretty large, Nicola had a hankering for something sweet so we walked around the square where a few pop up street food vendors were selling their goods and settled for an Arepa con Chocolo. We ended up being duped / we were morons, when the corn pancake came out with slabs of Colombian cheese on it. Turns out chocolo isn’t chocolate in Spanish.
With the arepa in hand we had a sit down on a bench in the square and just take in the wholesome place. Kids were running around, families having food and drinks and everyone seemingly in a good mood. It was the first time we had been out after dark in Colombia and felt totally relaxed with it.
The hostel we had chosen had alright reviews but it came with a serious flaw in its design. While we had a private room we would be privy to absolutely everyone’s conversations & noise mainly through a quite obvious gap between the wall and roof.
To any decent person / traveller they would have become well aware of this fact and made efforts to keep more towards the quiet side. Sadly we had a French couple next door to us who were complete assholes and at 6am were talking and clamouring around with no care about anyone else. They were acting in a similar way the night before till late as well.
When they left at 8am was when we had the greatest level of peace.
There was a relative nearby waterfall to Jardin called Cascada La Escalera and the route would go via Cafe Jardin which is renowned for its views over the town.
The trail was super easy (AllTrails confirms all) and we had some lovely walking through a decent trail with trees, nature and views all around us.
Once past cafe Jardin the route was more a dirt track that could be serviced by bikes, tuk tuks and 4x4s but the views were still nice and the road not overly busy.
Cascada La Escalera was alright so we had a sit down for a bit and wait for an appropriate time to get a pic without other people in it. Between the horses, bikers and swimmers this never really happened.
We stopped at Cafe Jardin for a coffee, the view and naturally took a picture with the tourist sign.
Nicola took the ‘sit on the D’ instruction with full sauce. None was actually intended but it made Luke laugh a lot.
In arguably the nicest spot on the walk, we sat and had some Nutella sandwiches on a hill and finally got that sweet fix we failed with the day before.
It was a lovely morning walk and it was very much needed after the toll of not so pleasant cities.
We had lunch at Bon Appetit which, while serving substantial portion sizes, failed to impress Luke with their carbonara. Did use eggs but the bacon was underdone and there was not enough cheese.
Our hostel had a number of hammocks on the balcony so we made use of those for the afternoon when here.
Our mid afternoon activity was to visit the Reserva Natural Jardín de Rocas which opened only from 3pm-6pm. This turned out to be someone’s garden that occupied the side of a hill cut down by the river. In turn the place offered great views of the valley when ascending up the steps.
Nicola had gone full grandma traveller when home in the UK and purchased a pair of binoculars for some wildlife spotting. They were a great tool here.
The main attraction of the place is the Gallitos de las rocas (cock of the rock), a vibrant red or orange bird that rocks a killer Mohawke. There were a decent number of them flying around so being super colourful made them really easy to find.
Of course when hummingbirds became evident Luke spent a load of time following two of them around, one that would stay perched in its one spot and the other running off when he got near. Nowhere near as colourful as previous ones we’ve seen but we got a good musical showing and their weird long tongues in action.
Around the rest of the place we saw a ton of plants, butterflies & insects. For P12k each, we had a really good time here.
Back in town we went back for pizza as Luke couldn’t be bothered to cook.
The hostel by this point had emptied out and it was super silent in the evening and morning.
Our evening got a little spicier when Nicola revisited the blog notes about our transport to Salento the next day. What we hadn’t picked up on was the 50% hit rate of getting a normal van or the jazzier and rough and ready Chiva bus that was open air, had benches for seats and would traverse the side of a mountain. Safe to say Nicola wasn’t happy so after getting stressed out Luke may have come up with a little white lie when he found a blog with a picture of the good van with the transport company's name on it citing ‘this is the bus’.
He knew we would be Chiva’d but hoped this meant Nicola would actually get some sleep rather than staying awake from stress.
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