When I decided to buy plane tickets to Colombia, I had my reservations. Virtually everything I had heard about this country was negative: intense drug trade that stimulated guerrilla activity and kidnappings of American citizens. Not particularly comforting, but I was willing to take a chance. My group consisted of Mike, who will henceforth be known as Michael in this post because there was also another Mike, his brother, Donny, their friend from home, Alex, Marcelle, and her sister, Simona. There were seven of us total, four guys and three girls.The first day was like any other in a new place: confusion intermingled with wonder. We landed in Bogota with a decent amount of time left in the day. I had never been to such a high altitude and I was worried about adjusting but everything seemed alright. Luckily for the rest of us, Michael speaks fluent Spanish and was able to communicate with the taxi drivers from the airport. We went to our hostel and then headed out for empanadas. Some of the guys wanted to go to a bar and relax with a beer while Marcelle and Simona wanted to go get juice from the street vendors. I ended up doing neither and instead returned to the hostel for a nice long nap. Apparently this was a common sentiment and we all woke up again around 11 PM, hungry and well-rested. So, we all decided to venture out of the hostel. This was perhaps not our best decision since it was late on a Friday night. We wandered aimlessly for a few hours and finally found an open restaurant. Mike, unfortunately, got his iPhone stolen from a man on the streets that had approached him for money. We made it back by about 2 AM and I personally fell asleep immediately, exhausted from traveling.
Our second day in Bogota was much more productive. We bought overnight bus tickets to Manizelas, so we had the entire day to explore. We spent most of our morning walking around in search of a cambio in order to exchange money. Lunch for the day consisted of copious amounts of delicious meat at a random restaurant near our hostel. Afterward, we decided to take the cable car up to the top of Monserrate, a giant mountain overlooking Bogota. At the top, there is a church and a few restaurants. I mostly walked around, enjoying the flowers that were in bloom and the amazing views of the city. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to hike down, but the cable car ride was still fun. The views were incredible, just absolutely stunning. When we reached the bottom, the sun had already started to go down. We saw a crazy man screaming various things in Spanish about himself and religion run up t the giant cross at the bottom of Monserrate. The police tried to catch him but he escaped into the bushes as far as we could tell. We were also distracted by some llamas but we had to rush back to the hostel to get our stuff. 
The overnight bus ride was actually quite comfortable in my opinion but apparently Michael and I were the only ones able to sleep soundly all night. We paid extra for a nicer bus and we each had two seats to ourselves but the rapid changes in elevation and the skill set of our driver (or lack thereof) negatively impacted everyone else's ability to sleep. We arrived in Manizelas and took a smaller version of the Monserrate cable car up to the top of the town. We went to a travel agency to inquire about Los Nevados, a Colombian national park that we wanted to backpack through. We met several very nice and helpful people and determined that we needed to go through Valle de Cocora in order to get to Los Nevados. This required a few more bus rides, the first to Pereira and the second to Salento.
When we arrived in Salento, we searched for information about the park but found virtually nothing. Rather, we found a ride to El Cocora via jeep. The jeep was awesome. We loaded all of our stuff on top of it and then piled in the back. The ride was only about nine kilometers and when we arrived, we started our hike. El Cocora is known for having some of the world's tallest palm trees, many over 90 feet. The beginning of the park was coated in palm trees and they looked spectacular as they dotted the mountainsides. We soon reached a thick jungle , hot and with rapid increases in elevation. The coolest feature of this jungle area was the rickety wooden bridges that we had to cross. I was terrified each time, worried the I would misstep and break through the bridge. After the bridges, the elevation increases became more strenuous and I had my first experience with altitude sickness. I was mostly just having trouble breathing and had to drink a lot of water. Marcelle, Simona, and I struggled with this more than the guys and we were far behind. Michael decided to hike behind us, in order to motivate us to keep going. We ended up hiking through the dark and stopping at a hikers' hostel for some slightly less than primitive camping. I managed to secure a spot in the middle of our four person tent, which I shared with Marcelle, Simona, and Michael.
The next morning, I started off somewhat slow. Soon into the hike, however, I had a surge of energy and sprinted ahead of the other girls. Once I caught up to the guys, I decided to go ahead of them while they waited for Marcelle and Simona. I held them off for a pretty decent distance and hiked with them until we reached the start of Los Nevados. Michael and I were slightly ahead of Mike, Donny, and Alex but he stayed behind to make sure everyone continued in the right direction. So, I started off on my own and found a comfortable pace. I ended up holding everyone off for several kilometers. The solitude was simultaneously wonderful and terrifying. The only truly scary moment I had was after I had been hiking alone for a few hours in the rain. I heard voice nearby and assumed that the group had caught up to me. Then, I realized the voices were in Spanish. My instincts told me that this was not a good sign. FARC, a group of Colombian guerrillas known for kidnapping people for ransom, were rumored to populate the area and when all I saw was a giant white tent ahead of me, I panicked. I walked as quickly and quietly past the tent as possible and noticed a stack of shovels. This was a relief, because I realized that they were a trail maintenance team.
Shortly thereafter, I caught up with Donny, Alex, and Mike and we hiked together the rest of the day. We stumbled through two farms and lost the trail. Convinced we were headed in the wrong direction, we turned around a found Marcelle, Michael, and Simona within 20 or 30 minutes. Simona was having an especially hard time with the altitude and she had difficulty moving more than a few steps at a time without stopping for a break. Michael had been hiking behind her to motivate her and I soon took over as he tried to find the trail again. We hiked on for another hour or so and decided to set up camp before it got dark. Again, I managed to get a spot in the middle. It was extremely windy and cold that night, raining off and on. We all smashed our sleeping bags together for warmth and I, luckily, was able to sleep. 
The next morning, we hiked up to the big lake we had been headed toward, El Encanto. At this point, we had options: 1) head to the hot springs and leave the park in that direction 2) turn around and head back 3) find one of the big volcanoes and hike that, returning either the way we came or another way 3) exploring in random directions (all tracking on a GPS). We decided against the hot springs for some reason and chose to explore around. The guys unintentionally discovered a volcano and decided to summit it. Marcelle wanted to join but Simona and I had reservations because she had had severe AMS (acute mountain sickness) and I had been having some altitude trouble that day as well. We stayed back and relaxed, setting up the tents and getting water. We also got to nap in the sun, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Michael expressed some concerns to me about the hike because they didn't know what the conditions would be like nor how long it would take them to get up and back. I set up lanterns to guide them back to the tents but, fortunately, they all returned before dark. 
That night, the weather was the worst. It was severely windy and there was also a strong rain. The rain fly of our tent kept sticking to the vents, making it nearly impossible to breathe. At one point in the middle of the night, Michael sat straight up and gasped for breath. He immediately opened the door to the tent and we realized how difficult it had been for all of us to breathe. The next morning was freezing and raining. Michael and I were the first ones ready and after at least half an hour of standing around in the cold, waiting, we decided to start the hike all the way back to El Corcora. We were ahead of the group for a good portion of the Los Nevados hike, up until we reached the farms. After that, the guys took the lead. I caught up to them but Marcelle and Simona were still struggling. I sprinted ahead while the guys waited and reached the sign for Los Nevados about an hour before everyone else, enough time for lunch and a nap. Through the jungle part, I stayed primarily with Michael and Alex until we reached the campsite from the first night. Mike's backpack was falling apart, so he and Donny fell behind. We all waited for each other at the campsite and then the guys got ahead. I stayed back with Marcelle and Simona for most of it until we reached Mike, Donny, and Alex. They informed us that Michael had literally run ahead to try to secure us a ride back into Salento. I realized that this meant we would be hiking back in the dark and I had no desire to cross the streams via headlight. I immediately started running ahead and made it to the edge of the jungle before the others by a significant margin of time. I was sure where we were meeting Michael and when the guys told me that we would be meeting him in town, I started off again in the rain.
I reached Michael about 20 minutes before everyone else and he informed me that he had watched the last jeep go but that a nice man he had met told him he would call a jeep for us when everyone arrived. We all crammed into a jeep intended to fit 6 and I ended up with Marcelle on my lap, unintentionally twisting my knee when we hit potholes in the road. We arrived at the only hostel listed by our guidebook in all of Salento only to realize that five out of the seven of us would have to hike down to the coffee plantation house because the rest of the hostel was booked. The hike wouldn't have been so bad had I not just twisted my knee and had it been daylight but both of those combined with general tiredness destroyed me. I pitifully limped back from the coffee plantation after dropping off my stuff with everyone else as we headed into town for dinner. The odd Colombian pizza I had for dinner, plus the pina jugo con leche, made me feel instantly better. The pizza there was sauceless, which I appreciated because I generally don't like a ton of tomato sauce anyway. The rest of the group seemed less impressed.
The next morning, after a glorious shower (albeit, sans hot water), I headed up to the main part of the hostel to check out and figure out our plans for the rest of our trip. The hike was much nicer in the daylight and the coffee plantation was spectacular. The guys were all awake, drinking coffee, when I arrived and we decided to spend another night in Salento. Michael and I went into town with our DSLR cameras, exploring and taking hundreds of pictures. While we were on our photo safari, Michael befriended a group of schoolchildren and promised them a two liter bottle of coke, which he delivered over the barbed wire to an excited group of boys learning about agriculture. That night, we decided to play tejo, a Colombian game involving beer and gunpowder. Sound like a terrible combination? That was my reaction too. Essentially, the game is free but to play, you have to buy a case of beer. The game consists of throwing lead stones at a metal ring with packets of gunpowder on it. I was pretty terrible at it but Mike, Donny, and Alex got really into it. Marcelle also really enjoyed it and got pretty good at it over time. 
Our last day in Salento, I went to breakfast with the guys and then we did some souvenir shopping. I wasn't terribly interested in buying anything, so Michael and I decided to explore some more with our cameras. We discovered a cemetery and the long road near it opened up a few good views of the small town. We also hiked to the top of the city for the second time, taking even more pictures. In the afternoon, I noticed that I had the chills and didn't feel well. My nose had been runny and Michael had brought me tissues but when he realized I had a fever, he left me at the hostel and went into town to get me Gatorade. Alex brought me some medication and the guys all sat with me. When we got on the bus to Bogota, I was in horrible shape. My head was on fire and I felt freezing even in my ski coat. When we arrived in Bogota, I was barely conscious. We went around searching for food. After breakfast, we headed toward the military museum but it was closed until later. So, I walked around with Michael for photo trip day three. When the museum opened, we wandered around it and hopped on a college tour in Spanish of the museum. I could understand some of it and Michael explained the rest. We ran into the rest of our group and soon thereafter, we headed to the airport. Events occurred: February 28-March 9, 2013
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