Medellin -> Aguadas -> Manizales -> Armenia -> Filandia -> Cali

Miles Covered: 320

1/19/17 - 2/4/17

Aguadas

Amazing 3 hour Drive with perfect weather through very mountainous terrain Small town, very quaint, not alot going on. Only stayed one night $9 for a private hotel room Ended up giving away my first batch of camping gear to the lady who ran the hotel when I realized how screwed I was when I got in to town with three times as much gear as I could carry at once (should have gotten the side cases)

Manizales

Accidentaly took the wrong road and got a really boring drive. Apparently the other way was just amazing mountain passes the whole way. Went to an amazing hostel, Mirador Finca Morrogacho with one of the best views of the trip so far. Private room for $25/ night but came with an amazing homecooked breakfast Met a super cool, couple Pete and Natalie from London who had created an 8 hour a day job for themselves planning a Galapagos trip. Went on a awesome bushwack hike with Pete down to a little stream at the bottom of the coffee farm. Natural hot springs at El Otoño Sat on a hammock and did nothing for about two days straight

Armenia

Pretty boring 3 hour drive over Mid Sized City, found a surprisingly nice hostel, Wanderlust, for $10/night Walked up to some random people who were drinking beer at a cafe at night and were speaking English. Ended up being awesome people and they invited me to go camping with them the next day. One of them, Daniel, who lives in Armenia was also a super strong climber (on the colombian national team) and we climbed together at local gym. Was in shit shape after not having climbed for a year. Met some hilarious metalheads after leaving a salsa club and drank Aguardiente with them in a sketchy parking lot until police made us leave around 4am

Filandia

Drove with Daniel and the crew to a super cool hostel on farmland in the middle of nowhere outside of a cool small town called Filandia Hostel was run by a French Couple Jordan and Charlotte who just bought a little farm for next to nothing and turned it into a hostel / campground and dropped of the grid. They’ve got life figured out Only meant to stay for one night, but what is beginning to turn into a pattern, ended up staying for 4. Sat in a lot of of hammocks, took some pictures, played risk There was a full 20 acre functioning coffee/ banana farm next door with like 20 kinds of fruit trees and a 4 bedroom house for sale for less than 150k.

Cali

Nice 3 hour drive, nothing special Stayed for a couple days in two decent hostels, met some cool people Cali is the salsa dancing capital of the world which is hard not be aware of there becuase no one shuts up about salsa there. Took a lesson, went to some famous salsa club. It’s overrated. A bunch of dudes dressed like pitbull and way overpriced beers