We walked to the main square in Envigado to take a bus, that would take us to the starting point of our hike. It was the perfect day, we couldn't have asked for better weather. It was warm, around 25 degrees, and sunny! Travelling up the mountain to the starting point was beautiful... you could see all the mountains surrounding the city, and it gave an amazing view of Medellín below.
My friend David was our tour guide for the day. He grew up in Envigado, and has been to El Salado a lot, so he was the one to lead us through the mountain. At times the mountain was pretty steep, but the scenery was well worth the effort. There were many different types of exotic plants, trees, and flowers all around us. When we got to a major look out point, you could see the rolling hills and mountains in the distance, that seemed to go on, and on.
There were many times throughout our journey when we had to cross the river, or do a little rock climbing to get where we needed to go. It definitely wasn't your average walk through the bush. The eight of us worked really well together, to ensure everyone got through each part of the hike easily and most importantly safely. There were a couple of us who got a little wet, by slipping on a rock or misjudging how deep the water was at times while crossing the river (myself included). But we all laughed about it, and soon quickly dried off from the sun's heat.
When we got to a large opening on the mountain we stopped and had some lunch. At Consumo we had bought chorizo sausages, potatoes and marshmellows. So we made a small campfire to cook our food. It tasted pretty good, and it recharged our energy levels for the hike back down the mountain (which was just as hard, as going up it).
When we got back to Envigado we were walking through Parque Envigado and saw this circle made of small containers with numbers on top. Curious... we all walked over to see what it was. We learned that it was a gambling game, where for 200 pesos (about 10 cents) you could bet on which container the guinea pig (which was in the middle covered by another container) would run into. I thought this was hilarious, and had to take part in it. My favourite number is 16, so I bet that the guinea pig would run into that. Once enough people had bet in the game, the guinea pig was released. It ran sooo fast into one of the counters, which unfortunately was not mine. However, it did run into my friend (from Guatemala) Leo's container.
After gambling on guinea pigs, we went to a shop and bought some fresh empanadas, which I love. Empanadas for those of you who dont know what they are... they are sort of like the Spanish version of peorgies or chinese dumplings. They are half moon shaped pastry like things, filled with meat, sometimes potatoes, cheese, veggies etc. All you need to know is that they are delicious. :)
A year ago I was in Barcelona, Spain studying, and now I am hiking through Colombian forests on my weekends from work. Never in a million years did I think I would be doing this in 2011. That's what I love about travelling, you get to do so many amazing things you'd never think you'd be able to do, in some pretty incredible countries. :)
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