Jeep Willys in Salento
The square, Cocora and the coffee farms. Here the jeep is the transport, not the attraction.
The row of brightly painted Willys jeeps on the main square of Salento is the photograph everyone brings home from Colombia's coffee region, but it is not a set piece: it is how you actually get up to Valle de Cocora. The road is about eleven kilometres of dirt track and takes half an hour, and in high season the queue on the square gets long. Booking ahead is worth it for one reason — you leave at the hour you chose, which for the valley usually means before seven, while the cloud is still below the ridge.
The other regular run is out to the coffee farms: El Ocaso, Don Elías and the ones on the way to Alto de la Cruz. Short trips, but uphill, and not something to attempt on foot with a large bag. If you are staying overnight at a farm and arriving by bus, arrange the jeep in advance: the buses from Armenia come in batches and every passenger goes looking for a ride at the same moment.
One practical thing that saves money. If you are going up to Cocora and back the same day, ask for a return trip in the same booking. The driver then knows he has to wait for you or come back at a set time, and he prices it in from the start. Two separate one-way rides almost always cost more — and at four in the afternoon, when everyone walks out of the valley at once, finding a free jeep is another matter entirely.