I’ve written a lot about my love for Salento in recent articles, so I’ll try to keep this one short and sweet! If you’re thinking about visiting Salento (one of the best places to visit in the coffee region of Colombia), take a look at my previous articles on where to stay in Salento and how to visit a coffee farm in Salento.
Following the few days I spent in this colourful town, I took the bus from Salento to Cali to get my salsa on. For those of you who don’t know, Cali is the third biggest city in Colombia, generally considered the birthplace of Colombian salsa. Whilst Cali is quite a dangerous city, you can still go there as a tourist and keep relatively safe, as long as you have your wits about you!
Cali is a great place to learn salsa and meet some locals, as there was a lot of mingling between locals and travellers (in my hostel, at least). However, it’s probably not somewhere to keep at the top of your bucket list if you’re not interested in learning salsa, because safety concerns do limit what you can do in Cali.
The best way to get there, and the easiest way, is to take the bus from Salento to Cali. You probably could take a private transfer, but it would be difficult to arrange and quite expensive as Salento is a bit in the middle of nowhere.
It’s also for this reason that there is no direct bus from Salento to Cali, and you have to change buses in Armenia. However, there’s nothing to worry about; I did it (sort of) by myself and it’s really easy, so follow along and find out how to take the bus from Salento to Cali!
More about Colombia: Why Not to Take the Overnight Bus from Medellin to Salento
Finding the bus station in Salento
There is only one main road coming in and out of Salento so, naturally, that is where the bus terminal is. The bad news is that it’s exactly the opposite end of town to Hostel Corner (unofficial title), which meant for us a 20 minute walk with a big backpack. It’s also (sort of) on the opposite end of town to all of the hotels and hostels promising proximity to Cocora Valley (Valle de Cocora). From the main plaza in Salento it’s probably a 10-15 minute walk.
You can find it by searching for Terminal Buses Salento on Google Maps (or by clicking on that link).
Because Salento is such a small town and you don’t generally need transport to get around, if you’ve got a lot of luggage your only option for transport is to take one of the jeeps you usually see hanging around in the main square. The jeeps most commonly take you to see the local coffee plantations and the famous palm trees of Cocora Valley, but they’re also on hand if you need a ride in the pouring rain (or because you’ve got a lot of luggage).
If you’ve read my previous articles you’ll know that I was traveling with a friend I met in the San Blas Islands, Ashlee. I’d gone to her hostel for breakfast and we were planning on walking to the bus terminal, given that we both had pretty light backpacks, but on that morning we woke up and when I say the rain was TORRENTIAL I mean that in the three minutes it took me to walk from my hostel to hers, I was soaked head to toe like I’d jumped into the shower fully clothed.
Thankfully we managed to team up with two other girls in the hostel who were also heading to the bus station, and the lovely receptionist called a jeep to come and pick us up. We paid about $1 each for the five minute ride.
Taking the bus from Salento to Armenia
The bus trip from Salento to Armenia is on a local bus. When we arrived at the bus terminal nobody fully seemed to know what they were doing, and there were very few staff around. We just kind of wandered into an office, asked for the bus to Armenia, and got pointed in the direction of another office. We went in there, and were able to buy two tickets from Salento to Armenia. We paid around 10,000COP each, which is $2.50.
It’s not necessary to book your ticket for this in advance; the buses come every 20 minutes and, as far as I know, nobody at the bus station was left waiting for the next bus.
The bus ride was long and winding, and we stopped several times to pick people up and drop people off in the various small villages between Salento and Armenia. It took around 50 minutes to reach Armenia, by which point Ashlee was running really late for her flight and had to make a mad dash for the airport.
As far as I know, the bus doesn’t go to Armenia airport, so once you arrive at the bus terminal in Armenia you would have to take an Uber, taxi or another bus to get there. Armenia airport is surprisingly well serviced and has direct flights to most major cities in Colombia including Medellin, Cartagena and Bogota.
After saying a rushed goodbye to Ashlee, I wandered into the station with a mission to find my bus to Cali.
More about Colombia: Everything You Need to Know & Why You Should Visit Capurgana
Taking the bus from Armenia to Cali
Because it was so early in the day and we didn’t have a solid plan for what time we’d arrive in Armenia, I had decided not to pre-book a bus from Armenia to Cali. It was early in the day and I had plenty of time to figure out what to do if by some miracle every bus that day was full.
Plenty of bus companies run direct buses from Armenia to Cali. The only ones you can book online are Expreso Palmira (the only one available on BusBud), Tax Belalcazar or Expreso Brasilia (the latter two are available to book through redBus, which I have used before and never had any issues with). However, when you arrive in the bus station you will see ten or more reliable bus companies all offering direct routes to Cali.
Because I wasn’t in a rush, I went up to a few counters looking for the best deal. Most of them were offering tickets for around 40,000COP ($10), which seems to be the average price. I found one that was slightly less (36,000COP), but the bus was leaving in three minutes and I had to go to the bathroom. Luckily there was no queue in the bathroom and the bus was still standing there when I came out, so I quickly bought the last ticket on the bus.
This point, the fact that I bought the last ticket on the bus, is important. Everyone else had already boarded when I was still buying my ticket, so which was the only seat left when I got on? If you’ve travelled in South America before then yes, you are correct, I was wedged right up front between the drivers. Think of it like a really big people carrier with space for three up front. No individual seats, just one big bench. Me, a super-white gringa, squished between two lively Colombian drivers.
It was actually a fun ride, and these are the kinds of things that only happen to you as a solo traveller (and why I always tell everyone to try travelling solo at least once in their life). I got chatting to the driver to my right, who was off-duty, who told me about everything there is to do in Cali. We were just about getting started on his life story when we arrived.
More about Colombia: A Guide to Neighbourhoods in Medellin
Arriving in Cali
So, the driver to my right was getting very friendly. He said he was worried about me being a solo female traveller in Cali, and wanted to make sure he put me in a taxi when we arrived.
The unfortunate thing about travelling alone as a woman in South America is that you do have to kind of assume that everyone is trying to kidnap you, just in case, so I made my excuses and did a lap of the bus station before I got myself into a taxi.
The taxi driver in Cali was about the grumpiest man I’d ever met in my life. When we arrived at my hostel (I stayed in Viajero Hostel Cali and highly recommend it), he yelled at me out of the window for shutting the car door too strongly. Oops.
Viajero Hostel is in San Antonio, which is where most of the hostels are and the best area to stay in if you’re going to Cali for the first time. As I mentioned, Cali isn’t the safest of places, and you should steer clear of the city centre unless you’re with a local or in a big group.
Cali is a vibrant city. San Antonio is an especially great place to try the local food, listen to live music, and go dancing. Just make sure you’re always travelling in a group, and listen to the locals when they tell you about areas to avoid. Some areas seem totally harmless, but we were advised not to walk there at night time, even in a group of up to fifteen people travelling together.