We drove to the Cocora Valley, an area of six volcanoes of which three are active. Our guide said that the weather in this valley is so crazy that people here say, "We trust the politicians more than we trust the weather." Cocora Valley is the home of the Wax Palm trees, which are the tallest palm trees and tallest plants in the world. But Not the tallest trees, which are our California redwoods.

The valley is part of the Los Nevados National Natural Park, and Cocora Valley was incorporated into the national park in 1985. The valley is the main location of the national tree of Colombia, the Quindio wax palm tree.

We took a four-mile hike in the park with the first two miles being substantially uphill. We hiked from 8,000 feet elevation up to over 8,700 feet elevation. We made it all the way up, and Vicky was really outstanding! Why? She was vomiting horribly the night before, but she got up in the morning and made the entire hike. I was a little out of sorts myself, but we carried on, as usual.

The wax palm can grow as tall as 200 feet. The trunk is cylindrical, smooth, light colored, and covered with wax. The wax from the trunk was scraped off the trees (often killing them) and used to make candles, especially in the 19th century. It was also used to build houses and used for water supply systems. Today, this tree is protected under the park's national status.

I was happy to see that they have been propagating and planting new wax palm trees here.

We also spotted tree-huggers and horses as we hiked this trail.

As we neared the top of the trail, we stopped more often but kept smiling and hiking...

We made it to the top of the trail where there was an observation deck and a small snack bar. We had coffee with cinnamon and rum in it. It tasted great and gave us a boost for the trip back down. This was our view from the top.