Colombia’s Cocora Valley, famous for its tall wax palm trees – the tallest palms in the world, in fact – and mystical cloud forest, is home to one of the country’s best short-distance hikes, an 8.5km loop that gains 580m in elevation as it climbs up through montane rainforest in Los Nevados National Natural Park.

The wafts of mist clinging to the treetops are such an essential part of the experience and scenery, you’ll be lucky to hike on a day with light rain (not a torrential downpour, of course) and the sun peeking through the clouds occasionally. Mind you, the trek will be incredibly muddy, but it’s a small price to pay for the magical view of such pretty and lush greenery.

The Cocora Valley is a 25-minute drive from the small coffee town of Salento, one of the prettiest we visited in Colombia’s Coffee Triangle, and a great place to stop for coffee on the way back from your hike.

There are several hiking trails in the Cocora Valley, catering to different levels of fitness and time constraints, but if you have the time and some hiking experience, I strongly recommend walking the long route in an anticlockwise direction.

That way, you’ll start with a short stretch across rural farmland, then climb up through the jungle, rock-hopping across streams and balancing across wobbly wooden swing bridges, before you reach the highest elevation at 2925 m above sea level with the clouds usually hanging very low, saving the most memorable and scenic section of the trail for last – the descent on a wide path through the valley with two great viewpoints of the Palm Grove.

This is where you’ll see the skinny, smooth trunks close-up, their silvery colour with dark rings, which contrasts beautifully with the bright green grassy hills and dark, menacing clouds that often roll in in the afternoon. Walking in an anticlockwise direction, you’ll face a slightly tougher uphill section at the start, but personally, I preferred the muddiest trail sections to be on the uphill rather than the downhill walk.

Just be aware that you will not be walking among palm trees all the time – this hike meanders in more or less equal parts through farmland, cloud forest and the famous wax palm valley.

It is not a difficult hike (although it can get very muddy and therefore slippery), and it’s unlikely that you’ll get lost as you’ll probably share the trail with plenty of other people. Trail markers are rare, however, and there are quite a few trail junctions, so you might want to download the gpx file all the same.

Also, we found widely differing distance information and trail maps online, which was a little confusing, but from what we know, this 8.5km loop is the long route that most people follow with the option of adding a side trip to the Hummingbird House.