From East to West. At the west of the capital Bogotà lies the coffee axis or the Zona Cafetera. After all the heavy hikes of the previous days, we decided to take it a little easier on ourselves. We picked the picturesque mountain city of Salento as our base from where we did daytrips to various points of interests. It was supposed to be a quiet and laidback kind of place… Except that we picked the only weekend of the year where Salento is transformed into one big open festival, full of live concerts, DJ sets, local food stands, traditional and not so traditional dance performances, … This came with the typical traffic problems of mountain villages: if there’s only one way in, and one way out by car… You walk. Despite the flock of colombian and international tourists, we enjoyed very much vibrant Salento and its surroundings (and a comfortable bed, lighter backpacks, more gentle temperatures and hot showers too).

Day 1 : Bosque De Palma De Cera “La Samaria” – Finca La Carbonera – Volcan El Machín

Day 2 : Mirador Buenavista & Finca La Alcacia Buenavista (coffee plantage)

Day 3 : Valle de Cocora (Los Nevados National Natural Park)

From the Amazon in the south, we went to the mountain range of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, a somewhat deserted and not well connected place. When I say not well connected, I mean: taking a plane from Leticia to Bogota, and then, taking a gruewesome nightbus to Güicàn. Travel time of the bus: up to 12 hours on endless little mountain roads and with countless stops letting local people on or off.

Not well rested, but full of enthousiasm, there we were : Güicàn in the morning and ready for a day hike during which we should see for the first time the unique páramo ecosystem (it’s more or less an alpine mountain landscape filled with the typical ‘frailejon’ plants).

Day 1 : Valle del Rio Mosco

Acclimatising hike starting in Güicàn (2885m), through the Rio Mosco valley, stopping for a coffee at Parada de Romero, and to the Cabañas Kanwara (3950 m)… All just outside the borders of the National Park

Day 2 : sendero Ritacuba Blanco.

Happy new year! Yes. On the first of january 2020 we set off to the Ritacuba (Ita’ uwa) Blanco (5330m). Our aim was not the top, but the start of the ever receiding glacier (4900m). Due to park restrictions to protect the land of the indigenous people, tourists can only enter the park with a guide, go no further than the snowline and have to sleep outside the park. Hence the many many differences in altitude on our hikes.

Day 3 : Sendero Laguna Grande and Valle de los Frailejones

Again a high altitude hike, starting at Hacienda La Esperanza (3500m), crossing the Valle de los Frailejones (3790m), and then a seemingly eternal climb to Laguna Grande (4600m). As I’m already throwing numbers at you, here are some more: total distance of the trail : 18km. Total amount of steps: 32.000, maximum amount of people allowed on the trail : 175 (no overcrowded tourist trails = fresh drinking water straight from the streams that come from the glacier!). As in the whole of the El Cocuy National Park, there is a limit for the number of people allowed on a trail. Although it means there is little or no room for improvisation, it also means you have the impression that you are the only tourist in the whole of the Sierra Nevada. Beautiful.

Travelling to the Amazon is by no means a walk in the park. There are no roads meandering to this part of the country. There are many clouds… And it is in the middle of nowhere. We took the plane to Leticia, the most southern ‘city’ of Colombia, where we set off by boat to discover what Amazon had to offer us.

First stop: our residence for the next days, called the Zacambu Rainforst Lodge. It takes a 2 hour ‘drive’ by boat on the Amazon river to get there, but what a magnificent experience it was, sleeping on the water in the middle of the rainforrest !

The many animals that we encountered are too numerous to list, and were too difficult to photograph. But let me at least try: pink dolphins, a sloth, numerous birds, monkeys in every shape and form jumping from tree to tree or shoulder to shoulder, the biggest and most vibrant cobalt blue colored butterfly, BILLIONS of mosquitos…

Even though I cannot show them to you, here’s at least a nice impression of the rainforrest itself. You’ll have to add the constant humidity, high temperatures and an army of mosquitos yourself.

And… no trip to the Amazon is complete without fishing for piranha’s or even… for Kayman’s!

I am not a big fan of our friends above, I must admit. But the excursion during the night to go ‘fishing for kaymans’ was a once in a lifetime experience. Let me paint you the picture: dark skies, a thunderstorm in the distance giving us a private light show, a small drizzle, the reflection of hundreds of animal eyes, and the sounds of the jungle…