Colombia Favorite Adventures
OUR FAVORITE ADVENTURES
Colombia
Our Colombia Favorite Adventures
Our Colombia Favorite Adventures
Colombia’s wilderness areas are a bit more difficult to explore than other countries in South America like Argentina, Chile and Peru in large part because the country is emerging from almost 100 years of conflict. However, there are plenty of wild people and places to export throughout Colombia. And as the country continues to develop, we imagine that its wilderness areas will become more accessible. Here are a few of our favorite adventures.
# 1. Exploring Barichara
Barichara, a small colonial town in northeastern Colombia, is one of the most beautiful colonial towns in Colombia. Unlike other towns like Villa de Leyva, which was discovered years ago, for the last several hundred years, Barichara has been frozen in time so walking down its beautiful cobblestone streets is especially magical. There’s also lots to do in the area including hiking and mountain biking.
# 2. Exploring Bogota
Despite the fact that Bogota is a huge city, it’s an interesting one. For us the highlights included the Barrios, the graffiti, the museums (including the Botero and Gold museums), the nightlife and the restaurants.
# 3. Exploring Cartagena
Cartagena is a beautiful colonial city with great restaurants, interesting colonial architecture and a vibrant nightlife. If you do go, we’d recommend staying in the old town or in Getsemani, not in Bocagrande which is a bit like Miami Beach. Don’t expect beautiful white sand beaches in Cartagena. But do expect an interesting introduction to the diversity of Colombia, beautiful colonial architecture (and graffiti) and great food and nightlife.
# 4. Hiking and Mountain Biking in the Cocora Valley
Salento, the gateway to Cocora Valley wasn’t our favorite (it’s nothing to write home about) so we’d recommend camping at one of the campgrounds at the end of the Cocora Valley road and getting up early to complete the 4 hour loop (we’d recommend starting the hike by 7 before the tourists start arriving from Salento). There’s also good mountain biking in the area (contact Pedro at the Beta Hostel if you need a bike and/or ride to the trailhead).
# 5. Scuba Diving in Providencia
Karl completed a scuba diving trip to Providencia over 10 years ago. Providencia is home to one of the largest barrier reefs in the world. And the reef is still very healthy in large part because the island it’s so far offshore. Expect amazing cave, reef and wall dives and super cheap prices, in large part because the dives are all shore dives!
# 6. Sipping Coffee in Columbia’s Coffee Region
Colombian coffee is some of the best in the world and Colombia’s coffee region around the town of Salento is a beautiful region. You can stay in Salento and visit the coffee fincas from there but we’d recommend staying at a coffee finca outside of Salento like Hacienda Guayabal outside of Manzanillo where we spent a few magical days exploring the finca and observing the coffee harvest.
# 7. Soaking in Hot Springs
There are numerous hot springs in Colombia. One of our favorites is Termales San Vicente outside of Santa Rosa de Cabal. The Termales de Santa Rosa are also beautiful but at the Termales San Vicente, you can have hot springs to yourself, especially if you camp there overnight.
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