Adventure Los Nevados

Next, I made my way to the coffee region northwest of Bogotá. However, it was now mid-April and the Holy Week, 'Semana Santa', had begun. That meant half of Colombia was traveling through the country to visit family or go on vacation. This made traveling a bit more complicated for me, as many hostels and buses were fully booked. Finally, I had to make some adjustments and made Manizales my first stop. From there, I wanted to go to Los Nevados National Park. The peaks of the mountain range in the park on the northern side of the Cocora Valley are over 4000 meters high and there are glaciers there.

But first, I had to get to Manizales. I opted for an eight-hour night bus ride. The bus was quite comfortable and spacious. The first few hours went smoothly, but then the bus suddenly broke down - in the middle of the night, in the mountains of Colombia!

But just a few minutes later, another bus from the same company arrived and we were able to transfer. We just had to carry our luggage to the other bus ourselves, which seemed like a mammoth task to me half asleep.

The rest of the journey was calm and we arrived in Manizales an hour earlier than expected. The city extends over several hillsides and has two cable cars that can take you to different neighborhoods. So I took a gondola from the bus terminal to the city center, where my hostel was located. The Golden Frog Mountain Hostel was very well equipped and what pleased me the most was that I could go straight to my bed. I took the opportunity to catch up on a few hours of sleep. Unfortunately, it rained heavily in the afternoon, so I didn't see much of Manizales, but I booked a tour to Los Nevados National Park through the hostel.

After breakfast the next day, we set off. Our small group consisted of a guide, two American women, and myself. We first drove to the Black Lagoon at an altitude of over 3000 meters. The way there was impressive. At first, it was very green and we saw some of the tall palms that the region is known for. Then the landscape changed and we entered the Paramo. Higher up, there were more and more of the 'frailejones', palm-like trees. By the way, there is a legend that Simón Bolívar had the trees wear clothes during the War of Independence to make them look like hundreds of soldiers and intimidate the opposing troops.

After the lagoon, we continued by car to over 4000 meters, where we took a closer look at the trees. I felt like I was on a different planet because I had never seen a landscape like this before!

Then we hiked a bit to hot springs. Surprisingly, I hardly noticed the altitude. The hot springs were the best I visited on my trip. It was actually more like a mountain stream. Hot water came out of the rocks at one spot, and a little further down, you could sit in pleasantly warm water and let the currents massage you. But everything was quite natural and there was no artificially constructed pool. So we enjoyed the natural whirlpool for a while and then hiked back uphill to the car. Our lunch was prepared by two very warm-hearted Colombian women in a small mountain hut. It consisted of a hot soup and egg or chicken with lentils and rice.

The last activity of the tour was a mountain biking ride down into the valley. The route was moderately steep, but I was initially a bit anxious because I had never done anything like it before. But after about halfway through, I got the hang of it and really enjoyed racing down the mountain.

All in all, the trip was definitely worth it! The landscape was breathtaking, and next time, I would definitely dare to hike to the glaciers...