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Travel Guide

How to get to La Chorrera

Posted on September 5, 2018
how to get to la chorrera, sixth tallest waterfall in Latin America, tallest waterfall in Colombia, el chiflon, choachi, hiking, green, beautiful

The sixth tallest waterfall in Latin America, at 590 meters, or 1,953 feet, is only an hour and a half from Bogota!! I had heard of the place, but I had never heard how special it was. But after someone told me La Chorrera was so tall, I went to see for myself the next weekend. What a spectacular place! The hike is beautiful, there’s water everywhere and even the car ride is amazing. The landscape and mountains look like Chiribiquete in the department of Guaviare. You have to go! This is how to get to La Chorrera.

If you like cloud forests, like the once you’ll find at La Chorrera Park, check out our post on Chicaque Park!

How to get to la Chorrera

*The map to get to La Chorrera from Bogota is at the end of this post!

In Public Transportation:

  1. In Bogota, take a Transoriente or Cootransfómeque bus on Calle 6 with Avenida Caracas (see on map below). The trip costs $10,000 Colombian pesos ($3.5 dollars) and it lasts an hour and a half. Buses leave between 5:15 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. every day.
  2. Tell the bus driver you’re going to the entrance to la Chorrera (“la entrada a la Chorrera”, in Spanish). Be looking for signs on the road anyway because the driver may forget.
  3. The entrance to la Chorrera is 4 kms (2.5 miles) of unpaved road until the actual park entrance. To get there, follow the main road, staying left every time it splits. Either way, there are signs that point your way to the park. If you feel lost, ask someone! Another option is to take a moto-taxi from where the bus drops you off. It costs $5,000 pesos or $2 dollars.
  4. Once you get to the park entrance, which is also the campsite, you’ll have to watch a video and pay $12,000 pesos ($4 dollars) to go to la Chorrera or $8,000 pesos ($3 dollars) to go to el Chiflon (another smaller waterfall). Go to la Chorrera and see both waterfalls… it{s so worth it!
  5. Follow the trail to the waterfalls. It’s impossible to get lost! *You can also pay $32,000 pesos ($11 dollars) to do the trail on horseback.

In a Car:

With a GPS: enter “Aventura la Chorrera Park” in Google Maps or Waze and follow the instructions.

Without a GPS:

  1. In Bogotá, take Calle 26 going East (towards the mountains) and follow it until it becomes the Circunvalar.
  2. On the Circunvalar, follow the signs that say Choachi is to the left. That left turn comes right after an Universidad Distrital campus.
  3. Shortly afterwards, there’s a confusing U-turn. Stay on the main paved road, don’t keep going straight.
  4. Follow this main road towards Choachi until you see an unpaved road to your left where there’s a little store with a big billboard on top of it.
  5. Turn onto this road and drive 4 kms (2.5 miles) to the Aventura la Chorrera Park entrance. To get there, follow the main road, staying left every time it splits. Either way, there are signs that point your way to the park. If you feel lost, ask someone!
  6. Towards the end of the road, you’ll get to a little store where you can park if your car isn’t ready for the toughest hill of the road. If there’s no problem, go on to the entrance, where you can park and camp.
  7. Pay $12,000 pesos ($4 dollars) to go to la Chorrera or $8,000 pesos ($3 dollars) to go to el Chiflon (another smaller waterfall). Go to la Chorrera and see both waterfalls… its so worth it!
  8. Follow the trail to the waterfalls. It’s impossible to get lost! *You can also pay $32,000 pesos($11 dollars) to do the trail on horseback.

What to do at La Chorrera

Walk to El Chiflón:

El Chiflon is another waterfall in the park that only seems small because la Chorrera is 590 meters tall. El Chiflon is actually quite imposing, since it’s 60 meters (200 feet) tall. The roar the falling water makes is music to my ears. This waterfall is only 15 minutes from the park entrance, and has a trail that goes behind it. You can also rappel from the top of el Chiflon, which means descending next to it attached to a rope with safety equipment. It costs $25,000 pesos or $8.5 dollars.

Get to La Chorrera:

Of course, if you’re going to La Chorrera Park, you have to go to la Chorrera! What’s crazy is that they do have a payment option that includes only going to el Chiflon. El Chiflon is awesome, but nothing like la Chorrera!! Even though the hike is longer (an hour and a half vs. 15 minutes), it’s worth it. Plus, all the best things in life come after having worked hard for them. Go to la Chorrera and you will not be disappointed.

Get to know la Cueva de los Monos (the Monkey Cave):

En route to la Chorrera, you’ll see a sign that point to a steep trail upwards. La Cueva de los Monos is at the end of that trail, about 6 minutes away. One of the park officials told us that, sadly, there are no monkeys. I would say there is no cave either, just a rock roof. I’ll also say, though, that it is beautiful and gives you another view of la Chorrera in the distance. So if your legs are feeling good, go here. If you don’t feel like it, you won’t miss out on much.

Take pictures:

This place, like any cloud forest, has a magical vibe because of the bright greens you see everywhere and the clouds that envelop the landscape. The park is a great place to take bright, happy pictures as well as dark, moody ones. It’s a great spot for a photo shoot.

Camp:

Camping at la Chorrera is amazing. The camping spot is at the park entrance, not the actual waterfall. Even so, you feel in the middle of nowhere and it’s exciting to know such a special waterfall is nearby. The park does not rent any equipment, so you have to take your own tent, sleeping bags, etc. It costs $10,000 pesos ($3.5 dollars) a night per person. The camping area has bathrooms, showers and grilling areas.

Eat a lot:

There are a lot of little shops before and at the park entrance, which is not a bad thing! You can buy snacks, cuajada with melao or blackberry sauce, arepas, empanadas and there’s even a Cuban restaurant with great dishes and mojitos. These are all things you should eat while in Colombia, by the way. Except the Cuban food, it’s not as much of a must.

Go up to the Statue of the Guadalupe Virgin:

On the way to La Chorrera Park, not too far from Bogota, you’ll see a road that goes up and to the right. It goes up to the statue of the Guadalupe Virgin. This statue is the one you can see from Bogota up on the mountain across from Monserrate. It’s a place not many people know and is as good a lookout point as Monserrate. Bogota looks amazing from up there. It’s worth getting up a little earlier to stick this place into the agenda.

Some things to know:

  • Make sure you take cash, especially small bills to pay buses and shops/services that can’t take your card (most places).
  • The Chorrera waterfall is the sixth tallest in Latin America and the tallest in Colombia.
  • The hike that includes everything (el Chiflón, la Cueva de los Monos, and la Chorrera) costs $12,000 pesos or $4 dollars.
  • Camping at the campsite costs $10,000 pesos or $3.5 dollars a night per person.
  • The bus ride to the unpaved road costs $10,000 pesos or $3.5 dollars per person.
  • The moto-taxi from the spot the bus drops you off to the Park entrance costs $5,000 pesos or $2 dollars.
  • The road to the park entrance is unpaved. Smaller cars won’t have trouble until the last hill. I recommend parking below, at a little store, if you have a low or old car. If you have a high car or a 4×4, go on ahead to the entrance!

I hope this blog post helped you learn how to get to La Chorrera and that you go!

 

If you’d like to know another special place close to Bogota, read our blog post on Suesca!

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Travel Guide

What to do on a Day-trip to Tayrona Park

Posted on June 13, 2018
what to do on a day-trip to Tayrona Park, hiking, beaches, adventure, caribbean

If you’re wondering what to do for a day on the coast of Colombia, my answer is that you need to go to Tayrona National Natural Park. It’s one of Colombia’s most popular, most beautiful parks. The landscape is amazing; standing on the beach you can see the landscape switch from ocean to beach to mangrove to jungle to mountains. It is one of the most diverse, unique places I have been, and it was bunches of fun even though it was just for a day! So here’s what to do on a day-trip to Tayrona Park.

What to do on a Day-trip to Tayrona Park

There’s a TON to do here, and you can browse activities here! These are some of our favorite things to do in Tayrona Park:

  1. Hike from the park’s entrance to Cabo San Juan. This hike will take you through some of the most beautiful coastal landscapes you’ve ever seen. It takes about 2.5 hours, although that can vary depending on the person hiking. Get to the “El Zaino” entrance (more info on how below), where you pay the entrance fee, find the trail to Cabo San Juan and just start hiking.
  2. Once you get to Cabo San Juan all sweaty and tired from hiking in the baking sun, the best thing to do is to get right in the water. Now, if you’re down for some adventure, there’s a pretty large rock in the bay that is perfect for diving. The rock is out a ways from the beach right where you get to Cabo San Juan. You have to swim there, do a little bit of easy scrambling to get on top of the rock and then jump the six feet down into the ocean below. I marked the spot on the map below so you can find it easily, and if you want to see it beforehand to recognize this diving rock when you go to Tayrona Park, check out our Youtube video below!
  3. Yet another activity you can do at Cabo San Juan is snorkel. The crystal clear, calm water makes for a great time enjoying the underwater world. This does mean you’ll have to carry your own mask and fins or rent them in Santa Marta or Taganga because there is no snorkeling service in Tayrona Park.
  4. Hike to Pueblito Chairama. At the far end of the Cabo San Juan campground, towards the mainland, you’ll find a trail that will take you on a mini-Ciudad Perdida hike (one of Colombia’s most popular multi-day hikes) to an abandoned, historical Tayrona tribe town. The hike is uphill and takes about 1.5 hours, which may vary. *Doing this hike along with everything else listed here might jam pack your day, making you rush from one activity to another, so if you were to discard any of the activities in this list I’d recommend discarding this one. Still, the hike is awesome, so do it if you can!
  5. When it comes to food, the one restaurant in Cabo San Juan can have long lines and low quality food and can sometimes run out of certain dishes because of the crowds during high season. At the same time, if you take food, you have to carry it and it’s rarely as good as a cooked meal. What I prefer, just for simplicity’s sake, is to brave the line at the restaurant.
  6. Unless you have your car with you, head back on a boat! After a long day hiking, diving, snorkeling, eating and relaxing on the beach, it might be hard to feel motivated to take the long hike back. I find that the most enjoyable way to get back is on a boat. It leaves from Cabo San Juan at the end of the day and you get to see the sun set in front of you as you ride to Taganga. You can buy tickets for the boat at Cabo San Juan. Buy them as soon as you get there! To buy them ahead of time, there’s a travel agency called Tayrona Taganga Express right when you enter Taganga where you can buy your boat ride ticket from Cabo San Lucas to Taganga or vice versa. I marked the spot on the map below! More info on prices later.
  7. And don’t forget to just relax on the beach, maybe take a nap in the shade! Enjoy!

How to get to Tayrona National Natural Park:

This blog post, what to do on a day-trip to Tayrona Park, is based on entering the park through the El Zaino entrance and then getting to Cabo San Juan. This is how you do that!

Get to the Entrance:

On a bus, you have two options. The first is to take a bus going to La Guajira from Santa Marta’s bus terminal (search for “Terminal de Transportes de Santa Marta” in Google Maps or Waze) and tell the bus driver to drop you off at the El Zaino entrance to Tayrona Park. Just say “Déjeme en la entrada el Zaino del Parque Tayrona.” It costs $12,000 pesos ($4 dollars). The second option is to get your hotel or hostel to set you up with transportation. This will cost a little more, but involves less planning.

In a car, you’ll want to get on the Troncal del Caribe road, which is the main road that crosses the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Follow the signs to La Guajira, which will be east. The Zaino entrance is the last one going west to east, so it will be about a 50 minute drive there from Santa Marta. There are no signs until you’re right at the entrance, so be watching for it on your left. In addition to the entrance fee (info on that below), you’ll have to pay $13,000 COP ($5 USD) for the car and $9,000 COP ($3 USD) for a motorcycle.

Get to Cabo San Juan:

From the El Zaino entrance, you have 4 options.

  1. If you’re renting a car, follow the road until you reach the parking lot. A day of parking costs $9,500 COP ($3.25 USD) for a car and $7,500 COP ($2.50 USD) for a motorcycle. From the parking lot, find the trail with the ocean on your right and start hiking! (You can hire someone to get you to Tayrona Park here.)
  2. Then, you can take a small bus owned by the park from the entrance all the way to where the road ends. The bus costs $3,000 pesos or $1 dollar. Find the trail from wherever it drops you off with the ocean on your right and start hiking!
  3. You can also ride a horse all the way to Cabo San Juan for $40,000 pesos ($14 dollars). This way, you get a guide to explain things as you ride and get to enjoy the hike while sitting down. It’s a pretty awesome deal!
  4. Walk from the entrance all the way to your destination. Walking to Cabo San Juan takes about 2.5 hours. The trails are amazing, easily identifiable and include some of the most beautiful hiking I’ve ever done.

Here’s the map to get there from Santa Marta – I indicated three spots on the map too: Pueblito, the Diving Rock and the travel agency, Tayrona Taganga Express!

Some things to know:

  • You’ll most likely see monkeys and, if you’re lucky, alligators!
  • The times between which you can enter and exit the park are 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.
  • Some beaches along the trail have signs that prohibit getting in the water. This isn’t just to protect the area environmentally. Since those beaches are not bays, there are currents in the water that can sweep you away from the mainland into the vast ocean in a matter of seconds. So don’t get in the water at those beaches!
  • Get your yellow fever shot at least 10 days before going to Tayrona National Natural Park. If you’ll be in Bogota beforehand, you can get the shot for free at the airport.

Payment

  • Colombians or foreign residents below the age of 25 pay $10,000 Colombian pesos or $4 US dollars ($11,000 or $4.40 during high season) to enter the park.
  • Colombians and foreign residents above the age of 25 pay $17,500 pesos or $6 USD ($19,500 or $6.50 during high season) to enter the park.
  • Non-resident foreigners pay $44,000 pesos or $15 USD ($48,500 or $17 USD during high season) to enter the park.
  • High season is December 15 to January 30, June 15 to July 30, Holy Week and all Holidays.
  • Students get discounts, so take your student ID!
  • Make sure you take cash, because you can’t pay for anything with a card at Tayrona Park, and that it is in Colombian pesos.
  • The boat ride costs between $35,000-$45,000 pesos ($12-$15 USD). If you’re not staying in Taganga, take a bus (less than $2,000 Colombian pesos or 0.75 US dollars) or a taxi (about $40,000 Colombian pesos or $13 US dollars) to Santa Marta.

I hope this helps you figure out what to do on a day-trip to Tayrona Park! If you’re staying in Taganga or Santa Marta, check out this blog post about what to do while you’re there and some things that are good to know!

Another place you have to visit on the Colombian coast is Isla Fuerte. This island vacation spot isn’t as well-known as Tayrona or that part of the coast, but it is a totally unique, remote and gorgeous destination. Read about Isla Fuerte here!

Travel Guide

How to get to the Laguna Verde de Tausa

Posted on April 9, 2018
camping, hiking, Green Lagoon, how to get to the Laguna verde de Tausa, outdoor adventures close to Bogota

Lala and I had a blast with 3 other couples at the Laguna Verde (Green Lagoon in English). We called the trip a quadruple date. It was awesome. Now, the Laguna Verde is an aquifer that actually creates the river that feeds the Neusa Dam! When I was camping at the Neusa Dam, I felt very deep in nature even though I was still close to civilization, so you can just imagine how wild the Laguna Verde feels. You get see thousands of frailejones (probably my favorite plant) and other alpine plants and a beautiful, pristine lake on a trail that, though it isn’t well known or highly hiked, is really well preserved. We met the guy who owns the property – a ginormous property that includes the lake. He keeps the trail preserved and is really cool about letting people in. He didn’t charge us anything! And he gave us his phone number, so you can call him before going, just for him to know. I totally recommend you go to this wonderful, off-the-beaten-track spot! This is how to get to the Laguna Verde de Tausa (Tausa is the closest town).

Misiades Salazar’s (the owner) phone number: (571) 312 4938840

How to get to the Laguna Verde de Tausa

*The map to get to the Laguna Verde from Bogota is at the bottom of this post!

In a car

With a GPS (highly recommended): type in “Laguna Verde Tausa” in Waze or Google Maps. Make sure you picked the one in Tausa, Cundinamarca, Colombia and follow the directions.

Without a GPS:

*Some tips before you read: (1) this will all make more sense if you can see it, and Google Maps has Street View all the way to step 8, so use it to get your bearings, and (2) you’re probably going to have to ask locals for directions as you go, so brush up on your Spanish!

  1. In Bogota, drive north on the Autopista and leave the city. Keep heading north until you reach the first bridge. Don’t go over it. Follow directions to Chia, taking a road to the right, which will then curve to the left, under the bridge.
  2. Stay on this road until the next bridge. Go over this bridge, staying on the right. Continue on this road until you see a Homecenter on your right. Shortly after, you’ll take a right where there’s a sign for Zipaquira and Ubate.
  3. Stay on this road until you get to yet another bridge. Stay on your left to go over the bridge, which will take you to the right, following the sign to Ubate.
  4. Shortly afterwards, you’ll run into a round-about. Take the third exit, staying on the main road.
  5. From here on out, having a GPS is best because you’re going to take a left on a corner where you’ll see two stores named ‘Viejo Mao’ and ‘Alejo 2.’ There are no signs to Cogua or the Laguna Verde.
  6. Stay on this main road, and you’ll get to Cogua. Where the road seems to end, take a right and then immediately take the next left. Then, still in Cogua, stay left where three roads intersect.
  7. Soon enough, you’ll get to an obvious fork in the road. Go left. If you take a right, you’ll see a sign that says LA PAZUELA 2, and you’ve gone the wrong way. Stay on the road to the left.
  8. After you pass the Rio Borracho (Drunk River), take a right on a downward sloping dirt road to the right. Drive down to a house at a small intersection before the beginning of the trail and park there. The house is at the very bottom, where everywhere else you go is up.
  9. Walk to a fork in the road. To the left, it goes up, and to the right, it goes down. Take the road to the left, go through a gate, and begin the hike! It’ll last about an hour.

On public transportation

  1. You can get on a bus that says ‘San Cayetano’ at Bogota’s Bus Terminal (Terminal de Transporte) or at the North Bus Terminal (Terminal Satélite Del Norte).
  2. Take this bus for a while, passing Cogua. Tell the bus driver you’re getting off at the entrance after the Drunk River to go to the Laguna Verde. He probably won’t know English, so say: “Voy para la entrada a la Laguna Verde después del Rio Borracho.” Good luck!
  3. You’ll be dropped off at a downward sloping dirt road to the right. Walk a good 15-20 minutes to the beginning of the trail, following the main road.
  4. You’ll get to a fork in the road. To the left, it goes up, and to the right, it goes down. Take the road to the left, go through a gate, and begin the hike! It’ll last about an hour.

Check out our video!

What to do at the Laguna Verde:

Camp: the friend we made, the man who owns the property that includes the Laguna Verde told us to give him a call if we ever want to camp, for two reasons. First, just to let him know so he can make sure everything is good and second, because he offered to rent us a small house there is on the property. The house is in really bad conditions, though, so I would just camp outdoors… right next to the lake. Much better, huh?

Breathe fresh air: I only mention this because I think it’s important to do it consciously!

Have a long picnic: there’s a few really nice spots quite close to the lake to have a picnic and enjoy the view for a good long time. Bring your choice of food and enjoy! The ground will probably be soggy, because this ecosystem is just very wet, so bring a blanket or jacket to sit on or just get your bum wet, it won’t hurt!

Go on a double, triple or quadruple date: seriously, there’s no better way to enjoy nature than with friends. So grab some people you love and go on this adventure!

Take pictures: of course! Pick up your camera and capture some earthy, wet, moody, beautiful shots in this gorgeous place.

Some things to know:

  • Though our friend, who owns this property, will let you in for free, the township of Cogua doesn’t really love people going to the Laguna Verde because it’s such an important body of water (it feeds the Neusa Dam and 17 towns). Please take care of this wonderful place – don’t leave your trash, try to stay on the trail – so that it doesn’t get taken from us. It’s true, this place should be pristine because of its importance, but I also think it’s important for people to enjoy special outdoor places like this one. Both can be true. Let’s keep it that way.
  • Call Misiades Salazar at (571) 312 4938840 just to let him know you’ll be going!
  • Like I said, everything is free: entrance to the property and parking at a farmer’s house, but give the people some money as thanks. They aren’t obliged to help us out, but they do.
  • A car can make it all the way to where the trail begins in good conditions, but definitely not if the road is wet. If it’s been raining, you’ll have to park further up the road or be in a car with 4-wheel drive.

Now that you know how to get to the Laguna Verde, make sure you go! So recommended. Let us know how it went!

If you saw a big lake on your way to Laguna Verda, it was actually a dam. The Neusa Dam! Click here to find out how to get there.. or click here to see a list of places to have outdoor adventures close to Bogota!

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