If you’re not from Colombia, you might not know what a páramo is. This blog post is to explain what it is, since I use the term SO much throughout the blog, and to let you know the best páramos for hiking in Colombia. Let’s get through the information real quick before the travel tips:
A páramo is the ecosystem between the tree line and glaciers. Yes, it’s an alpine ecosystem, but it’s one that only exists in some countries along the equator, where the snow line is super high. Páramo can be translated into moorland, heath and wasteland, but no one of those words live up to what it really is. You really have to go to a páramo and attach an image to the word yourself.
Colombia happens to have most of the world’s páramos, since it’s an extremely mountainous country just north of the equator. They’re full of frailejones, which is the plant you can see in the picture above. Frailejones have furry leaves, grow mere centimeters every year, hold bunches of water and are great for wiping your butt in case of a bathroom emergency in the wilderness. All páramos also have glacial lakes spread throughout them, reason why they are known as water factories. Most hikes have a lake as their final destination, páramos are the main source of water in most Colombian cities.
Don’t expect to see very many glaciers, though! Colombia currently only has 6 snow-peaked mountains (or glaciers) and they are receding every day. To put it in perspective, there are only 36 km2 (22 miles2) of snow left in Colombia.
On a less somber note, páramos are gorgeous, and they’ll be staying with us MUCH longer. And there’s so many to explore! 2% of Colombia is páramo, and very few of them have trails or any development at all. To narrow down your research, I’ve made a list of the best páramos for hiking in Colombia. These are developed and ready for you to hike them!
The Best Páramos for Hiking in Colombia
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Chingaza.
Chingaza National Park is right next to Bogotá to the east and has 40 different glacial lakes. The biggest of them is Lake Chingaza, but the most beautiful are the Siecha Lakes. Though you can access Chingaza National Park from a bunch of locations, the entrance closest to Bogotá is the Piedras Gordas Administrative Center. It has a number of trails through a wonderfully mountainous páramo that end at the Buitrago and Siecha Lakes. If you’re in Bogota, these hikes are worth your time! Click here to read a full blog post on how to get to these trails in Chingaza National Park.
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Ocetá.
The Ocetá Páramo is known as the world’s most beautiful páramo. Though I think there are some that rival it, I can agree. Enormous formation rise up out of the ground throughout the landscape, peppered with thousands, probably millions, of frailejones. It’s a great place to walk, camp and explore. This páramo is about 3.5 hours from Bogotá, right next to the town of Mongui and is home to lots of lakes, the most well-known of which is Laguna Negra. Click here to read the full blog post on how to get to the Laguna Negra and the Páramo de Oceta.
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Iguaque.
The Iguaque Páramo may not be the most well-known, but it’s my favorite, so of course I had to include it on this list. You start on a winding path through dense forest and suddenly take a step and there’s no more trees! From then on the trail is steep and straight up until you can see Iguaque Lake off in the distance. I love this place because I’ve had great times here with friends and family, as well as in the beautiful tourist town right next to it, Villa de Leyva. Click here for the full blog post on how to get to Iguaque and here for what to do in Villa de Leyva!
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Puracé.
Puracé National Park is an almost magical place where you feel like you’re where the world started. Three of Colombia’s biggest, most important rivers are born there: the Magdalena, Cauca and Caquetá rivers. The area also has 11 volcanoes, although only one is active. You can visit all these places, as well as the hot springs created by the volcano, entire valleys of frailejones, waterfalls and lakes. This high-altitude national park is not so well known, which is always great, and requires guides for hiking. It’s 2 hours from Popayán, 5 hours from Cali and 11 hours from Bogotá.
The Santurbán Páramo is the páramo that provides water for a lot of the Departments of Santander and Norte de Santander. It is huge, has some amazing formations and over 40 lakes. Best of all, the park has a lot of trails. For some perspective, this páramo is so big that it has 7 parks inside of it. It’s a great place to go camp, see the stars and hang out with friends. It’s also threatened to some degree due to large-scale mining. The best thing you can do is visit the park so that the government realizes this place’s natural beauty is important to society.
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Los Nevados.
Los Nevados National Park translates to “The Snowy Peaks National Park.” That’s right: snowy peaks, plural! This park holds three of Colombia’s too few snowy peaks, which of course means there’s a lot of páramo to be had below the snow line. Only one of those peaks, the Nevado del Tolima can be summited, and you need a guide and equipment to make the journey. That’s for another blog post. This post is focused on the best páramos for hiking in Colombia, and this place is great. You need no guide for hiking below and up to the snow line. The most well-known hike reaches the snow line at Lake Otún. Even if you can’t reach the summit or aren’t interested in such a daring adventure, you need to go explore this park. Fun fact: it has snowed on Nevado del Tolima twice in the past couple of years after not having snowed for over 10 years!
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Sumapaz.
The Sumapaz Páramo is Colombia and the world’s largest páramo and is right next to Bogotá on the south side of the city. (I know, Bogotá is close to so many páramos. Thats what happens when you build a city at 2,600 meters or 8,500 feet above sea level). This park is so enormous that you can access it right from Bogotá or from another city, Villavicencio, which is 3 hours from Bogotá. It even extends up to 5 hours from the big city where the Sumapaz Páramo ends and the Caño Canoas National Park begins. The park has a number of hikes, but the most well-known is the hike to Cuchillas de Bocagrande, a set of razor-like mountains that rise above a group of lakes. You can also drive up to the summit of the Nevado de Sumapaz, which used to have a snowy peak 100 years ago.
To conclude this blog post, páramos are unique ecosystems found in very few places in the world. Thankfully, Colombia has most of the world’s páramos and a lot of them, like the ones I described above, are accessible. That’s saying a lot for a country where access is usually difficult because there is little infrastructure for hiking and for outdoor adventures.
Go explore these wonderful places responsibly and enjoy them to the maximum!
For a list of outdoor activities close to Bogotá, read this blog post!
