national parks close to bogota

How to get to Chingaza National Park

*note: You can find the map to get to Chingaza National Park at the bottom of this post!

*Carrera means roads that go north-south and Calle means roads that go east-west. Both translate to “street,” so I used the words in Spanish in the directions.

Without a car:

There is no public transportation available to take you all the way to the Visitor’s Center, so…

1. In Bogota, take a bus (TransGuasca or Flota Valle de Tenza), which you can find on Carrera 13 with Calle 72, about two blocks towards the mountain from the Calle 72 Transmilenio station. The bus’s final destination is Guasca.
2. Tell the bus driver to leave you at the entrance to Chingaza.
3. Go up and to the right on the unpaved road where the bus driver drops you off. From here on out you’ll have to walk or hitch a ride.
4. Stay on the main road for 20.5 kilometers, making sure you pass an enormous abandoned cement factory. There are signs along the road that’ll help you get to Chingaza National Park. If you get lost, ask a local!
5. Good luck walking!

In a car:

With GPS: use Waze or Google Maps to look up “Centro Administrativo Piedras Gordas PNN Chingaza” and follow the instructions.

Without GPS:

1. In Bogota, get on the Carrera 7 and head up the mountain on Calle 84. Go north, which is left, on the Circunvalar, or Carrera 1.
2. A few hundred meters along this road there’s a fork in the road. To the right is a tunnel. Go left instead towards La Calera and stay on this road 18.2 kilometers.
3. Once you’ve passed La Calera you’ll see a Terpel gas station and the Asader el Rancho de la Gallina restaurant. Close by, there’s a big entrance going up to the right. Go that way.
4. This entire road is unpaved, but any car can make it through. Stay on the main road 20.5 kilometers, making sure you pass an enormous abandoned cement factory.
5. There are signs along the road that’ll help you get to Chingaza National Park.

You can access these trails from the Piedras Gordas Visitor Center:

• Cuchillas de Siecha Trail
• Lagunas de Buitrago Trail
• Laguna Seca Trail
• Suasie Trail
• Laguna de Chingaza Trail

*a guide is necessary on some of these trails. Visit Corpochingaza’s Facebook page to book a local guide!

Some things to keep in mind:

Entrance fee:

• Colombian Adults : $14,500 COP or about $5 dollars.
• Children 5 – 12 years old: $9,000 COP or about $3 dollars.
• Non-Colombian Adults: $42,000 COP or about $15 dollars.

Parking: $13,000 COP or about $4.5 dollars.

Take some water-proof clothes or a change of clothes in the car in case it rains. And more importantly, don’t decide not to go to Chingaza because it’s cloudy or rainy. Chingaza National Park is even more magical and mysterious when it’s not sunny.

The trail to the Lagunas de Buitrago (lagoons), which is practically an unpaved road, keeps going a while after getting to the lagoons. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can keep going to the end and then follow a smaller trail towards the mountains where the Cuchillas de Siecha are. This less-well known trail meets with the trail that starts at the Visitor’s Center and end in the Cuchillas de Siecha. Judge for yourself – if you’re not very good with directions or for knowing where you are, don’t get off the big path.

What to do in Chingaza:

• Go up: if you go to the Lagunas de Buitrago you can hike up to the peak that looms over the lagoons. The view from the top is spectacular!
• Run: a lot of people go to Chingaza to go for a run. Like I’ve said, the trail to the Lagunas de Buitrago is practically an unpaved road and is perfect for trail running. There are sometimes races there too!
• Get to know the place: as you may have read, there are a lot of trails in Chingaza because it is a huge park. My advice is to stay a few days to get to know all the hikes you can or go back a few times. Since it’s so big, the park has a lot of features that you need to see.
• Look for animals: there are lots of animals in PNN Chingaza such as the spectacled bear, which can grow up to 2 meters standing on 2 legs, two deer species, and condors. So be on the watch!
• Take pictures: as always, you gotta take pictures. There’s a different natural beauty around every corner and behind every mountain.

Hope this blog post is helpful, it was our first blog post ever! Check out our About Us page to learn more about our mission!

To learn about another beautiful place near Bogotá, read our post about Pionono Park!

Here’s a video to motivate you to head out to Chingaza!