This was our second trip to Colombia. We went as a family (with three kids) in 2011 (itinerary is here) and hit the ‘main stops’ of Bogata, the coffee area around Arenal, Cartagena and its surrounding area/islands. It was a terrific trip that I highly recommend!
This time my, now adult, son asked me to join him for a remote work week in/around a lesser touristed city of Cali. My son is a ‘birder’ and this area is known for its beautiful forested areas and strong birding options. He planned the entire trip, which was a wonderful first for me, and it was terrific. Cali wouldn’t be a place I would recommend a first-timer to go in Colombia as the town itself isn’t a strong tourist destination. The surrounding areas we visited however were beautiful and we loved it.
Carter saw about 100+ new bird species in our week there, and that was not even spending every day birding, as we were working a lot of the time.
It was a remote work trip, and we really did work many hours each weekday and had great airbnb and lodge locations from which to do so, with amazing views and ‘vibes’! We then took afternoon excursions and did a longer full day trip on Saturday – which was my favorite outing.
Note: I don’t speak Spanish but my son does. It would have been a really hard trip to take without a Spanish speaker as we weren’t in a heavily touristed area and most people, outside of the lodge we stayed at, did not speak a lot of English.
Saturday Night/Sunday:
Flew out late, after midnight, and took the red eye to Panama City, with a quick easy connection we then flew into Cali, Colombia. We grabbed a cheap Uber into town and checked into our Airbnb about three pm on Sunday.
Sunday Afternoon:
Settled in to our airbnb (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/48816214) which was a great central location on Calle 10, right next to the Plazoleta Jairo Varela where we could walk to all that we wanted to see/do in Cali.
Walked around the neighborhood and by the river, the main plaza, saw the church. The area was mellow on a Sunday afternoon, but bustling the next two days.
Nice traditional Colombian meal to start off our first night at Morada Ancestral.
Monday:
Am: Went for a walk again along the promenade along the river and tried a couple coffee places unsuccessfully with our card and with no cash, but eventually got a nice chai and coffee. Tip: Get cash early upon arrival when you see a good ATM, especially if you plan on heading outside of the city.
10-2: Worked from Airbnb
2: Took couple hour walk to see the Cat statue El Gato del Rio (one of main tourist attractions for some reason), and the other cat sculptures next to him (his ‘girlfriends) that are done by other artists. Wandered towards the colonial area of town on the other side of the river and en route happened upon a great restaurant Baraka where we had a bite, and then happened up on La Linterna, a cool store that makes/sells big lithograph posters. It’s been around for 90 years and is definitely worth a visit! Super cool as you can see the artists working and the printing being done. Carter bought a few prints ($5-$40 each). On the walk back home the city was much more alive and buzzing vs the day before on a Sunday.
Dinner at Platillos Voladores, a great, higher-end, restaurant near our place. The BEST SOUP EVER (a bit like thai with coconut milk but also had cheese, shrimp, pasta, lime…). SO GOOD. And the mains (curry and a chicken plantain dish) were good too…but that soup is in our dreams forever.
Tuesday
Got cash from ATM, grabbed quick coffee from a guy in a tiny stand at Cafe Kavee who was recommended and couldn’t have been nicer.
Worked until noon.
Ubered to pick up rental car and drove up the mountain (stopping at grocery store en route) to our airbnb in Dapa. It’s just a 30-minute drive out of town, but it’s up 3000 feet above the city (so at 6k’) and a very forested area with birds that feels like a remote rainforest. MUCH cooler weather as well. The airbnb was awesome. One side was all windows with a view over the valley towards Cali so you just look out at forest. Beautiful. An outside deck and hot tub as well.
Worked all afternoon. Carter took a walk into the forest to check out birds.
Dinner: Drove 2 minutes down the road to dinner at La Casona where we were the only customers (big Sunday crowd we were told and it looked like a fun place when full) but a good app of cheese and plantain in bread and dinner of steak and chicken.
Wednesday:
Carter did some birding am. Pouring rain. Workday. We made dinner at the house.
Thursday:
Morning walk in the forest across the street.
Checked out and drove the ‘back roads’ to our next spot, the Araucana Lodge. It was a dirt road through the forest (good birding along the way, esp at the start) and some houses scattered en route but it was not a well traveled route (the ‘regular road’ from Cali would have added 30 mins to our drive and much less adventure!). Luckily the one car we saw in the hour+ drive was a pickup right after we’d missed a turn and were very deep into a muddy jungle road and they were able to steer us the right way.
The Araucana Lodge was started 4 years ago by the adult children of the family who’s owned the property for 70 years. Chris, one of the owners, has a birding company and realized there wasn’t a high-end place to stay in this area that attracted so many birding tourists, so they decided to create such a place. It’s beautiful, family-run, has great food and is a very welcoming place set on a spectacular piece of land that includes forest trails, organic farming, horticulture, a family home, a hummingbird station and more. The views from the rooms are amazing. It’s often fully occupied (they have 10 rooms) with birding groups so we were fortunate to be able to stay.
Christopher Calonje
Reservas:+57 3185942891
info@araucanalodge.com
https://www.araucanalodge.com/
Friday:
Work morning.
Afternoon drove an hour or so to visit Doña Dora, a woman who started out selling empanadas next to the road in an area bordering the national park which is filled with amazing, and hard to get to, birds. She put up a couple feeders and the birds now come to her…as have the birders once word got out. You’re sort of in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by lush, beautiful forest. We got our empanadas (all she sells), and sat out back where she put some fruit out to attract the birds. On her roof she has a hummingbird area set up and they practically dive bomb you! It’s an adventure worth driving to for sure!
Dinner at the lodge.
Saturday:
Our full excursion day and my favorite activity as it was a real adventure! Our destination was San Cipriano, about 1.5 hr (and 6k feet) drive down to sea level where we parked the car (at 7am! – early start), bought our ticket, walked across a suspension bridge to a ‘depot’ where we got on little platform ‘Brujitas’ that are powered by motorcycles that use their rear wheels to take us down 7k of track deep into the forest/jungle. If you meet another ‘train’ en route one of you needs to take yours off the track and let the other pass and then it gets put back on the track and you continue on your way. After 7k you arrive at the small village, which was settled by Afro-Colombians a couple hundred years ago. It lies surrounded by forest next to a beautiful river. We met our guide Never there who Carter had arranged ahead of time and he took us into the forest birding for about 4 hours or so, walking on paths and a dirt road. We stopped at a beautiful waterfall and at the river. About 10:30 am other tourists from Cali started arriving as it’s a popular place to go swimming and to tube down the ‘lazy river’. We swam (crystal clear beautiful water) and then wandered back to town where Never’s sister had prepared us lunch, served overlooking the river. Then another 7k ‘train’ trip back to get to the suspension bridge and our car. A great day!
Later afteroon/dinner at lodge.
Sunday:
Drove back to Cali to make the trip home!
Day 1: Arrive Bogata.
Transport arranged ahead of time to hotel.
Sleep: Embassy Suites by Hilton, Bogota. One(1) Two room Suite with breakfast and evening reception www.embassysuites.com. Calle 70 #6-22, Bogota, Ph (571) 317-1313
Day 2:
Zipaquirá Salt Cathedral with a stop at Carne de Res Restaurant. Private service. The crazy restaurant is a must see, but check to see what days it’s open as we changed our schedule after realizing it wasn’t open the day we had planned to go. It was en route back from the Salt Cathedral. We had dinner with family friends at their home.
Sleep: Hilton, Bogota
Day 3: Bogota ½Day City Tour (4 hours) Including Gold Museum, Zona Rosa and Candelaria. Took the gondola up the mountain to see the view etc.
Sleep: Hilton, Bogota
Day 4: Fly to Coffee Region – Armenia. 1 hour flightAVIANCA 9941 02AUG BOGOTA – ARMENIA 10:53A-11:55AGot taxi to take us to our hotel. Our taxi driver Carlos (who also it turns out was an Olympic marathon runner for Columbia!) luckily spoke great english and we ended up hiring him for rest of stay in Armenia to be our driver as it was a tough area to be without a car. We wouldn’t recommend the hotel/town we stayed in.
Sleep: La Floresta Hostel Campestre, Armenia www.laflorestahtelcampestre.com
Day 5:Rio la Vieja rafting trip on bamboo raft. stopped for picnic lunch. terrific day!
Sleep: La Floresta Hostel Campestre, Armenia www.laflorestahtelcampestre.com
Day 6:Coffee Park (Amusement Park) The kids liked it! Parque Nacional del Café: www.parquenacionaldelcafe.com
Sleep: La Floresta Hostel Campestre, Armenia www.laflorestahtelcampestre.com
Day 7:Tour to Salento and Cocorna Valley. This area has amazing tall, skinny palm trees like nowhere else. It’s spectacular. We did what we thought was going to be a short hike, with a guide that didn’t have great english or ability to communicate distances well, and the short hike ended up being maybe 4-5 hour loop. But it was quite awesome – forest, mountains, the trees, rope walkway bridges, a stop at the top of the mountain in a cabin for hot chocolate with cheese in it. Afterwards we stopped by a terrific town where we would have stayed if we’d known about it. We ended the day at hot springs.
Day 8 Fly to Santa Marta
Van booked ahead of time through Rancho Luna to drive us up to the hotel – which is off the beaten track and takes a while to get to . It’s past the Tyrona Park. It has no electricity, is on the beach and no A/C, outdoor showers and you stay in big bungalows. We were the only ones there. The car takes you part way there and then we had to walk the last part as the road/driveway was too muddy to drive. We loved it! It was our splurge destination of the trip.
Sleep: Rancho Luna Ecological Hotel, Santa Marta IN06Aug-OUT09Aug (3 nights)One(1) Cabaña for five(5) persons. All inclusiveowner: Azucena Zamudio
Day 9Trip to the waterfalls up the road a bit. Hiked in and had great time climbing and jumping from the various falls. Really beautiful hidden spot.
Sleep: Rancho Luna Ecological Hotel, Santa Marta
Day 10 Day trip to the Parque Tayrona. Were driven there and figured out our hiking trail which too us the to beach and then back. Longer thatn we anticipated, but was a great day. Had lunch at the beach – you can only hike in.
Sleep: Rancho Luna Ecological Hotel, Santa Marta
Day 11: Driver took us to Cartegena. Checked into hotel – not in old town but on the beach area. We had a quck taxi ride to old town. We stayed here for 5 nights, which was probably 1 or 2 nights too many. We should have spent the night or two on an island instead.
Sleep: Hotel Capilla del Mar, Bocagrande Cartagena IN09Aug-OUT14Aug (5 nights) www.hotelcapilladelmar.comOne(1) Suite Especial w/2 rooms/balcony with breakfast *(see attachment)
Day 12-14:Did a guided morning tour of Cartegena first day whic gave us good lay of the land and history. Explored city on our own in afternoon. One day went to Isla de Pirates for a day trip. Hung out at the island during the day reading, swimming etc which was nice – we didn’t go to other parts of the island (there is an aquarium and some other things) as we wanted to just relax. Poured rain on boat trip back!Other days expolored Cartegena, went to the beach across the street from our hotel etc.Headed home after two weeks in this beautiful country!