Colombia remains a largely undiscovered country as far as the international traveler is concerned, offering you a real adventure and a chance to discover new frontiers, something which is becoming increasingly rare in today’s modern world.
Captivating Colombia
Special Experiences
The mountains of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and its peripheral villages make for a cultural nucleus, a historical focal point of tribes and indigenous populations that have persevered through time to establish their rights in modern day society. To the west are the Kogi people, descendants of the Tayrona that built “La Ciudad Perdida”, the lost city hidden in the jungles of the Sierra that is both an archeological treasure and a popular five day trek into the mountains.
Begin in Colombia’s ‘White City’ of Popayan, famed for its white-walled buildings and colonial masterpieces, explore the buzzing market at Silvia, wind south through rugged landscape to UNESCO-protected San Agustin archeological park and end at Huila’s most impressive geographical wonder, the vast Tatacoa Desert, distinctive for its flaming ochre colouring and its labyrinth of wind-carved valleys that can reach 20 metres deep. The perfect location to star-gaze and end the road trip in reflection.
Take a horseback ride through the gently rolling, impossibly green mountains of the Coffee Region and it’s easy to see why it’s been designated a Unesco World Heritage Site. The volcanic earth that covers the Colombian cordillera makes for the most fertile of soil, literally anything planted in the ground here springs up full of life and colour.
Your guide will take you to a hidden away neighbourhood in Bogota’s industrial district, where you’ll find a trendy warehouse and showroom working to reinvent the Colombian weaving tradition. Verdi, a socially and environmentally conscious textile studio, uses the unique technique of intertwining natural plant fibers with metals such as silver and copper to create high-end homeware, fashion and art pieces. You will have the opportunity to meet the artisans themselves as well as try your hand at the weaving process.
At night sleep in the floating houses of the native communities that live in the heart of the jungle, their buildings completely surrounded by water during the high-water season. During the day set out on a river safari to encounter every form of wildlife from scaly iguanas sunning themselves on branches to blue and yellow macaws hidden right up in the tree-tops. Families of monkeys will pass by as they play around and jump impossible distances between the trees, while pink dolphins jump and dive to their hearts’ content.
Travel to Nabusimake, the capital of the Arhuaca people. After a challenging drive over unpaved roads you embark upon a six hour mule ride that takes you through some of the most spectacular rivers and scenery in the region before reaching the picturesque villages of the Arhuaca with their cobblestone walkways and huts with straw roofs.
Travel to Villa De Leyva, one of Colombia’s prettiest colonial towns, where you will spend the night in a romantic posada. En route you will stop in Zipaquira to visit the spectacular underground Salt Cathedral. In and around Villa De Leyva you will visit several sites including the Santo Ecce-Hommo monastery,
Traditional Stops
The capital of Colombia and generally your airline arrival point. You can opt for a private tour of the city’s cultural highlights or simply absorb the vibrant arts and cafe scene, haute cuisine and bustling nightlife.
Houses painted in every pastel shade, immaculate balconies from which bougainvillea hang down to the street below, the scent of flowers filling the air, the old mansions with their fortified studded doors. Simply walking around the old town, you find your mind drifting away, carefree and relaxed
The city of eternal spring whose leafy streets and laid-back charm of the place will quickly help dissolve any preconceived ideas you may have of the Medellin of old.
Barichara is named after an old indigenous word meaning place of relaxation. Its laid-back, bohemian vibe certainly lives up to the name, while the cobblestone streets, colonial architecture and whitewashed houses with their red roofs make it a perfect backdrop for films and TV shows, many of which are indeed filmed here.