THERMAL SPRINGS AT COCONUCO

The village of Coconuco, 26km from Popayán, is a short hop to two rudimentary outdoor thermal baths. The better maintained and more pleasant of the two is Termales Agua Tibia, 5km southwest of Coconuco on the road to San Agustín. Set at the base of a steep-sided valley with great views, the complex has five lukewarm pools, a bottom-jarring concrete waterslide and a mud spring rich in rejuvenating minerals. There is no place to lock up valuables.

The indigenous-run Agua Hirviendo, 3km east of Coconuco, is less picturesque than Agua Tibia but it’s open around the clock, its sulphur-reeking pools are far toastier, and the on-site waterfall is a refreshing shock to the system. Basic cabins are available for rent and a restaurant serves meals until late.

 

Parque Nacional Natural Puracé

The high-altitude Parque Nacional Natural Puracé, 58km east of Popayán, encompasses 860 square kilometres of volcanoes, snowcapped mountains, sulphurous springs, waterfalls, canyons, trout-stuffed lagoons and grasslands. The park’s literal high point is Volcán Puracé (4700m), which last blew its top in 1956. It’s a lung-straining four-hour climb to the steaming crater where, on a clear day, there are sensational views of Cadena Volcánica de Los Coconucos – a chain of forty volcanoes. There are also less strenuous trails, including an orchid walk, and thermal baths. Enquire at the visitor centre near the park entrance if you want to hire a guide. The weather is best for climbing the volcano in December to January; it is worst in June to August.

SAN AGUSTÍN AND PARQUE ARQUEOLÓGICO

The thoroughly laidback little town of SAN AGUSTÍN, 140km southeast of Popayán, has everything a budget traveller could want: awesome landscape, cryptic remains of a forgotten civilization, bargain-basement prices and a plethora of outdoor activities – from white-water rafting to horseriding. There’s plenty to discover here, in particular the archeological park. Some 3300 years ago the jagged landscape around the town was inhabited by masons, whose singular legacy is the hundreds of monumental fanged stone statues comparable in detail to the more famous Moai statues found on Chile’s Easter Island.

Much mystery still surrounds the civilization that built the monoliths, though the surreal imagery of sex-crazed monkeys, serpent-headed humans and other disturbing zoomorphic glyphs suggests that the hallucinogenic San Isidro mushroom may have been working its magic when the statues were first created. What is known is that the priestly culture disappeared before the Spanish arrived, probably at the hands of the Inca, whose empire stretched into southern Colombia. The statues weren’t discovered until the middle of the eighteenth century.

To see San Agustín and its surroundings properly, you ideally need three days: one for the archeological park, one for a day-long jeep tour of the outlying sights, such as the Alto de los Idolos, and one for a horseback tour of El Tablón, La Chaquira, El Purutal and La Pelota.

POPAYÁN

Although less illustrious than Cartagena, Colombia’s other open-air colonial museum, POPAYÁN, has little reason to envy its more celebrated rival. Founded in 1537 by Sebastián de Belálcazar on his march northward from Quito, the “White City” was a powerful counterweight to Bogotá’s dominance during the colonial era and a bastion of Spanish loyalty during the wars of independence. Unlike Cartagena, which saw its influence wane after independence, Popayán’s aristocrats remained very active in politics, and no fewer than eleven presidents have emerged from their ranks.

When a disastrous earthquake destroyed most of the historic centre in 1983, collapsing the cathedral’s roof onto the worshippers just before the Maunday Thursday celebrations, residents banded together to rebuild. The result is one of the most attractive cities in Colombia, its streets flanked by single-storey houses and whitewashed mansions and its churches lit up beautifully at night. During Easter week the city is cordoned off to make way for thousands of parading worshippers brandishing candles and colourful flowers. Popayán’s Semana Santa celebrations are the second largest in the world, after Seville in Spain.

Besides its attractive architecture and leafy main square, most of Popayán’s attractions lie outside the city. The museums are of limited interest to visitors, though you can kill a couple of hours on a rainy day there.

 

SAN CIPRIANO

Cali is a good springboard from which to launch yourself to the unusual riverside village of San Cipriano, en route to the Pacific coast. Set in the sweltering tropical jungle 128km northwest of Cali, the straggly jungle community of SAN CIPRIANO offers an entertaining change of pace for those who need time out from city life. The crystalline river here provides plentiful secluded cooling-off opportunities, but it is the unique journey to the 300-strong community of African slave descendants that has put San Cipriano on the traveller’s map. There’s no road and only a forest-flanked railway line linking San Cipriano with the town of Córdoba, 6km away, and since it sees very little train action, to bring visitors from Córdoba, inventive locals have attached motorcycle-powered wooden carts to the tracks. The journey down is nothing short of hair-raising and exhilarating; since it’s a single-track railway, and there might be traffic coming the other way, be prepared to leap off in case of emergency.

San Cipriano lies at the confluence of the Escalarete and San Cipriano rivers and there are nine sites for safe river swimming, as well as opportunities for tubing. Follow the only road out of the settlement (the river will be on your right); well-signed tracks positioned every few hundred metres lead down to the river.

 

Cali

Colombia’s third-largest city, with a population of 2.3 million, CALI was founded in 1536 but only shed its provincial backwater status in the early 1900s, when the profits brought in by its sugar plantations prompted industrialization. Today it’s one of Colombia’s most prosperous cities, in part because of its central role in the drug trade since the dismantling of the rival Medellín cartel in the early 1990s; however, Cali is now more famous for its salsa dancers than white powder.

The low-lying and extremely hot city (with temperatures routinely surpassing 40°C) straddles the Río Cali, a tributary of the Río Cauca, surrounded by the sugar plantations of the marshy Cauca Valley. The large numbers of African slaves brought to work the sugar mills left a notable impact on Cali’s culture, nowhere more so than in its music.

Parts of central Cali are unsafe to walk around; be sure to get up-to-date advice on where not to go.

The city stakes a powerful claim to being Colombia’s party capital, and you’ll hear Cuban-style salsa music blaring from the numerous salsatecas throughout the day and night. If you’re here in September, don’t miss the Festival Mundial de Salsa.