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.

 

VALLE DE CÓCORA

Salento sits atop the VALLE DE CÓCORA, which contains a thick forest of the skyscraper wax palm, Colombia’s national plant, which grows up to 60m high. The valley, which offers picturesque hikes, is easily explored in a day-trip from Salento. The hamlet of Cócora, with a handful of restaurants, small shops and hotels, lies 11km east of Salento. From Cócora a well-trodden path leads into misty, pristine cloudforest, scattered with the remains of pre-Columbian tombs and dwellings. Orchids, bromeliads and heliconias are just some of the plant species that thrive here, and the fauna includes spectacled bear, native deer and puma, along with hundreds of bird species such as toucans, eagles and motmots.

A five- to six-hour loop walk starts from the blue gate in Cócora; the muddy track passes a trout farm and runs through farmland for around 45 minutes before reaching the park entrance, after which you’re following an uneven, slippery trail through cloudforest. The trail eventually branches, with one track leading up to the extremely worthwhile Reserva Acaime(entrance COP$3000), home to eighteen species of hummingbirds that flock to its bird feeders. The price includes a large mug of revitalizing hot chocolate and a chunk of locally produced cheese. You then retrace your steps to the main trail that crosses nine rickety wooden Indiana Jones-style bridges over the Río Quindío before the Finca La Montaña branch culminates at a mountain-top viewing platform with exhilarating valley views. The way down along a wide gravel road takes you past a cluster of wax palms – Colombia’s national tree.

 

Salento

In the heart of coffee country, the adorable village of SALENTO is one of the region’s earliest settlements, and its slow development means the original lifestyle and buildings of the paisa journeymen who settled here in 1842 have barely been altered since. Rural workers clad in cowboy hats and ruanas (Colombian ponchos) are a common sight. The colourful, wonderfully photogenic one-storey homes of thick adobe and clay-tile roofs that surround the plaza are as authentic as it gets.

Salento is a popular destination for weary backpackers who linger here to soak up the town’s unpretentious charms and hike in the spectacular Valle de Cócora or to use the town as a base to explore the rest of the Zona Cafetera. Salento is also the second most popular weekend destination in the country for Colombians, and on Saturdays and Sundays the main plaza hosts a food and handicrafts fair. Salento’s annual fiesta falls in the first week of January, when the town kicks up its heels for a week of horse processions, mock bullfighting and folk dancing.

From the top of Calle Real, steps lead to Alto de la Cruz, a hilltop mirador offering unbeatable vistas of the Valle de Cócora and, on a clear day, the peaks of snow-clad volcanoes in Parque Nacional Natural Los Nevados.

 

PEREIRA

Just 56km south of Manizales, PEREIRA makes an equally suitable base for exploring the Zona Cafetera. The region’s largest city, it shares Manizales’ history as a centre for the coffee industry. Its historic centre has been repeatedly destroyed by earthquakes, the most recent striking in 1999. However, it’s closer to many of the region’s coffee fincas and thermal springs.

Pereira’s Plaza de Bolívar is unique among the uniformly named central plazas of Colombia for its modern sculpture of Bolívar Desnudo – the El Libertadór nude on horseback, a controversial pose when it was unveiled in 1963 but now a beloved city symbol. Also on the plaza is the town’s magnificent Catedral, built in 1875. Nondescript from the outside, the Catedral’s single-nave interior is supported by an elaborate latticework of twelve thousand wooden beams forming a canopy like a spider’s web.

 

• Termales Santa Rosa
• Termales San Vicente

TERMALES SAN VICENTE

These lavishly landscaped hot springs, 35km northeast of Pereira via the town of Santa Rosa de Cabal, feature a selection of steaming medicinal thermal pools scattered across some five square kilometres of cloudforest, river, waterfalls and luxuriant countryside. At 2330m, it gets pretty chilly up here, so it helps that the average pool temperature is 38°C. A variety of spa treatments is offered, including massage (COP$40,000) and mud therapy (COP$20,000). If you want to spend the night at the springs, the most cost-effective option is camping (COP$85,000 including entrance fee and breakfast). Further up the accommodation ladder are cabañas (COP$180,000).

These lavishly landscaped hot springs, 35km northeast of Pereira via the town of Santa Rosa de Cabal, feature a selection of steaming medicinal thermal pools scattered across some five square kilometres of cloudforest, river, waterfalls and luxuriant countryside. At 2330m, it gets pretty chilly up here, so it helps that the average pool temperature is 38°C. A variety of spa treatments is offered, including massage (COP$40,000) and mud therapy (COP$20,000). If you want to spend the night at the springs, the most cost-effective option is camping (COP$85,000 including entrance fee and breakfast). Further up the accommodation ladder are cabañas (COP$180,000).

Termales Santa Rosa

Sitting at the foot of a 25m-high waterfall and surrounded by lush greenery, these attractive hot springs consist of four thermal pools and a visitor centre with cafeteria and massages on offer, and you can also take a dip in the natural pool directly beneath the waterfall. Just a little further down the dirt road are the thermal springs attached to the Hotel Termales, which resembles an alpine chalet, with one large pool and two thimble-sized hot tubs available to non-guests, set against a spectacular backdrop of three tall waterfalls. There’s also a lavish spa on site.