The Vagabond Hiker

Hiking, trekking, and climbing the world

Walks in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Bogotá

Following a diverse six weeks in Colombia, my route back to Hastings, England was somewhat circuitous: via a week in Nicaragua, three days in El Salvador, and finally a one day layover in Bogotá, Colombia. A few interesting walks were the highlights of my journey.

Granada Cathedral. This city was my base for a week in Nicaragua, and features a very pleasant center with a large plaza and colorful Spanish colonial buildings, some fine restaurants, and miles of lake front walking.
Granada, view of Lake Nicaragua, the largest in Central America. While too rough for swimming, the linear park along the waterfront provided shady trails and a great opportunity for bird watching. I also spent a morning kayaking and birding with a guide among the nearby Las Isletas.
Volcán Masaya crater. Although it didn’t involve any walking, an early evening trip up to the rim of the most active volcano in Nicaragua is obligatory for anyone visiting Granada. The churning lava 1000 ft below the crater rim is hypnotic.
Trailhead at the Café Las Flores at 2300 ft altitude on the slopes of Volcán Mombacho. They produce some fantastic coffee, perhaps the best in Nicaragua. Most hikers took a 4wd to the crater, but I thought the cardio benefits of a 1600 ft climb would be worthwhile.
Volcán Mombacho crater trail through the cloud forest. There are three trails around the rim of the volcano, ranging from 1.5 to 4.7 miles in length. The trails are well-maintained in this ecological reserve.
The orchid Sobralia macrantha, seen on the crater rim trail
A fire-star orchid (Epidendrum radicans) on Volcán Mombacho
Looking down into the Volcán Mombacho crater. Eventually the clouds dispersed, but the day was too hazy for any good photos.

From Nicaragua I took a one hour flight to El Salvador, and immediately transferred to El Zonte, a sleepy village on the coast where the surf culture predominates. With only a couple of days in the country, there wasn’t much opportunity to explore, but I did climb the country’s highest and most active volcano, Santa Ana.

Volcán Izalco, Cerro Verde, and Santa Ana (left to right) on the road from San Salvador. Maize fields are in the foreground.
Lago de Coatepeque, seen from the road up to the trailhead for the climb.
Volcán Izalco from the Santa Ana trail. Coffee plantations are clearly seen below the trail here
Santa Ana crater, 2381 mslm (7811 ft). Clouds of sulfate gases are visible in the crater and the sulfur smell was quite strong. The last eruption was in 2005.
The Vagabond Hiker on the Santa Ana crater rim
My Hotel Palo Verde terrace view in El Zonte. I wasn’t exactly slumming it in El Salvador.
El Zonte beach at low tide. I happily airbrushed three people right out of this photo!

My flight schedule precluded a quick return to England from El Salvador, so I took advantage of a layover day in Colombia’s capital of Bogotá and climbed the popular Montserrate, which dominates this sprawling city of 8 million.

Vista of Bogotá from the lower portion of the hiking trail up Montserrate. There is also the option of a funicular (in the morning) or an aerial tramway (in the afternoon) if the nearly 500 meter (1600 ft) ascent over 2.4 km (1.5 miles) is too intimidating. (Confession: although I walked up, I paid the $3.50 for the funicular back down to save my knees).
Panoramic vista from the summit of Montserrate. It rises to 3,152 meters (10,341 ft) above the sea level, where there is a 17th century church surrounded by scads of stalls selling tourist tat.

I am now back in Hastings, enjoying first world amenities after nearly eight weeks in Latin America. The weather, however, has been a bit mixed. . .

A gorgeous dawn on Valentines Day over the English Channel in Hastings
Forty eight hours later and the morning vista could not have been more different. Storm Dennis is lashing the coast. And no, this is NOT a black & white photo.

Next week I fly to the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco, this time to Tenerife and La Gomera, for a series of day hikes. Then, following three days exploring Lisbon, I will head a bit further down the coast of Africa to the Cape Verde Islands for two more weeks of hiking, before coming back to Hastings for a long weekend. Somewhere in there I hope to have time to post a couple of blogs!

Happy trails,

The Vagabond Hiker

Colombia: nature, walks, and the Lost City Trek

Situated in the northwest of South America, Colombia boasts the second-highest biodiversity in the world after Brazil (which is about 7 times larger) and the greatest biodiversity of birds, representing about 18% of all species according to Wikipedia. Its territory encompasses Amazon rain-forest, highlands, grasslands, and deserts, and has islands and coastlines along both the Atlantic and Pacific, the only country in South America having that distinction. Altogether Colombia is a great destination for both nature lovers and hikers. Our journey started in the small town of Salento in the Zona Cafetera – the Coffee Zone – a short flight west from the capital of Bogotá.

Northern Colombia. Our travels were concentrated in this region, with areas visited indicated by the red diamonds.
View to Reserva El Cairo, Salento. After arriving from Europe the evening prior, we started the day with an early morning birding tour from our lodging, seen in the photo above. The guide claimed we saw or heard 32 species that morning.
Salvia scutellarioides, seen on our birding walk. With my new Panasonic Lumix DC-TZ200 (a wonderful Christmas present I gave myself), I am endeavoring to improve my macro photography.
Heliconia, also seen on our birding walk. There are so many different species of Heliconia that I have not attempted to identify the exact one.
A Leafwing, possibly Zaretis ellops. Admittedly, I only saw this amazing butterfly when the guide pointed it out to us.
Salento Valley view along the Quindio River. What a beautiful landscape. We walked from Reserva El Cairo to the town of Salento and then on to the Finca Ocaso for a very informative coffee tour and tasting.
Rather than walking back from Finca Ocaso, we took a Willys Jeep colectivo, immensely popular in the Zona Cafetera. They hold about a dozen passengers, including three standing on the back bumper. Try that in the States!
The Valley of Wax Palms, Cocora Valley. The Wax Palm (Ceroxylon quindiuense) is the national tree of Colombia, and is restricted to this area. If you have only one day for a hike in the Salento area, it should be some version of this loop. We did a 5-6 hour variant, taking in many different ecosystems at elevations up to about 3000 m (10,000 ft).
Cocora Valley view (b&w). Well, we were in a cloud forest!
Trail-side Lonicera flowers
At our high point along the trail, some mountains finally emerged from the clouds
A wild Viola tricolor
Buff-tailed Coronet. We detoured up to the (private) Hummingbird House for a coffee and some views. My new Panasonic Lumix helped greatly with this shot!
Reddish Mapwing (Hypanartia kefersteini) on Salomons. For far better photos of Colombian butterflies, I recommend Jeff Pippen’s blog.
A mossy-covered bridge across the Quindio River, looking like something out of Indiana Jones.
Asclepias curassavica

After an enjoyable Christmas in and around Salento, we flew via Bogotá to the city of Medellín (due to very long travel times by bus, for the most part we took low-cost flights between cities) where we rented an inexpensive AirBnb apartment in the leafy Poblado neighborhood, convenient to all of Medellín. We spent two of our 4 days seeing sites around the city and the other two visiting the nearby Spanish colonial towns of Guatapé and Santa Fe. During these trips we experienced more different modes of transport than I thought possible in such a short time: cable cars, taxis, the metro, a tuk-tuk and buses both large and small. And of course, our feet. The area around our apartment was not at all bad for walking and the traffic seemed calmer than in most cities.

Our Poblado apartment view towards Parque Poblado.
Piedras el Peñol. Obligatory on any trip to Guatapé is this popular climb up 750 steps to a 360 deg. view point.
Atmospheric view from the top of Piedras el Peñol. Hydroelectric power from the surrounding man-made reservoirs supplies 30% of Colombia’s electricity.
Guatapé street view. This small town was very pedestrian-friendly.

On New Year’s day we caught a flight north to Cartagena and the Caribbean coast where we spent the rest of out time in Colombia. Our wonderful (air conditioned!) AirBnb apartment in the barrio of Getsemani, about 10 minutes’ walk from the walled Old Town of Cartagena, provided an ideal base for the next three nights. Getsemani is now jammed with the backpacking crowd driven out by the outrageous prices in the Old Town, and sadly is now just as touristy in its own way.

The Palace of the Inquisition, Old Town. A misnomer, this museum is a must-see if you’re interested in the pre-Colombian and Spanish history of Cartagena de Indias.
Flowers spilling from Old Town balconies. Spending a morning simply wandering around the Old Town on foot is a great way to appreciate it.

After Cartagena we took a 5-hour shuttle bus east along the coast to Santa Marta, our jumping off point for the Cuidad Perdida, or Lost City trek. The most famous trek in Colombia, and one of the most well known in all of South America, it is not to be missed. We did a 4 day, 3 night version with Magic Tour Colombia, but one can also choose 3 and 5 day options. In any case, guides are mandatory as part of the agreement the licensed tour companies have with the indigenous population to permit tourists on their land.

A Cuidad Perdida schematic map at our restaurant in el Mamey where we had lunch before starting the trek. The trailhead is about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Santa Marta. 4WD required.
At the start of the Cuidad Perdida trek, Magaly our guide and Wolf our interpreter explain what we’ll be doing for the next four days. There are only four guides on the Lost City trek that have the most recent certification (out of about 60 total). Magaly is one of the four.
A day 1 vista as we ascended from el Mamey.
Spider at our day 1 camp. Practicing my macro photography.
Dawn vista on day 2. We started walking at 6 AM as soon as it was light enough to see the trail, partly since it was cooler in the morning and partly to get to camp before other groups. The wild popularity of this trek means you’ll never walk alone, at least in the high season.
An indigenous Wiwa hut early on day 2. The Wiwa are one of four indigenous communities in Tayrona Park. Apart from the first day, when we hiked through farming communities, the rest of the time we were on indigenous land.
A Kogi vallage on day 2.Their huts are generally circular.
A Kogi water carrier. We weren’t supposed to take photos of the locals without their permission. For the most part this proscription was honored.
A vista on day 2. Each day we gained more altitude as we hiked through this undulating country. From 200 meters at the start, we eventually reached about 1200 meters at Cuidad Perdida.
A small waterfall on one of the many tributaries of Rio Buritaca
A Blue Morpho at the start of day 3. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get her to open her wings on my hand.
Photo courtesy of Maggie.
Our only wet river crossing. I had expected more wet crossings, but many of the bridges were quite new and January is the dry season.
Maggie begins the climb up from Rio Buritaca to the Lost City, about 1300 steps
We arrived at Cuidad Perdida before the sun. This is a view of sector 1, the commercial sector of the city, established about 800 CE.
Magaly explains the map carved into this rock at the Lost City
With Maggie on the Queen’s Steps, which head up to the main sector 2 of the city
Looking up the main sector 2 as the sun arrives
View back down on sector 2, now in the sun. I photo-shopped a couple of people out of this pic.
On the afternoon of day 3, we began our descent back towards the trailhead as the only option is an out-and-back route. Here Maggie is crossing one of the many bridges.
Heliconias at Camp 1 where we stopped for a break on day 4 of the trek, a long day back to the el Mamey trailhead
Leaf cutter ants hard at work. This is crop from an 8 megapixel still frame extracted from a 30 fps burst shot on my camera. Tough to get proper focus here as the burst mode is better designed for human-scale action shots!

We returned from the Cuidad Perdida trek looking forward to a few days of rest and relaxation (well in my case, a few weeks!). I rented a unique ecological AirBnb, Casa Biyuka in the hills just outside of the fishing village of Taganga, a few kilometers east of Santa Marta, but a world away from that supremely uninteresting city.

Taganga and sea view, taken from just above Casa Biyuka.
Sunset from the upper deck of Restaurant Babaganoush, Taganga. Highly recommended for both the views and the menu.
The Vagabond Hiker relaxing at Casa Biyuka, Taganga with The Guardian App.
Photo courtesy of Maggie.

After getting a bit bored at Taganga, I caught a taxi up to the village of Minca. Situated in a valley at about 600 meters elevation, it is the birding capital of northern Colombia.

My “room” at the Minca Ecohab Hotel was in fact a two storied house built partly of bamboo and thatch. Minca is both cooler and quieter than the coast around Taganga.
There are a couple of good hikes around Minca and I undertook a tough one: from town up to the view point of Los Pinos
Marinka Cascada lower falls, on the way up to Los Pinos. There were only a couple of people there at that early hour when I visited.
I walked along a jeep track up to Los Pinos, returning by a steep trail to make a 12 mile loop hike. This is the vista from about 1400 meters elevation.

After two nights in Minca and I returned to the coast to an apartment on the Playa Rodadero, a few kilometers west of Santa Marta, for better swimming and views for my last few days in Colombia.

View north from my Rodadero apartment balcony

This weekend I travel to Granada, Nicaragua, my base for the following week as I explore some highlights of the west of that country. A quick 3-day stopover in El Salvador will be followed by a one day/night layover in Bogotá on my way back to the UK, from where I will post my next blog. Until then,

The Vagabond Hiker

Feliz Año Nuevo desde Colombia

Holiday Greetings from Cartagena Colombia!

A Comuna 13 mural, Medellin Colombia. I can hardly call these amazing works graffiti.

It’s difficult for me to believe sometimes, but it’s been three years since I started this blog post. Fifty eight posts from 33 countries (18 of which I had not been to previously) and 6 continents. At times, traveling continuously has been a real challenge. Many a morning I’ve awoken and had no idea what country I was in (don’t be too concerned – by the first cuppa’ I always figured it out). Often alone or surrounded by strangers that I didn’t know a week ago and in a week would never see again. And the airports. Only those who haven’t traveled could possibly think of the long lines, bad food, unannounced delays, and crying babies as romantic.

But at other times – and those are easily in the majority – I wouldn’t trade my life for anyone’s. The sound of the surf as the sun rises over the ocean. The stunning vista from a high pass. The campsite by the burbling brook. The adrenaline rush of summitting a high peak that few even attempt. Yet another day spent out in nature rather than stuck in an office! All this with friends and family only a phone call, email or text away though I may be half-way around the world.

For this coming year I have decided to set myself another challenge, not physical this time but more mental. My goal for this coming year is to attain a total of 100 countries visited. With Colombia I have traveled to 80 so far, leaving 20 for 2020. While the number is arguably arbitrary, it nonetheless strikes me as a milestone. It is the quality of the time spent in these different countries and not just an opportunity to check another box that will guide my plans. I will post blogs of hikes, treks, and walks, (though probably not any climbs) from at least 15 of these countries. I also plan to blog from countries I have already visited – some many times – such as Spain, England, Italy, and France. As much of my time will be in Europe, visiting cities and seeing cultural sights will also be a part of my program, though largely outside the scope of this blog.

During my more than a month in Lanzarote in November and December I spent a large part of my time planning this coming year. The Calendar Tab on the upper right gives an outline for the next three months. After Colombia it includes Nicaragua, El Salvador, La Gomera (Spain), Cape Verde, and Jordan. Although I have already planned the large majority of 2020, I will update the Calendar Tab on this blog site quarterly as I decide the final details.

My next blog (or two) will be about some of my many outdoor experiences in this wonderfully diverse country of Colombia. In the mean time, I wish you all a happy 2020 enjoying the outdoors.

The Vagabond Hiker

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