Higher in the highlands

The Valley of the Sun is an area further east of where we were. It consisted of a few towns and a handful of smaller villages in an area of intertropical mountain systems known as Paramos. We saw terrain very much like this during the second half of the previous hike, when we emerged from the jungle. Even more amazing than this however, was a stunning white sand Andean lakeside beach at an altitude of over 3000m! We thought it would be a relatively untouristy and fun place to explore, do a bit of hiking and visit the beach.

Ironically, we arrived in the Valley of the Sun to pouring rain at 4pm. There was nothing for it but to get a taxi from main transport hub town of Sogamoso to the beautiful Finca San Pedro, slightly out of town, that offered rooms and provided a place to camp within its grounds. It also seemed to double up as a yoga retreat and appeared to be run by a bunch of volunteers. We only met the head lady once and from then on were left in the care of her minions. Good deal for her!

To be saved from the rain, we had the option of camping in a covered area. The only thing was, being a concrete base, there was no way of pegging the tent down, so we had to keep it up by tying the guy ropes to posts and use stolen bricks from the garden to stabilise it. We succeeded though and this was now our home for 2 days.

Pitching out tent in a shed, in the rain, in the Valley of the Sun!

Unlike many other places where if you camp, you are restricted to certain areas, this place allowed you all the same facilities as if you were staying in the main house, so we had a warm living room with sofas and a table, use of the kitchen and inside toilet etc. A really good deal. That night, due to my stomach not showing any signs of getting better, I emailed the travel clinic I used back in England to see if they knew of anywhere in Columbia I could buy some Lariam – my last anti-malarial left to try!

Tim cooked up dinner and we planned our hike up to Paramo Oceta for the next day. It was a bit of a celebratory dinner that evening as it was exactly 4 months to the day that we left England, and so we were roughly half way through the big trip. We celebrated by not having quinoa and having pasta instead!

Although a guide is often recommended, we decided to do the hike alone. Tim had tracked down a GPS log from online and we used that to navigate. A bus took us from Sogamoso to a town called Mongui where the path started. The town was tiny and really beautiful with loads of old colonial buildings with red, gold and green trimmings. 

Small but perfectly formed Mongui

Even with a GPS route to follow, it was still pretty impossible to choose the right path in places. And often, there was no path at all, and we had to rely on following a route logged on a phone even when it took us over barbed wire fences and into farmers’ fields. We prayed at these points not to get shot by a farmer or stampeded by a herd of bulls. Other particularly precarious moments came about when the cloud lowered, reducing all visibility to zero! 

It was a fun hike though and we got around safe. Much of the early stages looked a lot like being up in the English highlands, or the Scottish moors, but certain scenes, like looking across the sea of funny little Frailejones trees, reminded you of exactly where we were. This is one of the only places in the world, these trees grow and they look like a miniature army – they are amazing!

The start of the path up to Paramo Oceta

This could be mistaken for the English Highlands!

These amazing trees don't exist in England though

I made some tree friends!

 There was also another lagoon that we could look down upon and in the lowering cloud it looked extremely errie.

Another errie lagoon!

After 8 hours of hiking and an hour or so of beer drinking back in Mongui, we jumped on a bus back to the finca. Unfortunately 10 minutes into the journey Tim realised his walking pole was still in the pub and with no way of getting the bus to go back, we had to endure a frustrating 40 minute bus ride back to town, knowing we then needed to go in the exact opposite direction back to the pub. And with no buses left, we had to taxi the entire journey. An error that would cost dearly in England, but out here was more of a cost on time than money. And time we had, so we went back and rescued the pole. 

After quite a long day, I needed a shower but it was tough to get motivated as the only showers were outside. After a ciggy and a glass of wine I set to it. What I didn’t need was to have to kill with my flip flop, 2 really big siders that were in the basin of the outside shower and then realising mid shower I hadn’t brought my towel in with me so had to put all my clothes on whilst still wet. Still with a bad tummy, I swiped my way through the mosquitos hanging around the outside of the shower and into the warmth of the house where I found Tim. Had I not had that glass of wine prior to showering I fear I would have had a slight breakdown at that point! I can laugh now though and actually that night I slept really well.

The next morning we lazily packed up, drank lots of coffee and made plans to head further east to the mountain range of PNN Cocuy – the mountains to the east that we initially sacked off in favour of the mountains to the west, that as it turned out we couldn’t hike anyway without a guide. We had since discovered that you could do day hikes from bases in the mountains to the east and it wasn’t necessary to be guided for these, so it sounded tempting. Also, I had a reply from the travel clinic informing me there was a place in Medellin where I could make an appointment if my bad stomach persisted. Medellin, being anther big city between Bogoata and the coast wasn’t somewhere we were planning on going, but a detour could be made if needed, so that was nice to know that.

We still had one more day around here though so we did as planned and got a bus to the beach. Due to enjoying a lazy morning around the grounds of the finca, we hadn’t left ourselves much time for the beach – just long enough to get 2 buses there, get completely wowed by just how much it looks like a carribean dream destination, east some fresh trout and get 2 buses back. 

Playa Blanca, Valley of the Sun

Happy on a beach

Rather than being seemingly rushed, the timing was spot on and before we knew it were on the overnight bus to El Cocuy. A journey with an incredibly bad reputation for not only being one of the most uncomfortable due to travelling on mostly unpaved roads, but also occasionally being held up by bandits. However, being both excited about the mountains and armed with biscuits and leftover cheese and wine, little did we care about these minor inconveniences at that time. So, off to the mountains we went.