Day 1: Bucaramanga
Arrival to Bucaramanga. Called the pretty city, La ciudad bonita, it’s a pretty appropriate name for this city with lovely weather and charming atmosphere. Also being a vibrant city, it’s a great way to start our trip and get everybody involved in the days ahead.
Day 2: Bucaramanga
With adventure granted from the go, we will have our breakfast in Bucaramanga and transfer just outside of town. Our first outing is a great way to warm up to the days ahead, and so we will take our bicycles and go on a ride. After checking in, we will have lunch and a slower afternoon that will take us to contemplate a magnificent sunset by the beautiful cliff that sits over the river. The afternoon lights, the sanded colored rocks are a spectacle, and the playful lighted waves of the river are a spectacle that is hard to surpass. At night we will enjoy dinner in our hotel.
Activities: riding (25 km and hiking 8 km)
Day 3: Chicamocha
The Chicamocha’s river canyon has a little bit of a flavor to bigger rivers in north America, say the Colorado River and the Sierra Madre in Mexico. Today we will explore the ancient paths traced by the Spaniards upon the plan done by indigenous tribes to establish their commerce towns. Some have been lost along the way, other still thrive as tourism destination. The steep slopes of the Cordillera, weren’t an obstacle for these communities, and left behind a highly developed, path system that was almost completely forgotten. We will trace back the footsteps of time and use the same paths to explore the deepest side of the canyon.
Later we will transfer to one of the most beautiful towns in Colombia, take our time to explore It and enjoy the delicious restaurants in town.
Activities: Hiking (15 km)
Day 4: Chicamocha Canyon
The Chicamocha canyon offers a wide variety of opportunities for adventure sports and that’s why it’s such a great destination for this tour. Today we will take our mountain bikes and explore some of the trails that make the surrounding area of Barichara a cool destination to ride a bicycle. Fun is guaranteed with the various descents we have in our ride. The climb by the end will test our legs for today, but we can always use the back up vehicle to make it shorter. Later we will head back to Barichara and spend a quiet afternoon in the beautiful colonial town. At dusk we will stop and enjoy a beer or two over watching the sunset in the canyon.
Activities: Riding (45 km)
Day 5: Barichara
The major rivers around Barichara are action packed with thrilling rapids and great all around fun. After breakfast, we will take our business to the water for today with a great morning session of rafting. Once we are done, we will have lunch, and have a 3 hour transfer to the Colonial town of Villa de Leyva. We will use the afternoon to stroll around town, explore the arts and craft shops, perhaps, have a sneaky dessert, and have and hefty dinner with some great wine in some of the chic restaurants that have been set in town. Villa de Leyva has been a traditional place for people from Bogotá to spend long weekends off and beside it’s great architecture, has a vibrant cultural scene on daily basis.
Activities: Rafting (2 hrs)
Day 6: Páramo
The Páramos are the water factories set at the top of Andean mountains. Colombians depend on their well being to supply water to their communities. Their beauty, and on many occasions cloudy atmosphere, is a sharp contrast with the orange tones of the previous days. Placed above 3000 meters, these gigantic fragile ecosystem is under constant threat by the expansion of the agriculture. It’s a mystical place revered deeply by the traditional indigenous communities of the Muiscas, as a life giver, and we will be granted access today to take a sneak peak at their majestuousity. We will walk carefully over this precious space, and appreciate some of it’s unique features.
In the afternoon we will enjoy the different small shops with local handcrafts and local delicacies of Villa de Leyva a last time.
Activities: Hiking 8km
Day 7: Villa de Leyva
The surrounding area of Villa de Leyva is a well know desert, one of the very few pockets of desert we have, and it’s orange colored trails is where many Colombians started to explore mountain biking for the first time almost 30 years ago. Some of those trails remain untouched and their inmense beauty is still unspoiled. Now it’s your time to enjoy them. We will take our bike and ride out of Villa de Leyva into many of these gravel roads, as we head into a secret monastery hidden in the desert. Along the way, for our more experiences riders we will point one or two very interesting singletracks to challenge your balance and nerves.
Activities: Riding (25 km)
Day 8: Sutatausa
Colombia is known for it’s diversity, mind you we have only been in one of the major three branches of the Andean mountains, so there’s a lot of ground to cover. That’s why today we will use the vehicle to lift us up the mountain from our hotel to discover a completely different landscape. This time, we will ride our bikes in lush green pastures, and tree covered mountains. We will spend the night in a beautiful hacienda turned hotel, to our delight.
Activities: Riding (55km)
Day 9: Zipaquira
At this point we are approaching fast to Bogotá, and its surrounding savanna is known for it’s calm beauty, and perfect riding weather. Isn’t it great to ride from our destination to our next hotel? Without transfers, and just outside the door, we will have different challenges for the day ahead, beginning with a climb just as we have warmed up well. The rest of the day has plenty of rolling hills and fast descents.
We are almost done with cycling for our tour, just one more day to go, so by this time, with so many memories made, we have a special night for you in a charming place. We will be greeted with a tasty meal prepared only for our group in our destination town.
Day 10: Cathedral de Sal
Colombia isn’t only beautiful in the outside, but also in the inside. We can guarantee you that, but to back up our point, we will visit today the Salt Cathedral in Zipaquira. An active salt mine at night, it’s also a catholic temple, and is nothing short of spectacular. Later we will transfer to our hotel a few more kilometers down the road.
So far we have seen so many faces of Colombia, but perhaps voluntarily, we have missed one that’s really important, and is our fascination with music and dancing. When it comes down to throwing a party, we can guarantee that not that many places can do it like Colombia, and we will take you to the biggest party in Colombia. This unique steak house will turn into an amazing party place after our plates are empty. So put your dancing shoes on, because, this is going to be a long night of dancing.
Activities: Cathedral de Sal tour
Day 11: Bogotá
After such a long night, we will take a much much gentler approach for the day. A lazy breakfast is well deserved, and by mid-day we will check out and head for lunch. We will check in in our hotel in Bogotá, and use this time to explore the city. We will visit the museum by downtown, and have a nice dinner in one of the many chic restaurants that the city has.
Day 12: Hasta Luego!
Time to say good bye! Unfortunately, our time is up, if you aren’t extending. Our team will take you to the airport and bid you farewell. We hope we will see you again, in one of our different adventures.
