Departamento de Tolima

Our 3 day trek at the border of the los Nevados national park was a double premiere for us: Not only was it our very first multi-day trek together, but also our first trek to an altitude of over 3000 meters (luckily, we did not suffer from altitude sickness)! The trek was roughly 36 km for the three days and led by a spanish guide (and no, we still do not speak spanish 🙃): One day up the mountain to our accomodation, the second day further up the mountain through beautiful Espeletia fields to our main goal the Chispas viewpoint on 4300m, back to the accomodation, and then back to Salento on the third day. The trek was beautiful all along and we almost reached our viewpoint in sunshine - but only almost 😅 We ended up having to be knotted together to our guide for climbing the little peak as Alina was almost blown away by the strong winds (no exaggeration there, unfortunately). The trek down led along a ridge and later - after seeing Alinas unamused face, probably 😬 - the guide decided to lead us as straight back to the finca as possible, meaning we did not really follow a path anymore but walked/fell/slipped straight down steep hills and very muddy fairytale forests. But to his defence we have to say that the mist and the rain really made it hard to navigate 🤷🏻‍♀️ We came back to the finca savely, so good job, dear Yesid!
Next to the trekking, the finca la Argentina, which we spent both nights at, was kind of a challenge by itself. Not minding the altitude of 3300 m the finca is built of wood, open at both the entry and at the back end, creating a lovely, chilly and very consistent airflow through all main areas 🥶😅 The positive thing: everything got dry within a night despite the cold temperatures (Gilles guessed the temperature to be about 10 degrees during the day, Alina felt max. 5 degrees 🙈). The bedrooms were smaller (and luckily closed) wooden boxes with double bunk beds and each bed sported 3 blankets - all of them were needed, let us tell you 😂. The finca was full of animals (a turkey, chickens, two piggies, many dogs and some cows and sheep) and other touring tourists with their guides, so a lot of lovely human and animal interaction. Also, the view from the finca in the evening (and at night) really made up for all the cold 🥰 A really rewarding experience overall!Read more