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Published: April 23rd 2012
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I'm sorry its taken me so long to get these photos up, I had to collect them from several different people which took a little time!
Colombia being a very Catholic country, Semana Santa (Easter week) was basically a week off work for everyone, so I took the opportunity to get my first experience of travelling around Bogotá, and headed into the famous Colombian mountains.
La Sierra Nevada ('Snowy Range'😉 is a mountain range in the North of the country, its a part of the Andes but its disconnected from the rest of that range. Its in two main parts, la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta further north, and the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy which is closer to Bogotá. Both areas are highly recommended to hikers as some of the best mountain scenery in South America.
I went with one of my students and some of his friends to El Cocuy. I didn't realise until we got there, but my student Diego was actually from there originally and first summitted Mt. Ritacuba White (the tallest mountain at 5,300m) when he was just 8 years old! The drive into the mountains was spectacular (our campsite itself was a good
3000m in the air), although the mountain roads were in serious need of repair and the going was slow - at one point we all had to get out to clear the road by hand of the most recent rock slide! However, we eventually made it to the campsite and got ready.
The first day we did a gentle hike whilst we all aclimatised. To be honest, as it happened this was the best day as we stayed below the clouds. I do have a slight regret that we went when we did, as the weather was not very good and the rain and clouds denied us many of the spectacular views which I know the area is famous for. However, this first day was great if a little wet. I was amazed at how much the scenery reminded me of the contryside at home, although of course everything was a lot steeper! But the amount of vegetation and the fertility of the mountains, mixed with the cloud and rain, definitely reminded me strongly of a rainy day in the Lakes for example. You can see in the photos below!
The second day was the big day when
we would try to get to the top of Mt. Ritacuba White. The plan was to hike up to the snow line at about 4,800m with all our kit in backpacks, then to harness up and slap on some crampons to climb the last 500m in the snow. However, it had rained so much over the last few weeks that the local told us the path up to the snow was way to slippy, and we were better of getting up there by mules. So we rented a mule each from some local indigienous folk hanging aroud the campsite, and these mules jumped, scrambled and fought their way up steep paths, across flooded rivers, and through snow and rain to get us to the top. At first it felt like a bit of a cop-out to me, but it was actually pretty damn fun! By the time we got to the snowline, we were well into the clouds which was a massive shame as we couldn't see any of the views. Still, those of us continuing to the top got ready and off we went. It was pretty slow going as the snow was metres deep in places and we
kept sinking into it, but we managed to get to just under 5,000m before the weather turned for the worse, and we had to get back down as it started to snow heavily. We eventually got back to the snowline, to find that literally everybody had left and we were possibly the last people on the mountain! Even our guide who had been waiting with the horses had gone. But luckily enough he had left the horses for us, so we saddled up and had a fairly miserable 3 hour ride back down to the campsite through the rain! Everyone in the campsite made a proper fuss of us when we got back though, and we got treated like royalty sat next to the fire with blankets and hot food for the rest of the evening. Score!
So, all in all it was great to get into the mountains and have some fresh air, and our first day in particular had been a great day in some beautiful countryside. The weather did spoil the party a little, and I'll have to think carefully about whether I'll have enough time here to visit the Sierra Nevada again during the summer.
First day in Cocuy
On the first day, being below the cloud we did manage to get some nice views down the valley I think I might have to, I feel a little cheated that I didn't see the views (in Santa Marta for example, its officially the highest coastal range in the world and is renwoned for having spectacular views of the Caribbean coast from the top!). In fact, when I see it written like that, I'll definitely try and get up there in the summer! Nonetheless, we got to ride horses up through the Andes which was quite an experience, and I got my first taste of hiking a really serious mountain.
But still it wasn't over...we still had the 10 hour journey home. Not too bad, it would seem. But imagine everyone singing to Salsa at full volume for 10 hours...school disco all over again...! And it turns out I'm not really a Salsa fan! Still though, well worth it to visit the Sierra Nevada.
I'll hopefully add some more photos soon, especially of the time in the snow, once I get them off Diego. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take any photos as I discovered on the morning we left that the people who had broken into my flat had also pinched the battery charger, so my
camera had no power for the entire trip. Gutting. I'll be able to buy a new charger for relatively cheap though, so it shouldn't be a problem again. And as the sun begins to shine over the next few months, I'll try to get some decent photos of Bogotá as well to add.
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