Walking in Cocuy – Day 1

The bus trip was long, during the whole night but without incidents. Unfortunately I could not see much of the scenery.

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Guavita cathedral was lovely, very different. We arrived early in the morning to this cold, remote town in the mountains. I grabbed a coffee in the main plaza and good breakfast in a nearby hotel. My guide did not showed up on my arrival, so I decided to spend the day resting until my guide shows up (I could not sleep much in the bus by the way) in a good Hotel I found just around the corner of the main plaza.

There were some travelers in the plaza, but most of the people come for daytrips with no camping equipment.

I still feel my pack heavy (14 kilos when I left).

Suggested Packing List (4 days)

This town is very small, and beautiful, still not spoiled by modern Colombia. I finally met my guide at 4pm. He was expecting my arrive at that time!! – his cell phone was malfunctioning—so he did not get a single one of my calls since yesterday! Anyway, this is not the only improvised aspect  I have seen of this trip from their side… let’s see how things get through. I decided to take the “golden retriever approach” and simply be nice – anyway the hotel where I spend the whole day was quite good, clean and very cheap (COP 15K!! ~ 7USD ), and the meals great and also cheap (~ 3USD).

My guides have a beautiful house a few block from the main plaza. It is a big, old, authentic house with many rooms around a big patio. Full of photo opportunities.

Many campers and climbers come a go during that day. By night, we took it easy and had some beers around a fire in the central patio.