Solivagant, on your trip are you doing a flight over Chiribiquete? I'm curious if the prices are still the same as quoted in the articles, e.g.
https://theculturetrip.com/south-america/colombia/articles/the-real-lost-world-is-in-colombia/
$600 for an hour, some sites quote $2000-3000!

Good to start a topic about Colombia, I will be going in December as well!


I think I read that the extra high prices are when departing from Bogota and that it is 600USD from the nearby city of San José del Guaviare. But in any case you need a certain number of passengers to fill it up.

No - doesn't meet my "Return on Cost/Time/Effort" criteria!
We HAVE flown over Angel Falls and the Tepuis of the Gran Sabana - now that WAS worth doing!!!

Re info garnered so far about other Inscribed and T List sites in Colombia. If anyone "knows different" then please tell us!!

a. I have been told that the Archaeological Ruins in the Tayrona NP - "Pueblito" are "Currently closed to tourists" so have dropped Tayrona. It was a "marginal" destination for us anyway and, without its "archaeological" aspects it only seems to have its beaches left - and we hate beaches!! It would also have been a 2nd best to Ciudad Perdida anyway - but again I wasn't prepared to put the time, money and effort into a trek to see that. We may yet go into another part of the "Tayrona and Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Parks and their Archaeological Sites" for bird watching - not yet decided.

b. I can't discover anything worth going out of one's way for re the "Canal del Dique" - one crosses it anyway on the road from Cartagena to Mompox. Although its "history" goes back to the mid 17th C - its current manifestations all seem to be of a 20th C nature - as well as current improvements. Which leaves only its "connection" to Gabriel Garcia Marquez and its "role" in "Love in the Time of Cholera" to commend it!

c. I have been "warned off" a visit to "Cultural Landscape of the Vernacular Stilt Housing of Cienaga Grande de Santa Marta and of Medio Atrato" at Bocas de Aracataca for reasons of "personal safety" (i.e robbery). Of course all such warnings have to be rationally assessed and I have never been a great one to take them at face value -which possibly explains why we have been mugged twice across our travelling career (Gambia and PNG!!). Will decide at the time as should be passing near when seeing the "Zona Bananera" - "United Fruit Company Infrastructure". This looks like anther T WHS with very little to see but it gets passed through anyway on road from Mompox to Sta Marta so might as well take it in otherwise would have concluded that we have seen enough Banana plantations in Costa Rica - also created by the UFC .

d. The rather uninspiringly named "South of Ricaurte Province" seems to contain aspects well worth seeing including the town of Villa de Leyva - for which the T WHS was previously named. A "problem" with any Colombia route is how best to cover both the area south of Bogota AND the Coast/lowlands for Cartagena and Mompox which are a long way North of Bogota. One possibility is to fly to Cartagena. But does one then also fly back - e.g from Santa Marta (My days of overnight buses are long past!!!). There does seem to be good reason to do the journey south back to Bogota through Bucamaranga as this gives the chance to see the "South of Ricuarte Province" as above and also the "Cultural Landscape of the Lower Basin of the Chicamocha River" and the "Cultural Landscape of Salt Towns" en route without significant deviation. I know some Forum members consider chasing T List site to be a "Fools errand" and none of these have so far been reviewed by any Forum members who have visited Colombia but, from what I have read about these 3 areas they all seem worth trying to see whether or not they ever get inscribed and even though they may not be the most "famous" of Colombia's offerings

On my itinerary, which still is in a global stage and does not include TWHS yet, I will fly:
- Amsterdam - Bogota
(possibly also: Bogota - Popoyan)
- Cali - Cartagena (to do the leap from south to north)
- Cartagena - Amsterdam (KLM flights leave from Cartagena in the north, so no need to backtrack to Bogota)

Have you looked at Pereira for the "leap" north flight to Cartagena?? It is the closest to the Coffee Landscape.
We too will be flying KLM and I did consider departing from Cartagena but have decided that I do want to have seen Colombia "overland" from South to North and find the route back via Bucamaranga quite interesting.

No, I had not heard of it before. "Pereira is a beautiful university city with a population of 465,000." I read on wikivoyage. Seems to be a good bet.

It also depends of course on which Coffee zone to visit. I had marked down either Salamina or Zone E just north of Cali.

If you go to Zone E then to go onward North to Periera is not much different in distance than backtracking south to Cali? Depends on your mode of transport. If you have taken a taxi from Cali then return to base will be lot cheaper! An alternative for a flight might be Armenia - but i think they all go to Cartagena via Bogota.
We are visiting Zones B/C and Salamina so Pereira is more natural - though did look at continuing to Medellin. A nice University city it might be but we are only visiting for the airport

When are you going, Solivagant? I'll be there for 3 weeks right after Christmas. So still a long time, will prepare the details later, now only have booked international flights.

You may want to double check the status of Pueblito, just in case. When I was in the area in February, it was closed at the time, but that was an annual closure which happens for the entire month. No one mentioned anything about an extended closure to me at at the time...

Thanks.
I have read this which seems to confirm your comment - " Parques Nacionales Naturales informs that PNN Tayrona will be closing its doors from January 28 to February 28 of 2018, according to the request of the indigenous communities of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta."
Am trying to discover more - but in some respects I almost hope it IS closed!!! Getting into the Tayrona NP seems a hassle (as with other Colombian NPs). I quote from the rules for Tayrona - "There is an obligatory environmental education introductory talk" AND obligatory "Insurance"!!! ("The entrance fee per entry is 56,000 COP for foreigner (July 2018) + 2,500 COP mandatory insurance per day") - and I don't really want to spend that long there anyway!!!!

I think Colombia is safe nowadays but it may take an entire day to visit because there are infrequent boats and it takes a long time. This is assuming you would want to visit Nueva Venecia.

Their T list is pretty good, most of them worth visiting as normal tourist and not purely for potential future WH status. Tatacoa Desert alone sounds wonderful. Chicamocha Valley is nice for paragliding.

My exploration of the more recondite depths of Colombia's T List has identified an error/misunderstanding in the way we have represented one of them on this Web site.
We have described the "Cultural Landscape of the Vernacular Stilt Housing of Cienaga Grande de Santa Marta and of Medio Atrato" as having 1 location. In fact it has 2 which are separated by some 1000kms. If the site were ever to be Nominated these 2 areas might of course be subdivided into further "Zones" (as per the Coffee Cultural Landscape).
The clue lies in the "title"!
The site consists of 2 areas of "Vernacular Stilt Housing" - one centred on the "Cienaga Grande of Sta Marta" and the other centred on the "Medio Atrato". The former is situated on Colombia's Caribbean coast in Magdalena Province and the latter is way to the SW in the Provinces of Antioquia and Chocó
So we need 2 locations
Cienaga Grande 10.870976, -74.381880
Medio Atrato 5.989885, -76.733824

The title refers to "Cultural Landscape" in the singular but it really consists of 2 very different CLs - The Cienaga is "lacustrine" whilst the Medio Atrato follows the Atrato River quite a long way inland. The cultural aspects are also completely different -
"The cultural landscape shaped by the existing lacustrine populations in Cienaga Grande de Santa Marta is a representative example of adaptation and coexistence in a lacustrine environment, which has allowed the permanence and continuity of traditions and knowledge about fishing,"
and
"In the case of the housing associations in Medio Atrato, this cultural landscape is the result of adaptation of human groups (mainly formed by African descendants) who settled this area in the middle of the tropical rainforest of the Pacific since the seventeenth century in its natural environment. These groups adapt the rhythm of their day – by – day activities to fluctuations in water levels both from rainfall and the river itself, with linear settlement patterns of houses on stilts along the Atrato river."
Surely such a variety could never be nominated as as a single CL??


Nov to Dec - trying to return before the Xmas/New Year crowds!

I was looking at doing Lima -> Cartagena, But it seems that is nearly impossible:
* Most sites in Colombia seem to be quite far from any urban centers.
* There are zero flights below 400 USD in/out of Ecuador to neighboring countries. It's actually cheaper to fly to the USA than to Colombia.
* Similar to Peru, there are a few sites that seem really hard to get to.

Questions:
* Does someone have an itinerary and time plan for Colombia based on public transport/planes/single day drivers?
* Did anyone get to the remote sites? And if so how?
* How did you connect to Ecuador?

I do, but it is not tested yet and also not in much detail.

27-dec - Flight KLM 9.30-14.25 AMS - BOG - Bogota
28-dec - Gold Museum, Botero Museum, street art - Bogota
29-dec - TWHS in and around the city (salt-cathedral-zipaquira/ - Bogota
30-dec To Popayan (possible flight (1,5 uur/150 EUR)) - Popayan
31-dec In Popayan - Popayan
1-jan To Tierradentro (4h Popayan) - Tierradentro
2-jan Tierradentro WHS - Tierradentro
3-jan To San Agustin (half day travel) - San Agustin
4-jan San Agustin WHS - San Agustin
5-jan Travel northwards, possibly via Popayan again
6-jan To coffee zone (Salamina) or zone E north of Cali - Cali
7-jan Salamina WHS - Salamina
8-jan Salamina - Salamina
9-jan flight from Cali to Cartagena - Cartagena
10-jan To Santa Cruz de Mompox in about 4h by shared taxi - Mompox
11-jan Santa Cruz de Mompox WHS - Mompox
12-jan To Cartagena (6 hr bus from Mompox) -Cartagena
13-jan Cartagena WHS (1 day may be enough) - Cartagena
14-jan Flight back from Cartagena 18.40 - 10.10
15-jan Arrive home

We can add Chiribiquete National Park and Natural Los Katíos National Park to the "Not Open to Tourists" connection, right? For the latter it may be possible with a permit from the local authorities.

p.s. Mount Hamiguitan is open to visit from their visitor center, Decorated cave of Pont d'Arc has a replica ad thus doesn't meet the connection criteria anymore,