Spectacularly set in the deep Valle del Espíritu Santo in the Cordillera Oriental, colonial-era Pamplona is a delightful town of old churches, narrow streets and bustling commerce. If you’ve just come up from the hot plains of Venezuela, it makes for a nice stopover en route to central Colombia.
As you head southeast from the Andes, dry scrubland grows more lush, turning into almost impenetrable jungle long before you ever reach the Amazon. This huge, wild region, which Colombians call Amazonia, accounts for a third of the country’s total area – it’s about the size of California and larger than Germany. Biologists will probably never finish cataloging the region’s dizzying array of flora and fauna. Likewise, visitors can never quite account for the strange exhilaration they feel when they come face-to-face with the rainforest for the first time.
One of Colombia’s most popular national parks, Tayrona is set on the jungle-covered coast at the foot of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The park stretches along the coast from the Bahía de Taganga near Santa Marta to the mouth of the Río Piedras, 35km to the east.
Though not beautiful in itself, Armenia is set dramatically between a lush valley and one of the highest stretches of the Cordillera Central. Founded in 1889, the city quickly grew into the center for the region’s coffee trade, and in 1966 it became the capital of the newly created Quindío department. Unfortunately, disaster struck in 1999 when a catastrophic earthquake destroyed almost a third of the city center.
Set at the foot of the Volcán Galeras in the fertile Atriz Valley, Pasto is the cultural and political capital of Nariño. Though not a beautiful city in itself, it has several fine colonial buildings as well as a bustling downtown area. Pack a sweater because days can be cool and nights are downright chilly.
Barichara is the kind of town that Hollywood filmmakers dream about. A Spanish colonial town of striking beauty, the whitewashed buildings and stone streets look almost as new as the day they were created some 300 years ago. Granted, the movie-set appearance owes its debt to considerable reconstruction efforts made over the past 25 years, but all rebuilding has been done with taste in mind.
Amid rolling foothills at the southern end of the Valle del Cauca, Popayán is a small gem. Known as the ‘Ciudad Blanca’ for the stunning uniformity of its chalk-white facades, it is second only to Cartagena as Colombia’s most impressive colonial city.
Bogotá is on the move. Once considered a place to avoid, the capital has cleaned up its act and is fast becoming one of Latin America’s urban highlights. Improved security, infrastructure projects and a clean-up campaign have helped bring a new face to the metropolis.
Providencia will fulfil your every expecta-tion of paradise. Quiet, laid-back hamlets nestle against white-sand beaches shaded by palm trees. The sea is warm, the locals are friendly and the topography is gorgeous. If you’re looking to get away from it all, Providencia is about as far as you can get.
Surrounded by mountains and filled with an air of vibrancy, the rapidly expanding town of Bucaramanga makes for a decent stopover on the long road between Bogotá and the coast. There is little to see in the city itself, but facilities are fine for an overnight stop or as a base to visit Girón, a nearby colonial-era town and legitimate tourist attraction.