Colombia soon may become the next big adventure destination, said Stephanie Pearson in Outside. Tourists haven’t yet poured into the nation’s astonishing wilderness, but visitors have reclaimed a place in the major cities, and the government’s decades-long war on cocaine trafficking and related violence has begun to make further exploration possible. When I recently arranged for an 11-day tour of Colombia’s outback, I expected great wonders. After all, what other country can boast of coastlines on both the Caribbean and the Pacific, three large mountain ranges, and “whole regions of untapped Amazon rain forest?”
The land’s beauty is evident by air as my plane passes an enormous waterfall in the central part of the country—an area that until recently was controlled by guerrillas. We land in a village, La Macarena, then travel a short distance by canoe to Caño Cristales, a river that takes on Technicolor hues when a local plant drops its tiny flowers into the water. As we hike, “I count 25 vacationers splashing in the fresh pools and picnicking along the shore.” Given the area’s recent history, “the whole scene is surreal.” And this won’t be the last time that Colombia’s recent past will seem remarkably distant. We spend one day hiking under towering wax palm trees in a national park before driving to an evening tutorial in coffee making. In Chocó, a poor region still known for cocaine cultivation, I step outside my lodging to behold paradise: “the turquoise Pacific, black-sand beaches, and so much greenery that even the volcanic boulders sticking out of the ocean are covered in ferns and sprouting palm trees.”
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