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COLOMBIA
TREKKING IN REMOTE MOUNTAINS OF SIERRA NEVADA DEL COCUY (March 2007)   photos

After crossing the border, I headed straight for the little town of Cocuy and the nearby Sierra Nevada de Cocuy.  The town was very pleasant, with every single house painted white, and doors and windows light green.  I prepared everything necessary for a 12 day trek and went to the National Park office to register.  I couldn´t believe it when I was told the Park was closed!  Fortunately, after a lot of explaining and telephone calls I was permitted to enter, as an exception.  Anyway, the Park was open the next day.

On the way I met Douglas and we decided to climb a 5100m mountain called Pan de Azucar.  First day we went to the base camp, and we set off at 4am next morning.  After about 3 hours we reached the huge rock called Pulpito del Diablo.  From there on crampons were necessary.  After one hour of steep glacier walk we were near the top.  The ridge was a bit tricky but soon we were at the summit.  It was getting cloudy so we roped up and walked back down.  The same day Douglas returned and I stayed for the night.

Day 3 was a long one, I crossed 2 passes the reach the beautiful Laguna de la Plaza.  The following day I climbed nearby mountains called Cerros de la Plaza, 4850m.  The views were stunning, I followed the ridge climbing up and down rocks and didn´t even notice I forgot my walking poles.  I came back across the small glacier, which was not a good idea.  It was steep in places and I didn´t have crampons.  At one point, I almost fell into a small lake of ice-cold water.  Then, I had to climb rocks that looked easy from distance, but turned out to be difficult.  Eventually I got back to the ridge and found my precious sticks.  That day was probably the best in terms of views and photos.

Day number 5 was again exhausting, walking in difficult terrain of rocks, stones and boulders.  Clouds obscured the views and I was hoping that the morning would be clear.  However, the rainy season was just begining, and the next day weather was getting worse.  I reached the beautiful valley of pillow-like moss and camped there for 3 nights, waiting for the clouds to go away.  But they didn´t, so I carried on up the valley and camped 2 nights near Laguna Avallenal, right below the highest mountain of the Sierra, Ritacuba Blanco.  Only once at night I saw how enormous it was, most of the time it was raining and I stayed "home".

Not only I was running out of food and patience.  The worst was that my visa was finishing, too, and I had to go to Bogota to renew it.  I decided to get back in one, long day.  Some streams turned into rivers and 2 times I had to take off my boots to cross them.    It took me 13 hours but I made it back to Cocuy at 10pm.  Wet and tired, but determined to come back when the weather gets better.  photos