Manizales

We spent a few days in Manizales in order to access Parque Nacional Los Nevados. Detered from camping by frequent rain, we insted stayed in the hip hostal Base Camp with a great view of the hilly city and 360 degree surrounding mountains. Manizales takes after Bogota´s progressive new tradition of Ciclovia, desegnating a few major streets each sunday to bicycles only. As we saw both in Bogota and Manizales, the whole town gets out for a cruise. We think Portland should adopt this.

Sunset from the top of the mirador tower in Manizales

Entering the Parque Nacional Los Nevados

High alpine Colombian cowboy

Laguna Negra in Parque Los Nevados

In the photo below you can clearly see the defined ecosystems, paramo and super paramo. As we ascended the mountains the terrain went from lush green, to high desert with short grasses and flowering bushes, to barren rocky desert, and finally snow level. The cloud topped glacier up top is the volcano Nevado El Ruiz, the highest mountain in the Colombian Andes reaching 5325 meters.

This friarale plant is characteristic of the paramo zone (high altitude desert in a tropical latitude). It grows 1cm a year and when the leaves die they do not fall off but lie down along the base to help insulate the plant from the freezing temperatures.

This region looked like walking on the moon

The highest flag in Colombia

Colombians literally seeing snow for their first time. We watched and laughed as they slid down the muddy hill with only a few inches of snow and had snowball fights.