Paramo Trek

• Meet your professional guide 7 a.m. at our offices near Poblado (calle 8 #43a-89, Medellín).
• Start a scenic drive for 2 hours to Belmira village.
• Climb a steep incline for 2 hours until you reach Lake “Bebedero” in National Park of Belmira.
• Enjoy lunch and snacks at the lake.
• Continue to walk for 4 hours in a loop on an intermediate trail back to the village of Belmira.
• Return to Medellín by 6 pm* traffic dependent.

After breakfast, meet your bilingual guide at 7 a.m. at our offices near Poblado (calle 8 #43a-89, Medellín). Our hiking guide greets you to drive two hours to the village of Belmira, a Spanish-style town located at an altitude of 2,500 m. From the Belmira Cathedral and plaza, take on your intermediate day hike and climb nearly 700 meters in elevation.

As you hike, encounter endemic plants you may have never seen before in your life and discover Colombia’s rarest ecosystem: high-altitude páramo. Páramo are high alpine zones just above the forest line and below the permanent snowline which, according to scientists, are “evolutionary hot spots” with some of the fastest evolving plant systems in the world. In this landscape it is difficult to place where you are: desert, coral reef, high-altitude tundra? There are mountainsides of cacti circling alpine lakes, coral-like plants growing from marshes, and blossoming flowers on succulent plants.

Although all plants are distinct, they share an ability to absorb great amounts of water in the most arid of conditions. For this reason, the Páramo, and not the Amazon rainforest, is largely responsible for Colombia’s water supply. This ecosystem stores water in marshes that drain into groundwater to supply countless Andean rivers. After your hike, drive two hours back to Medellín and return to your boutique hotel located in Poblado by 6 p.m.