Trek to Laguna de Iguaque.

This trek takes all day and takes you up high in the mountains to 3800 meters. There's an 8$ cover charge to enter the park. Take good walking shoes!

(This map is not to scale.)

Iguaque is a national park north-east of Villa de Leyva with mountains and a bunch of lakes. This trek goes to the Laguna de Iguaque lake at 3800 meters altitude, which was a sacred lake for the Muiscas.

Take good walking shoes (you'll be on rocks and mud) and something warm (the temperature can be around 12 degrees C - chilly!). A few layers work best: t-shirt, another t-shirt, a sweater ... Take a picnic too, and enough water to drink.

First, take a bus from Villa de Leyva (13 kilometers) at 7am to go to a place called Los Naranjos also known as La Casa de Piedras (which is a small shop). You could take the next bus at 10am, but then you'd run the risk of not completing the trek before it gets dark at 6pm and that is no fun. Better to start on time, so get that 7am bus. If you are late, you'll also miss the last return bus to Villa de Leyva at around 5pm. You can ask the people at Casa de Piedras to call a taxi in that case.

Then, walk from La Case de Piedra up to the park's office, the entrance to the park. It's a nice walk, perhaps 45 minutes, through a beautiful area.

At the parks' office, foreigners pay 20000 pesos entrance (US$ 8), Colombians pay 6000. There's a bathroom there, and for a fee you can camp, but the park no longer provides rooms to stay.

From here you start the trek. The first (easy) part goes through some forest, then over a bridge and then there are some houses where there used to be facilities to stay overnight (which are "temporarily closed"). Walk around and behind the houses, to the left, and enter the path between the trees.

This is a long walk uphill between trees. It can get slippery with the mud and the tree roots. There are a few benches along the way to rest.

At the end of it, at your left, you'll see a mountain. You have to climb up it (it's rocky), this part is called "La Pared" ("The wall"), it's very steep. It's easy to loose your way on the mountain. Go towards the signs (there are 2 signs), there's a path there.

Follow the path, it goes around the mountain to the other side. There are great views, and the vegetation is interesting. You're pretty high up now, almost 3700 meters. On the other side, you'll move along the path, down to the lake.

The lake is pretty small, take a while to rest here because you'll have to take the same route back. Touch the water for good luck. Don't leave too late or you'll get stuck in the dark (at 6pm).

From the lake, with a map or a guide, you could decide to visit some of the other lakes in the area if you have time and energy, before returning.

First posted by Peter on May 28, 2008, 08:19. Last edit by Peter on May 28, 2008, 08:19. Edit this | History.

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