9/20: Bogota: Mystical Laguna Guatavita

After visiting the magnificent Museo del Oro yesterday and seeing the gold raft piece representing the Muisca people’s beliefs of chieftains and shamans giving back to the earth by throwing gold and emeralds into Laguna Guatavita, we were excited to go there by ourselves. We’d looked into taking an arranged tour but the $160 cost didn’t seem worth what we thought we could enjoy just as much for a huge amount less. It seemed more adventurous, too, to try and get there on our own even with our minimal Spanish and questionable directions! 

The notes I had said buses were available from Bogota’s North Bus Station which was a long ways away so we got an Uber there. After walking into the station and being faced by bus company representatives behind 20 ticket windows and each one gesticulating we come to his window to buy tickets, we discovered that the bus didn’t actually leave from there. At that point, the idea of the pre-arranged tour looked more exciting! 

We discovered that we had to go out on the street, walk up a bit and wait for half an hour until our bus came. We encountered wonderful Colombian hospitality at that bus stop while waiting. One man went back to the bus station to check for us what destination we should be looking for on the sign. Another man, who spoke English, kindly gave us his business card and said we shouldn’t hesitate to call him if we had any more language issues! How kind was that!

When the bus arrived, there was already only standing room only on it but luckily, two seats opened up not long later as we didn’t relish the prospect of having to stand for 90 minutes all the way to the town of Guatavita even if the fare was a measly $6 for both of us.

Our second hiccup arose when we got dropped off at the combination bus and police station in Guatavita and couldn’t find a collective or minibus going about ten miles back to the park. Steven was great and asked a woman in a shop to call a taxi for us and that saved our hide once again. For $20, the driver said he’d drive us to the park entrance and wait while we walked up to the lake and then would meet us in a couple of hours at the park exit. We didn’t hesitate and jumped in his car after thanking the woman profusely for her assistance.

Scenes from the drive to the park:

Once we got to the park, we didn’t realize we were required to go on a free group tour with a park guide and a huge group of young school kids and just three other adults, also there to discover the wonders of Laguna Guatavita. We were surprised that Steven had to show our ID when he purchased our tickets, even though he used cash.

I can’t tell you what a bummer it was when the guide seemed to stop at every tree and bush and talk about it! We asked if we could PLEASE proceed by ourselves but the guide said no, we had to stay with the group. We wouldn’t have minded so much but his Spanish explanations of what we were seeing were lost on us, of course. 

We understood that the whole area around us was revered Muisca territory. Part of the tour included stopping at an old Muisca hut recreation but we didn’t understand the guide’s discussion of its history so missed its importance. 

I finally asked Steven to type into his ipad, using Google translate, that we needed to tell the guide we needed to leave the group and walk on by ourselves as our driver was waiting for us at the exit. The guide then agreed and we were released!

It was only much later, when we encountered another guide returning from the Laguna who asked us where our guide was, that we learned guides were required because of the high altitude of the hike and concerns that hikers might suffer from breathing issues. Another reason for the mandatory tour was this sacred site had a history of unfortunately being abused before becoming a protected park.

When we took these first few steps up, we didn't realize that we had about 250 more up ahead. We had intentionally waited several days into our visit to Bogota before going to Guatavita as we knew this climb could, for some newly arrived visitors to Bogota, be hard. That was due to the 1,800-foot altitude increase to what was already a high point in the landscape.

Unfortunately, we both picked up a stomach bug or mild case of food poisoning our first night in Medellin and that didn’t help but we still trudged on and up. We have been so incredibly lucky to travel to virtually every corner of this world and this was the only the third bug we’ve caught on all our travels. This one has held on, unfortunately, for the last ten days but it’s only been uncomfortable and not severe enough to keep either of us from continuing with our daily itinerary.

We passed a sign that said we were in the High Andean Forest and that the forest ground was covered with moss and plants that work as sponges and absorb such large quantities of water they give rise to streams, creeks and rivers that descend to lower areas.

As we hiked, there were fantastic views of the rolling hills and valleys which rivaled anything that I saw when living in Switzerland several decades ago. 

We walked past beautiful flora which only grew at this altitude and climate in Colombia and that neither of us knew the names of! 

Steven, who has asthma and diminished lung capacity, felt a bit woozy as we kept climbing up some of the 250 steps but was determined to put some distance and some peace and quiet between us and the rambunctious schoolchildren not far behind us. His inhaler and breaks to catch our breath and appreciate the gorgeous views kept us both going. 

Our first view of the remote lake – we could certainly see how it became a place of such religious significance as seeing it with our own eyes was almost breathtaking. The sheer scale, depth and view over it with the added historical aspect and importance to the old Muisca people really made it an enchanting spot to come for a day trip from Bogota. We were so, so fortunate that we could enjoy the spectacular view by ourselves and weren't accompanied by hordes of other tourists also.

At the second viewpoint a short hike further on, this man was furiously trying to repair his drone, I think, to demonstrate it for the schoolchildren.

One sign said the average depth of the lagoon was about 82 feet and that the approximate diameter was 1,300 feet by 1,000 feet.

The actual location of the lagoon was sought for a long while by the Spanish after discovering this part of America. They were spurred on by the legends of El Dorado. The raft that we saw at the Gold Museum in Bogota depicted the ritual conducted at the lake and signified what was intrinsic to the people’s mythical interactions with the lagoon itself.

As the trail continued winding its way around the lagoon's rim  for a good while, we kept getting marvelous new views.

The variety of flowers changed significantly once we were in wide open spaces and out of the forest. I could hardly tear my eyes away from their beauty and felt they were the perfect complement to the magic of Laguna Guatavita.

The altitude change was 600 feet in a relatively short amount of time - no wonder we were both winded at times!

A view from where we had just hiked:

The long line of schoolchildren in their distinctive red jackets was far away but their voices carried over the mountain.

We only saw a guard at the top of the third and final overlook. That was where most people turned around and walked back down toward the entrance. But we were excited to continue hiking toward the park exit where we were meeting our driver and see what the rest of the park looked like.  

It had been far warmer than we thought it would be up at the top. We certainly had no need for the fleeces we’d brought with us. 

It was a little odd seeing this hut and the minuscule garden just beyond it.

The wind was roaring in the trees so loudly here it seemed like a major river nearby. 

Coming across this verdant farmland just 30 minutes after having our final view of the lagoon was like entering a new world.

One minute after seeing the cattle, we discovered that the path gave way to a small parking lot and the exit. It was very reassuring seeing our driver there and knowing that there hadn’t been any miscommunication about where we needed to meet him as we didn’t fancy retracing our steps and hiking all the way back to the park entrance!

Scenes from our half-hour drive back to the town of Guatavita:

Unfortunately, this photo is darker than I'd have liked but I had no time to change the setting before the horse and buggy disappeared from our sight.

We’ve never encountered so many speed bumps as on the stretch of highway to and from the town and hope never to again as there were 20 of them! And, of course, we experienced them four times: to and from town with both the bus and car drivers!

After the driver dropped us off in the main plaza, we walked through the sleepy town, stopping to take some photos and looking in the plentiful artisan shops.  

Some of the hand-knitted pieces were quite lovely but I had no need and especially no space for anything large. If there had been a pretty as opposed to a tacky image of Laguna Guatavita, we would have probably bought it but nothing appealed to either of us. 

Scenes from enchanting Guatavita:

The town church was closed as otherwise we would have wandered in.

We saw a road leading down the hill from town to Tomine Reservoir so we decided to follow it as we were in no hurry to return to Bogota.

This home had the most gorgeous flowers of any home that comes to mind right now. They were just beyond sensational!

Steven buys me alstromeria flowers from time to time so coming across these was extra special.

I just loved these vibrant red poppies. They reminded me, Ivy, of some of your old oil paintings. I am sure you would have loved to have painted this garden!

We walked almost the entire way to the reservoir but turned around at the viewpoint as the clouds looked particularly threatening. 

We hadn’t taken but two steps when we saw two police officers walking toward us down the hill. One of them, we were pretty sure, asked for our ID but Steven played dumb and they let us pass with a smile.

Minutes later, it began to rain and we hopped on the waiting bus in the square which left just three minutes later. What a stroke of luck we hadn’t had to wait any longer!

We had the driver let us off at another bus station where we got the TransMilennio bus back to what we thought was near our hotel. Only those city buses had their own exclusive lanes and were therefore very efficient. However, riding the buses at rush hour in Bogota is not something either Steven or I care to do again as, apart from our experience last fall in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, we have never seen such chaos and shoving trying to get on a bus before. 

It was more than a little scary especially with the added security concern and our limited Spanish language skills. It was only fitting that we ended the day as we began and got off at the wrong stop by mistake and had to walk further than we intended back to our hotel!

Fettuccine with mushrooms and garlic and spaghetti napolitano plus 2 non-alcoholic beverages, all for just $9, at the restaurant next to our hotel, was just what we needed after a long but great day.

Next post: Great, graffiti tour!

Posted on September 28th, 2017, from Quito, Ecuador.