Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Spago C 59 No. 24A-10 T 6 885 3328. A stylish Italian
restaurant that offers great home-made pasta, wood-fired
pizza and expertly cooked meats. Mains COP$18,000.
Mon-Sat noon-10.30pm, Sun until 3pm.
La Suiza Cra 23B No. 26-57. Superb bakery where you
can grab breakfast or a light lunch - crêpes, pastries, sand-
wiches - or treat yourself to home-made chocolates.
Mon-Sat 9.30am-8pm, Sun 10am-7.30pm.
Valentino's Gourmet Cra 23 No. 63-128. Excellent hot
chocolates (COP$4000) and an extensive coffee, cocktail
and ice-cream menu. Daily 10am-10pm.
so the park was off-limits. Instead,
Mountain House (see opposite) offers
an alternative: hiking down through
stunning mountain scenery, past
mountain villages. The hostel arranges
for its guests to meet a milkman's cart
at an assigned point at 4.30am; the
milkman then drives up the mountain
road to the starting point of the hike and
picks up the hikers further down the road
a couple of hours later, having finished
his rounds. The outing costs around
COP$50,000. Wear warm clothing as
you'll be going up to a high altitude in
the middle of the night.
The dramatic southern end , where a
dense wax-palm forest slowly metamor-
phoses into páramo near the cobalt-blue
Laguna del Otún (3950m), can only be
accessed on foot. Reaching Laguna del
Otún from Manizales involves an initial
four-hour drive, taking in park highlights
such as the extinct Olleta crater, Laguna
Verde and Hacienda Potosí, before
culminating in a two-hour trek to the
trout-stuffed lagoon (fishing permitted).
You can also approach from the Valle de
Cócora in Salento (see p.546) .
There is no public transport to the park.
Many visitors come as part of a day-trip,
which doesn't allow a great deal of time for
hiking. To explore the park at your leisure,
it's possible to sign up for a day-trip and
then arrange to stay overnight, to be
picked up by the same tour company the
following day.
Contact a tour operator to see whether
Parque Nacional Los Nevados is still
off-limits.
5
PARQUE NACIONAL NATURAL
LOS NEVADOS
Indisputably one of the crown jewels
in Colombia's national parks system,
the PARQUE NACIONAL NATURAL LOS
NEVADOS (entry COP$57,000, including
guide), 40km southeast of Manizales,
protects some of the last surviving
snowcapped peaks in the tropics. Three
of the five volcanoes are now dormant,
but Nevado del Ruiz - the tallest at
5321m - remains an active threat, having
killed 22,000 people and buried the now
extinct town of Armero when it erupted
in 1985. Sadly, though, for a park whose
name, Nevado, implies perpetual snow,
climate change has lifted the snow line to
almost 5000m on most peaks. The best
months to visit are January and February
- clear days make for spectacular views of
the volcanic peaks. March, July, August
and December can also be ideal, while
the rest of the year sees a fair amount
of rain.
WHAT TO SEE AND DO
he park's northern sector is the more
touristy and is easily accessible from
Manizales. Though it's of little
compensation, because of the severe melt,
it's now possible for even moderately fit
armchair adventurers to reach Nevado del
Ruiz's summit in a long day's journey
from Manizales. Although not technically
difficult - with good weather you can
climb in regular hiking shoes - a guide
(see below) is required to navigate the
confusing path and assist in the event of
altitude sickness.
At the time of writing, the Nevado Del
Ruiz volcano was showing some activity,
TOUR OPERATOR
Ecosistemas Cra 21 No. 23-21 Local 108 T 6 880 8300.
Runs a daily 12hr trip from Manizales, leaving at 7.30am,
for COP$140,000, including transport, breakfast, lunch,
park entrance, the ascent of Ruiz and a visit to the thermal
baths at the park's entrance.
PEREIRA
Just 56km south of Manizales, PEREIRA
makes an equally suitable base for
exploring the Zona Cafetera. The region's
largest city, it shares Manizales' history as
a centre for the coffee industry. Its historic
 
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