Los Nevados National Park

One of the reasons we decided to stay an extra two nights in Manizales was so we could organise an excursion to the Los Nevados National Park. The national park is an area of mountains , lakes and thermal hot springs surrounding the Nevados del Ruiz volcano.

We started our excursion by being picked up by our guide for the day Alejandro in his Toyota Land-cruiser 4x4 at around 6am ready for a day of exploring

.The national park was around an hour outside Manizales, our first stop was breakfast at a remote cafe on the side of the road.To help with acclimatisation our breakfast we drank coca leaf tea, a local delicacy which is meant to help with altitude sickness. The peak of the national park is around 5000m above sea level, however today we would be going to around 4000m.

After our breakfast we drove a little further into the national park with our first stop being next to these Frailejones trees. Due to the altitude and harsh conditions, limited trees / bushes grow here. However these trees have fur on their flowers at the top to trap moisture which runs down to the roots to help them survive the tough conditions. The name of the tree Frailejones is similar in Spanish to the word for beans (frijol) which our tour guide had a good laugh about when Niamh attempted to repeat the name of the bush only to call them beans.

Our next stop was at the side of the road with a little walk down a windy path where we arrived at a river. As you approached the stream you could see steam above the water, and we realised we had reached the Termales or hot springs. We should have realised by this by the increasingly bad sulphur smell!Alejandro explained the geological process of the formation of the hot springs and how the heat comes from the the thermal activity of the volcano. At the top of the stream the water was extremely hot but as you walked down further we arrived at an area which was pleasant enough to swim in. At that point our guide grabbed some beers out of his bag and told us we were free to spend some time swimming in the hot springs. After spending the previous day at a thermal spa at a fancy hotel this was much better way of experiencing the thermales.

We took a few more stops on the tour where we could get out and take photos and Alejandro would describe how the landscape was created through the volcanic activity. There were lots of landslides , waterfalls and canyons in the surrounding areas.

We headed back to the restaurant where we started our day to have an authentic Colombian lunch and more coca tea. We later headed back to Manizales for a trip we won’t be forgetting anytime soon.