Cueva de los Guácharos National Natural Park is the oldest national park in Colombia. Located in the western face of the Colombian Eastern Andean Range in the departments of Huila and Caquetá, the park covers an area of 9,000 hectares. The caves formed from the karstic zones of the Magdalena and Caquetá rivers.
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Beautiful and unique hidden gem of East Andean forests. Cueva de los Guacharos is Colombia’s oldest, yet little-known national park in the country’s south, right at the start of the Amazon rainforest. The name comes from one of the large caves in which Guácharo (Oilbird) birds inhabit. The park spans 9,000 hectares (90 kilometers) between 1800 and 3000m. This size may not seem like much until you consider its topography. It has a mountainous terrain that contains numerous caves and canyons caused by the rivers. Given its challenging accessibility, some areas of the park remain officially unexplored, with surely many caves and plant species yet to be discovered.
The parks administration and organization on the other hand is pretty bad and Im not the only one with who thinks like this. Also the headquarters were pretty neglected and dirty.
To come here, you will need a guide! even is there is no official information stating that.
I cycled to park entrance, was let in and then walked for many hours with my backpack reaching the PNN headquarters. I was not like other tourists paying for a poor horse to carry them for hours on a muddy jungle trail over the mountains. When there I payed entrance ticket to a guide and went to explore around together with him. All was good.
Next day, another guide who brought tourists on a horse (!) came to tell me that the park management knows about my arrival and that it is not allowed to come here without a guide, therefore, I need to return back. Basically, I got kicked out. That was pretty shocking, they would only let me stay if I would pay more money. In all the information on the official PNN website nowhere is stated that! I was also allowed to pass the official checkpoint.
The staff, on the other hand, were really friendly and did not agree with the decision that I should leave. A guide we went to the cave with was returning from the park with his wife and a horse, so they said that I can join them.
Not wanting to ride a tired horse, we only strapped my backpack on it and I went walking along back...
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Este lugar por ser el primer parque natural nacional se conserva muy bien y permite tener un contacto con la naturaleza muy interesante...la caminata es fuerte desde la Mesura, pero llegando allí el campamento e instalaciones son bonitas y las personas que atienden allí son...
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Si eres amante de caminatas en la naturaleza debes visitar este lugar, advierto que se debe tener buen físico pues para llegar al lugar de debe caminar aproximadamente 6 horas por un sendero donde puedes ver un hermoso paisaje, pero definitivamente es un lugar...
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