Color de Hormiga Reserva Natural — Hotel in Santander

We write about it two days after the huge disappointment, in order to calm down and ponder better what could be a useful advice to others.|Just do not believe Lonely Planet: it's extremely deceiving! We had a very bad experience, and could never recommend this place to anyone.|Detailed reasons below.|We are backpackers and have a food business. We had reserved a pricey room for one night here, with the well mail-described purpose to visit the alleged ant farm (we are planning a new business involving ants in Europe) as well as to enjoy the good food from The Chef's cuisine.|We decided to reach the Posada by walk from the centre of Barichara. On Google Maps (necessary anywhere while backpacking), Color de Hormiga Posada Campestre is marked less than 800m from the centre of Barichara. It turned out that these directions are completely wrong! This after 30 mins of trekking up and down Barichara's peripheric hills, with almost no-one to ask. Finally, a man gave us some rough directions to reach the real place. Another 40 mins of upright steep climbing on peaceful, apparently uninhabited countryside in a literally scorching sun. No signs, no indications anywhere. When we almost randomly reached the entrance of the posada campestre, we were already destroyed and very annoyed. It is the owner's responsibility to assure the correct direction of his business, on the world's most used map application, or st least provide sufficient signposting. Especially because we did not receive any answer to our second mail, asking for a confirmation of directions. Once in front of the dodgy entrance of the finca, quite far from Barichara, the initial feeling was of a deranged, slightly dilapidated place, with again no clear signs about where to find the reception and the rooms. Looking for someone to help, we entered a building in which we found a very untidy building that showed signs of remote touristic times. Spooky! After more than 1 hour since we had started our journey to the posada and other doubts about where to go (climbing back up? Continuing down? The finca is big! No live soul passing by), we finally reached the main building where a lady only-spanish speaking welcomed us. I speak spanish, so it was ok. She laughed at us -we were sweaty and really stressed- and said she had not heard our loud calls for help, at the entrance (some hundreds metres uphill). She showed us the pretty room reserved for the expensive price of 180.000COP. It turned out that:||- there was NO INTERNET there, differently from what written on LP and not mentioned in the mail confirming our reserve.|- the desayuno included was superpoor;|- differently from what mentioned in the mail and on LP, there was no way to eat there for almuerzo nor dinner (the lady was alone there, with no food!)|- there was none to show us the ant farm!||I asked to talk with the owner, chef Jorge, who was not there. After a bit of a bargain for it, the lady called him promising I could have talked with him. She maybe thought I would have not understood what she was quickly saying to him (?!?), because she very rudely asked him if she could confirm us there was no possibility for us to visit the ants, even if we stayed. She did not allow me to talk with him, claiming he was busy. |This was really frustrating. |We went away and easily forgot about the possible ant business with that man. We found a very nice, clean and friendly place in town (Tinto Hostel) for 80.000COP. Shame on this greedy touristic business which asks for european-like rates and greets you with a service far below that which...

Nuestra segunda vez en la reserva no pude ser mejor, a tan solo un par de kilómetros de Barichara pero lo suficientemente lejos para poder tener la tranquilidad y el placer de poder disfrutar de una hacienda y trasportarse a otra época.||El servicio es muy cálido , prepárate para sentirte en familia desde el momento en que llegas, gracias a Jorge su propietario por su hospitalidad y el deseo de compartir sus conocimientos de la fauna, la flora y de muchas de las actividades q se pueden realizar en y cerca de Barichara.||Las tarifas son muy comodas e incluyen el desayuno , preparado por Olga que desde que llegamos se encargo de consentirnos con cafe y limonada de la finca, los desayunos son deliciosos y abundantes, pan hecho en casa y servido en el patio de la casa, inmejorable escenario donde te acompañan muchas especies de pajaros de la region. Hay la opcion de pedir almuerzo y cena con anticipacion , Jorge fue por años propietario de uno de los tradicionales restaurantes de Barichara. Recomiendo pedir la pizza hecha en su horno de leña para la cena el patio del horno es muy romántico, no cobran descorche puedes pedir o llevar un muy buen vino para acompañarla.||Son solo 4 habitaciones , amplias , sencillas y divertidas a la vez con sus baños gigantes y al aire libre. Se puede caminar por varios de los sectores de la finca hay mucho que ver y aprender.||Gracias a Jorge y a su staff por unos días muy especiales y esperamos...

Llegar a Barichara fue para mi una increíble sorpresa de belleza natural, un pueblo como no he visto otro igual, el color de su tierra. En la reserva natural Color de Hormiga encontré una de las mejores experiencias de mi vida, desde la entrada, el paisaje, las habitaciones, el baño al aire libre, pero sobre todo las personas que lo atienden, con una sencillez y una calidad humana que me hizo sentir como en casa, la estancia de lo más lindo; como mexicana y en mi primera visita a Colombia, todo mi viaje estuvo lleno de momentos llenos de significado para mí, uno de ellos fue poder cocinar una sopa mexicana de tortilla para compartir con los huéspedes, los anfitriones y para nosotros. Poder pasar horas leyendo, escuchando y observando la abundante cantidad de aves y la paz de un lugar donde me hubiera quedado a vivir realmente. Su diversidad natural, los rincones llenos de vida que tiene, los huéspedes con los que también compartimos y pudimos platicar, la comida, el clima y los paisajes. Definitivamente quiero volver, no una, mil veces!!! Gracias Colombia! Barichara! Color de Hormiga y GRACIAS a toda su gente divina que hizo de mi estancia una memoria en el Alma. Hoy mi corazón está lleno de muchos amigos nuevos que nunca...