Manizales & El Nevado Ruiz: Kumanday

Nevado Ruiz in clouds

This weekend marked my first real travel adventure here in Colombia. My friend Jennifer & I had decided to visit the National Park that graces Tolima (the state I am living in) with a glacier topped mountain. The park sits between 4 departments of Colombia - Tolima, Caldas, Risaralda, & Quindio - and we entered through the easiest/most accessible side, through Manizales, Caldas. When we planned the trip, it was just Jennifer & I going, but the night before we headed out, I found out that her boyfriend and sister were going too. No big deal, since I had met both and they were both nice. The bus we were taking to Manizales was scheduled to leave Ibagué at 3:00AM, so I woke up at 1:30 for the 2:00 pick up by Yuls, Jennifer's boyfriend, which wound up being 2:45, meaning I sat at the gate to my apartment complex for 45 minutes, while I could have been sleeping. Again, no big deal, slightly annoying, but nothing to get upset about. We waited in the bus terminal for our ride, and when it arrived there were no seats next to each other, so I ended up sitting next to a rather chatty 50 year old Colombian man, who when he squeaked by to go to the bathroom went face first past me, meaning that my knees were right up in his crotch. Uncomfortable. The ride was supposed to take 5 hours, but we left at 3:20, and broke down at 5:30. We sat on the side of the road - after reversing down the curvy incline on which we broke down, in the darkness, with trucks and buses zooming by - for an hour before the bus would start again. Big bummer. Even more so because it was 5:30 in the morning on a Saturday, and a kid sitting in front of us was super chatty. Really annoying.

Cable car, Manizales

View of Manizales from the top of the 5th tallest Cathedral in the world

We arrived in Manizales at 10:30 in the morning, and were informed that there is only one way to go to the park these days, and that is to leave at 6:30 for an all day tour with the private company that is in charge of the park. So we scheduled the trip for Sunday & called Diego, our friend from Ibagué who happened to be visiting Manizales at the time, who spent the day showing us around. We headed to an exhibition at the Orchid park, where there is also a butterfly observatory, and spent the afternoon falling in love with butterflies & flowers. Butterflies are so graceful, it was a really wonderful afternoon. We headed back to Manizales center, where we were staying for the night (for $17 each...) and went looking for food. Jennifer's boyfriend Yuls is a Hari Krishna, and doesn't eat meat or eggs, and this proved to be next to impossible to find a place to eat that catered to the dietary restriction. He was laid back about it, but we didn't want to eat while he couldn't, so we ended up going to a fruit shop, where I had a mango juice, and then we went to a grocery store where I had peanuts & a nectarine. What a dinner. We had snacked on arepas with cheese earlier, so it wasn't too bad.

Lunch: chocolate cake & cappuccino... why not?

Manizales Cathedral

Orchid Park view


Dewey flowers, orchid park, Manizales


Butterfly observatory, Orchid Park, Manizales (the last photo is of 2 butterflies mating)



Orchid Park, Manizales

Sunset at the Orchid Park

One thing that was super awkward about going with Jennifer's sister & Yuls is that Kati, the sister, dislikes Yuls to the max, and is super rude and immature about it. Example: Yuls offered to help her down out of the bus, as is common of gentlemen in Colombia, and she snottily insisted that she could do it herself, refusing to take his hand. So, Jennifer, trying to not take sides, had me act as in-betweener. I shared the room with Yuls at the hotel, so Jennifer could share the room with Kati. I was Kati's travel buddy, we sat next to each other in the tour van. She has an unbearably high pitched & awful voice, so that was pleasant.... She also is seemingly the most high-maintenance person I have ever met. Every single stop we made on the tour, without fail, we would wait for her in the bus, everyone in their seats & ready to go while she was MIA, for a minimum of 5 minutes. It was embarrassing, as it meant that we were losing time at the hot springs so that she could powder her nose. By the end of the trip I was about ready to smack her, no joke. I wasn't alone... Jennifer & Yuls were awfully fed up with her as well, which meant that once again I sat next to her on the bus.

Andes Mountains

Sunday morning bright and early we got up & headed out for the park. We stopped to pick up a family of 6 who joined us on the tour. They were rather obnoxious as well, asking for music to be blasted in the van - thank heavens the speakers were broken - and being generally rude (a kid in the car in front of us threw up at one point in the park, and they rolled down the windows to scream "con animo!" which is like "with emotion", and take pictures of him throwing up, & of the throw up itself... imagine how he must have felt), but that is enough complaining, right?

The park was gorgeous! Really different landscape than Ibagué! Colombia is a mega-diverse country - 1% of the world's land mass, but 10% of the biodiversity. The park is home to one of the 6 remaining glaciers in the tropical country, and boasts the country's highest road (which we drove on!). We headed up the mountains, beginning in semi-tropical vegetation, moving on to what they call a moonscape, and indeed it was barren, sandy, rocky, and other-wordly. There was a stop where we yelled towards a mountain and the echos lasted forever! When we first reached snow, the Colombian contingent (Jennifer's sister included) were so giddy happy, throwing snowballs, making snow angels, writing their names in the snow, taking off all of their clothes & sliding down the 4 feet of covered earth, taking pictures lying in the snow. It is always fun to witness people's first snow experience (although, true to the pattern they had already set, these folks were slightly obnoxious about it). We finally reached the cabin at 4,800 meters above sea level - about 15,800 feet - where the tour ended. We couldn't reach the summit of the glacier (Nevado Ruiz) because there is heightened seismic activity in the area, and it is a volcano, so the summit is off limits. But we were standing at the feet of the glacier topped peak, and it was lovely. A little more of the nature-tourism culture I have been missing.

The group at the restaurant before heading into the park

Moonscape in the park




At the foot of Ruiz glacier

We headed down for lunch, and then to the hot springs, which I thought were going to be natural & in the wilderness. Instead, they were accompanied by a resort, and while the water was naturally hot, the pools were blue & made of concrete. They were also full of people. We only had an hour there, and since the high maintenance travel buddy took forever at everything, we suggested we try to be ready 20 minutes BEFORE we had to be, so we wouldn't miss the bus. All said and done, we were in the water 20 minutes. It was enough, though, since the water was SUPER gross tasting, and killed my eyes, and turned my 2 silver rings black...

Hot springs

We arrived back in Manizales & headed to the center to find food before taking the "frequent" bus back to Ibagué. Unfortunately we wandered for almost an hour looking for food without meat, and finally ate what seemed like frozen pizza in the mall. I was CLEARLY anxious to get going, since Monday morning is a work day, and it was inching towards 6:30PM, and the trip to Manizales had been 7 hours. Kati took her sweet time, though, getting her slice before the rest of us, and finishing last. Laughing at a TV commercial or show that was on. Arg!!!! I lead the way back to the terminal, and arrived at the ticket counter of the company we were planning on taking back to Ibagué - next bus left at 8:30 and went to Pereira, we would have to try & catch another from there. I was super annoyed, and let the others ask different companies. Finally we bought tickets for a 7:30 bus, and I avoided a conversation with my travel buddy by wrapping my scarf around my face & sleeping. We got in at 1:15, and I went straight to my bed & zonked out.

First adventure: interesting & beautiful. Next adventure: Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta - 5 days with Jennifer (sans sister & BF, thank the lord) of hiking & visiting indigenous communities on the coast of Colombia, as well as 1 day in Barranquilla for Carnival. Followed shortly thereafter by a trip to Caribbean island San Andrés, where I will visit friend/classmate Juliana, snorkel, dive, & photograph coral reefs in the "only place on earth where you can see the 7 colors of the sea". These adventures begin Saturday, March 5. :)