A Colombian rain forest break – nine days in the Amazon.
2020 Dec 29-2021 Jan 6
The pandemic continues to hamper travel internationally, and so at the end of 2020 we decided to make another trip within Colombia. Marce’s Mum joined us for a visit to Mitú, Vaupés, in the Colombian Amazon.
Vaupés is the size of Ireland with less than 1% of the population; in Canadian terms it’s bigger than Nova Scotia, with 4% of the population. In global terms it’s one of the least population densities in the world, 1/3 of that of Mongolia. To describe it as “remote” is probably appropriate. Getting around Vaupés is tough. There’s no surface connection other than foot trails which are often inundated. The primary means of terrestrial transport is by river, although the rivers have many rapids requiring portage; one of our guides is from a community near(ish) Canoa (?) which is about 170 km away from Mitú as the macaw flies - we asked how long it takes to travel there by river and he said “18 days”!
There’s one road, referred to as “the road” which is Via Monfort, or the road to Monfort from Mitu, although this is more in hope than reality since it turns to dirt after about 6 km and apparently runs out another 50 km or so further on. The dirt section is slow going, taking about an hour for the first 10 km in a tuk-tuk. The official guide to Vaupés shows a paved road from Mitú to Pirapipa (?) however this is either a figment of the planners’ imagination or a low key practical joke played on visitors.
Mitú is an airstrip with a surrounding village, or town, or perhaps city, depending on your definitions, with a population of about 30,000, so about the same as Dundalk or Cape Breton-Sydney. It’s about 630 km from the next largest population centre in Colombia. Getting to Mitu is essentially practical only by air, with commercial flights 3 times a week. The primary means of transport in Mitú are mototaxis (tuk tuks) and motorbikes. The former are surprisingly capable of travel on rough tracks, albeit slowly, and one wonders whether there’s a market for tuk tuks with longer suspension travel and good damping. The fact that the village is built around the airstrip means that although the distance from one side of the village to the other is not great, you have to go all the way around the airfield so using a tuk tuk is more frequent than one might expect.
We were welcomed to Mitú by Rosmilda, who was our guide for most of the trip, and who provide to have good project management skills and focus on our interests. We were ferried to the Quenari Wii posada by Mauricio, the owner – this was the only time in 9 days on which we used a car. The posada was comfortable, the bedrooms air-conditioned, and the verandah was equipped with hammocks which were well used in the following days.
Our routine, most days, was to rise early (as early as
0430h!), consume coffee, and then head off to explore one of the options in the
area. Most days this was by tuk tuk, which either took us to a trailhead whence
we walked, or on a couple of occasions dropped us at one of the river docks, or
“ports”, to head off on the river. A couple of days were more relaxed, giving
us a change from the early start needed either to take advantage of the cooler
(less hot) morning or to optimise birdwatching. We were fortunate on one of the
excursions to meet Florenzio, who we discovered was a very capable bird guide,
and we were able to go out with him twice in the remaining time we had to seek
birds, very successfully.
It was surprising to find that the topography is more undulating than expected - in addition to gentle hills
there are numerous monolithic “cerros”, where the Guyana Shield basement rises steeply in quartzite
domes or inselbergs, like the
Påo do Azucar in Rio de Janeiro however with fewer tourists. On several of our
day long walks we saw no other people outside the villages, and on others we
encountered one or two people, and once a family of six heading to the river to
fish. The only walk on which we met other visitors was at Urania, adjacent to
Mitú.
So, the “expeditions”:
1) Cerro Guacamaya – this turned out to be a 14 km 9 hour walk; about half way to the cerro one crosses Caño Sangre, so named for the red colour of the stream; after another hour’s walk the climb begins to the cerro, which is a Guayana Shield inselberg, like the Cerros de Mavecure (see our trip there at https://alanymarcemoreexploration.blogspot.com/2016/04/el-tuparro-and-los-cerros-de-mavecure.html ) and many others found in the Amazon basin. The latter part of the “walk” is a climb, and a permanent climbing line has been set up to assist in ascent and descent. The view from the top is stunning! On our way back we stopped at Caño Sangre for a very refreshing dip in the stream. This walk was a good start for our time in the area; the others were less demanding and so we were suitably “acclimatised” to the challenge, albeit somewhat tired that evening.
2) The following day was a river trip in Maria’s canoe. Maria proved an able navigator and helmsperson, and we enjoyed our day, leaving Puerto Calvo, heading upriver to Patio Bonito to look for birds, making our way down to a rocky promontory where we swam in the Rio Vaupés, then crossing the river to Terreno Libertad to go birdwatching, and finally disembarking in Mitú at La Serena. That night was New Year’s Eve and Rosmilda had kindly invited us to share the celebration with her and Leonel at the Mitú Real hotel, where we enjoyed conversation, fish, drinks, and fireworks; the lack of transport and nature of the some of the fireworks led to our being invited to stay the night at the hotel, which was very welcome.
3) On the 2nd we made another trip by boat, this time to Santa Marta on Rio Otuyaré whence we walked to Puerto Golondrina with Edwin, along a trail described as the “autopista”, on which the bird life was prolific. We had a traditional lunch with Edwin and his family, after which we were introduced to the pet otter, returned to Santa Marta, then headed upriver Rio Otuyaré to a community where walked the riverbank looking for birds and then enjoyed fresh fruit before heading further upriver to Puerto López beach for a swim, following which we returned to Mitú.
4) Ceima Cachivera – for this trip we travelled in 2 tuk tuks, to provide as much comfort as possible for the participants in the trip – ourselves and Rosmilda being four, and the tuk tuks accommodating no more than three passengers for more than short distances, this being well over an hour’s trip in each direction. After mingao with Community Capitan César we left with his father Sergio to walk past Cachivera Tucunare into the forest, to the Puerta del Yaro cave, Cerro Cafuche, and finally to another inselberg - Cerro Flecha, once again with amazing views across the forest, then back to the village to swim under bridge and then at Cachivera Tucunare before returning to Mitú. We were fortunate on our walk with Sergio to see a male Guianan Cock-of-the-rock. Sergio knows the area where these may be found, and it was good to see an example of this threatened species; we had seen one (the Andean) briefly in Perú, on our trip around South America (https://suramericacontraelreloj.blogspot.com/2010/07/gocta.html ) without successfully photographing it. This time a partial photo was achieved, however simply seeing this beautiful bird is enough. When returning to the village we were fortunate to meet Florenzio, as noted above, with whom we enjoyed two birdwatching expeditions.
5) We left Mitú at 0430h to make the most of the morning for birdwatching, picked up Florenzio at the crossroads to Ceima Cachivera, and continued past Caño Cucura to Pueblo Nuevo, arriving at 0600h. It had taken an hour and half to travel 19.4 km. Our birdwatching was outstanding, Florenzio not only knew where birds could be found, their Spanish, English, and Latin names, but also could imitate their calls, so well that they would reply. After lunch in the maloca we enjoyed a swim and then went out again in the afternoon for another enjoyable birdwalk.
6) Another early start (not quite so early) to go to Urania with Florenzio, which is relatively close to Mitú. We saw large numbers of guacamaya feasting on breakfast in the palms leaving town, and saw lots of birds along the road and at the river on the other bank of which is Urania. We walked through the community and up to the Cerro de Uranio (originally La Morada de Cubay), with a great view over the Rio Vaupés, then returned to Mitú to relax before heading to the airfield to return to Bogotá.
Restaurants
We found some options which proved good:
- Ba’Arībo, which provides traditional local dishes, with delicious copuaçu juice – we returned there on our last day in search of this, and although it was not planned to be available that day, the owner generously prepared some for us anyway.
- All Grill, which is clearly very popular, and which provided tasty pizza and hamburgers, along with an odd range of drinks based on what was available – the Maracuyá Mojito provide quite palatable.
- Los Dos Paisas – finca. This is somewhat out of town, i.e., about 3 minutes in tuk tuk. We arrived at around 1300h and this was apparently very late for lunch, however we were provided with food in large quantities.
- La Roca – even further out of town, i.e., about 10 minutes in tuk tuk. A new bar & restaurant, with slow service but good food.
- Donde Chabela – for breakfast (brunch) on New Year’s Day, friendly and with good tamales.
Abrazos
Alan & Marce
