Day 3: Bogota (Cascada La Chorrera and Andres Restaurant) (3/30/19)

This morning, we requested an Uber from our hotel to the trailhead of Cascada La Chorerra. The Uber was supposed to be just 18,000 pesos, which seemed about 80% less than what it should have then. As soon as the Uber driver picked us up, he noticed that this was a 2-hour trip but still continued along the Waze route. After an hour of driving through out of Bogota and through small towns, he determined that this trip would not be worth his time and he tried to find us a bus in a small town that would take to the waterfall. After realizing a bus from a small town would be not fit into our schedule, he just drove us back to the bus station in Candelaria, where there are buses driving up and passing by the trailhead of Cascada La Chorrera every 20 minutes. We boarded one of those buses at 11:10AM and arrived at the trailhead at around noon. We enjoyed a coffee at a rural cafe near the trailhead and started the 3KM walk down a dirt road to the park. A couple of stray dogs were following us for most of the way down, until we hitched a ride to bypass a few other dogs that were being aggressive with one of the strays that was following us.

We then arrived at the park, paid the entrance fee, and started walking the 2-3 hours of trails inside the park. The scenery and waterfall were awe-inspiring and very unique to Colombia. After the first hour of hiking, the rain stopped and the clouds cleared up, which meant we know had great views of the surrounding terrain and waterfall. At over 800M, the waterfall is the tallest in Colombia. After finishing the hike, we got a ride with a local driver back to the top of the road, and then got a ride from a local, Jason, back to the Candelaria district. Jason was a young, laid-back Colombian guy enjoying life and gave us a few recommendations for places to visit in Colombia:

Sierra Nevada, Santa Marta
San Augustine (southern Columbia) (like stone henge)
Putu Mayo (colorful river -Macarena of crystalliz)(ayahuasca)
Santander
Pinol near medillin

After he dropped us off, we Ubered back to B3, got ready, and then Ubered to Andres for dinner tonight. Andres is a HUGE dinner spot and night club in the outskirts of Bogota and is the largest restaurants I’ve ever set food inside. It almost feels like 100,000 SF Stinking Rose or Rainforest Cafe restaurant. Gabby and I ordered a grilled plantain, vegetarian empanada, steak, and bean stew. My favorite item was the vegetarian bean stew which came with a side of avocado, plantain, and white rice.

Overall, it was a nice dinner and afterwards we Ubered back to the hotel.

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