As we track down cooler temperatures in South America for basically the first time since June, we’re excited to start hiking again. A place called Los Estoraques natural area was recommended to us. It’s located on the outskirts of La Playa de Belen, a town in the northeast part of the country.
It is quite a drive to reach Los Estoraques, with a long climb up switchbacks to 1,450 meters. The road is two lanes, with huge semi trucks taking up both lanes on the curves. It isn’t unusual for two semis to hit a curve at the same time coming from opposite directions, which makes for slowdowns and creative maneuvering.
After that exhausting drive to La Playa, we were eager to rest for a few days. We ended up camping three nights on the lawn of a local restaurant. We were on the edge of the small town. We could easily walk to the main plaza with its church and a cafe called PapoArt, as well as Los Estoraques to the north of the town.
Our latest video is all about our hike through Los Estoraques. We share the experience of seeing the magnificent rock spires and Ciudad Perdida (Lost City). We even stumble on a rock canyon that purportedly inspired Bruno’s room in the Disney movie Encanto.
This is our last YouTube video with Caspian as a five-year-old. He turned six on December 3!
Watch now:
What’s next?
We left Cartagena on Nov. 21. After three nights in the mountain town of Minca with a waterfall swim, we made our way to La Playa for the visit you see in this video. Now we are in the large city of Bucaramanga for Caspian’s birthday celebration.
When we leave Bucaramanga this week, we’ll be exploring the charming towns south of here. One of them is Barichari, which some people say is the most beautiful town in the all of Colombia. Right now, the plan is to end up in Bogotá for Christmas.
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Thanks for joining us on this journey around the world!
-B
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