El Cocuy Circuit

El Cocuy National Park is one of those places many backpackers still skip because of its very remote location. Admittedly, it is very remote. Getting there and getting away takes a long time and the roads are really bad and windy. But after we hiked it, we feel sorry for everybody who missed this gem in Colombia. If you are willing to trade lots of rain (every day, most of the day), six very long and tough hiking days (an average of 20 kilometers of rough and mountainous terrain each day), cold weather, high altitude, constantly wet shoes and humid clothes, camping food and cold, sleepless nights in tents with a truly beautiful, mystic and utterly remote mountain and paramo landscape with an amazing and strange fauna still far off the gringo trail, El Cocuy is just what you should go and see.

El Cocuy
We chose El Cocuy as starting point, even though it is as easy to start and and end in Güicán, the rival neighbor village. Overall, El Cocuy still feels like tourism hasn’t really reached it yet. Very few if any backpackers, few hostel and restaurant choices and if you try to get food after 7 pm, we wish you good luck. Locals also seem to be a bit distant and suspicious of strangers, but that’s only until you talk to them. They are very friendly and helpful once approached. However, we love those kind of places, as they are very authentic. It’s a cute town worth checking out for a few hours.

When to go
Due to our travel schedule, we did the 6-day hike during the peak of rainy season. It rained every day, most of the day. However, the rain is almost never very strong. It’s more like an ongoing drizzle that starts in the morning and ends late in the afternoon, basically most of the time you are hiking. But the fog, mist and clouds create a really mystic atmosphere that is very enchanting. We really liked it and fortunately, it was mostly dry when we set up tent or got ready in the mornings. If sun is what you are looking for, your chances of better weather are in December and January, but that’s also when most tourists see El Cocuy. We saw a total of 5 other people during the 6 days we hiked through the park. That’s less than one person per day!

Guide or no guide, that’s the question
We were glad we hired a guide. The mist is so thick most of the time that it is impossible to see into the distance, making it very easy to get lost. Hikers without guides have gotten lost in the park and died. Oftentimes, you cannot even see any trail, as it leads straight through a field of granite boulders or swamps. In fact, we met a French couple on the milk truck (see below) who decided to do the 6-day alone with the help of maps and directions printed off the internet. They did the circuit south to north (we did it north to south), so we met them midway behind the main mountain range. They told us that they had walked 3 hours down the wrong trail towards the rain forest the previous day, eventually setting up tent, but still not knowing that they had gotten lost. It was only thanks to two local caballeros who found and told them, that they found back to the correct trail where they then bumped into us. Our guide Secundino told us later, that they had gone down the same trail where three hikers had gotten lost for almost a month and where one of them died. Besides, we couldn’t have imagined carrying our food for 6 days in addition to our already full and heavy backpacks.

How to find a guide
If you want to pay a lot of money, hire a guide through an agency abroad months in advance. If you want to save money, don’t waste your time with that, but find one the day before you start the trek. There are lots of them waiting for your business directly in the town of El Cocuy and you don’t have to pay any middlemen. However, it took us the whole day to find one, so keep that in mind. The El Cocuy National Park office just off the main square can also give recommendations. Ask for a guy called Lucho. Having said that, we can strongly recommend our guide: Secundino. Why? See below …

Our guide Secundino Mariño Blanco
He’s a local who grew up in Güicán, meaning right next to El Cocuy National Park. He loves what he does, is very connected to nature, knows it well and has been a guide for five years. We actually found him through Alfredo Correa, who is a very fair, patient and honest tour organizer. However, Alfredo is still a middleman who calls up guides to work with you. In other words: you pay extra when you go through Alfredo, as you pay for his service and the guide’s services. So why not go straight to an actual guide?

Secundino always waited for us and is fun and easy to talk to, even though he speaks very little English which was not a problem for us. He is passionate about his job. He picks up trash in the park, re-erects fallen or destroyed stone pile trail markers, carried your backpack through tricky sections and he even set up a little altar before Valle de los Muertes, so religious hikers can pray before they enter a somewhat dangerous section of the hike. He also cooks for you. We didn’t miss anything we are looking for in a guide. Apart from that, he’s a volunteer at the local fire station, has a certification in “technical tourist guides” (he also does mountain climbing), has participated in an environmental interpretation course and he has been a national park ranger volunteer for two years.

You can reach him on his cell phone (+57) 313-271-1294 (Spanish only, little English). Add country and area code if you call from outside of El Cocuy. Just be aware that he doesn’t have a voicemail, so if you call him and he doesn’t answer, it either because he can’t talk or because he’s on a tour. On when on the 6-day tour, there is no reception whatsoever for 5 days while you are behind the main mountain range. In that case, call his sister Cristina Mariño Blanco at (+57) 311-808-7330 (Spanish only). You can also reach Secundino by email at cundimontana@yahoo.es, but same story here … if he’s on a circuit, he will not be able to respond for up to 5 days.

Equipment
Secundino will bring the kitchen equipment to cook, but you need to rent or have a good tent, a good sleeping bag (it gets close to freezing at night) and a camping mattress. You can find all that in the town on El Cocuy. You will also need lots of plastic bags to keep your stuff dry, rain pants, a rain jacket, a water-proof backpack cover, a second pair of shoes (your hiking shoes will never be dry for 6 days) and – very important – trekking poles.

The circuit
It’s long, hard and challenging, at least for us. We were glad to reach camp every day. There was no easy day … all had their different challenges. You have at least two strenuous mountain passes to cross every day, even though they don’t reach quite the altitudes treks in Bolivia do. What makes the trekking in El Cocuy hard are the distances (around 15 kilometers every day), your heavy backpack and the trail itself which often leads through wet, swampy terrain, rocky paths and lots and lots of creeks and rivers. Sometimes you even have to climb up rocks or jump wide gaps.

The circuit breaks down into:

1. One day of reaching the fork leading up to the first night stay (Cabanas Kanwara) hitching a hike on the lechero (milk truck) which takes 4 hours. Then you hike another 2 hours to the cabanas where your guide meets you in the evening. On day 1, you have to feed yourself.
2.  Day 2, 3, 4 and 5 are pure hiking days and you camp at night.
3. On day 6, you hike for 7-8 hours until you reach “La Casa de Miguel Herrera” from where a local pick-up takes you back to El Cocuy. Your guide will organize the pick-up for you, as soon as he/she gets a phone signal. We recommend staying another night in El Cocuy, as you will be pretty beat, stinky, tired, hungry and wet.

Here are a few maps: number 1 is one we created, number 2 and 3 are photographs of maps on walls. To see them bigger, right-click on them and choose “Open link in new tab”.

  

BTW: “Boqueron” and “Paso” are both used to name mountain passes.

Costs
As said above, we booked through local tour organizer Alfredo Correa who organized our guide Secundino. If you contact Secundino directly, you will save a bit of money. It is also cheaper if you find a third person, as Secundino will take up to three people. Another way to save money is to have breakfast in a small restaurant where the lechero stops for 20 minutes. The food at Cabanas Kanwara is somewhat pricey, but they offered a cheap soup which was filling. Below are all costs we accrued in the 6 days of our trek.

Day 1
On day 1, you take the lechero (milk truck) which starts in El Cocuy at 6 am and goes counter-clockwise to all the farms hugging the main El Cocuy mountain range, then through Güicán and eventually back to El Cocuy. It follows a pretty bumpy dirt road, so the ride is not comfy. We sat on our backpacks, but once the lechero fills up, you will randomly hold everything from groceries to babies from other people, trying not to drop them accidentally. It is still a very cool and cultural experience, as the lechero really fulfills many functions: of course it picks up the milk from local farmers, but it is also UPS, money delivery/circulation, school bus, grocery home delivery service, news/gossip service and of course your ride up to El Cocuy National Park. It will you drop off at an intersection two hours away from Cabanas Kanwara where you can rest very comfortably for the night. There isn’t much to do at the cabanas except chilling out and enjoying the peacefulness of the place. In the evening, your guide will meet you.

Day 2
On day 2, you will cross two mountain passes before reaching Laguna Grande de los Verdes where the campsite is located.

Day 3
On day 3 you will cross the highest pass of the trail and sleep at a semi-cave which will keep you dry at night.

Day 4
This day is really the highlight of the circuit. You will be very, very remote behind the mountain range (= it takes 3 days to get out in either direction) and you will cross the beautifull Valle de los Cojines. We shot a third of our pictures on that day alone. And of course two more mountain passes (there are at least two every day).

Day  5
A long day, as the terrain is very rough and the passes very strenous. But the scenery is awesome at the end of the day. And if you hike a bit further, you can again pitch tent in a semi-cave, keeping you dry at night.

Day 6
The scenery is just OK that day, but all you want that day is to get back to civilization anyway. At “Casa de Miguel Herrera”, a local will take you and the guide back to El Cocuy.