CULTURAL 15D (B)

A person from our team will be waiting for you at your arrival time at El Dorado Airport in Bogota and will take you to the hotel where you will have the check-in. You will have the rest of the day at leisure. At the end of the day a person from our team will give you a briefing of the whole experience with some advice and recommendations for a pleasant trip. Subsequently, you will have time for dinner and rest.

On this day, after breakfast, you will have a full day city-tour of 7 hours approx., starting at 9:00 AM at the lobby of the hotel (the hour can change if you need more recover from the international flight), where you will visit the most iconic spots of the capital of Colombia, such as La Candelaria neighborhood, Monserrate church and the gold museum of Bogota. At the end of afternoon, you will be taken back to the hotel.

On this day, after breakfast, you will be picked up at 8:00 AM in order to have a full day private tour visiting the 2 most iconic attractions of the surrounding area of Bogota: Guatavita lagoon, where you will learn about the origin of El Dorado legend and then will visit Zipaquirá Salt Cathedral, which is an underground roman catholic church built within the tunnels of a salt mine. At the end of the day, you will be taken back to Bogota.

After breakfast, you will be taken to be at the airport 2 hours before your flight, and will fly directly to Pitalito. Once there, you will be picked up and will have a 30-minutes transfer to your hotel in San Agustin. You will have lunch, and after that, you will have a tour at the Archeological Park with our bilingual guide, discovering the first statues of the region in this place that has the best collection of archeology nationwide. Later on, you will be taken back to the hotel.

On this day, you will have a full day tour starting at 8:00 AM, visiting by car the main attractions of the surrounding area of San Agustin, which are the Bordones waterfall, the Magdalena strait, the Obando museum, the statues of Isnos and Alto de los Idolos. At each place you will have different stops where you will have the explanation of the history and mysticism of the area, At the end of the afternoon, you will be taken back to your hotel.

On this day, you will start at 8:00 AM visiting some of the most beautiful statues of the whole region, located at La Pelota and Purutal sites. These statues still keep the original colors that the civilization that build them used almost 2.000 years ago. In the afternoon you will be taken in a 3-hours transfer to a hotel where you can't expect luxury, but instead surrounded by great nature in the municipality of Coconuco, located next to Puracé National Park.

After breakfast, you will start exploring the main attractions of the Puracé National Park at 8:00 AM by car, where you will see different waterfalls, hot springs, well preserved ecosystems up to 3.000 m.a.s.l. and even with some luck the Andean condor, all of that in an indigenous territory in the protected area of Purace National Park. In the afternoon, you will be taken on a 1.5-hour transfer to the city of Popayan.

On this day, you will have at 9:00 AM a city-tour with our bilingual guide, exploring the beautiful historical center of Popayan, which is called the white city as its buildings preserve this color. In the afternoon, you will be taken to "Hacienda Calibio", which was in important place for the independence of the country or/and can have a silkworm’s experience where you will see how locals make this ancient natural fabric, before being taken back to the hotel.

On this day, at 8:00 AM you will be taken to Tierradentro, which is a village located 3.5 hours north of Popayan by some unpaved but beautiful roads. Once there, you will check into the hotel and will have lunch. In the afternoon, you will visit the Archeological Park of Tierradentro, which is a complex where you can see the first Hypogea, which is a different type of archelogy made by ancient civilizations underground in a short-guided walk.

On this day, after breakfast you will have a tour in private transportation to several sites, visiting different hypogea sites such as El Duende and Tablon hills where you will continue watching different archeological sites in this territory which is inhabited by several indigenous communities and far from mass tourism. You will also visit small villages with old colonial churches, surrounded by great landscapes, before being taken to the city of Neiva.

After Breakfast, you will be taken to the town of Villavieja, where you will visit the red area of Tatacoa in a 1-hour hike by this desert, which is the second largest nationwide and offers completely different landscapes and also holds important paleontological secrets of the country. After lunch, you will have a 30-minutes boat tour on the Magdalena River looking for fauna and listening to myths and legends from locals. We will end the day back in Neiva.

On this day, you will have a transfer to the airport 2 hours before your flight to Cartagena with a connection in Bogotá. Once there, you will have a transfer to the chosen hotel inside the walled city. In the afternoon, you will have a 4-hours city-tour, visiting the main spots of the city of Cartagena, which has a strong heritage of Spanish architecture mixed with the colors, Caribbean vibes and warm weather.

On this day, you will visit San Basilio de Palenque, which is a town located 1.5-hrs. away from Cartagena and was the first free town in America, founded by self-emancipated former slaves during Colombia’s colonial period. This town remains a symbol of resistance and African pride due to its story, having even the first Spanish-based creole language, which is still spoken in this place. At night we will have a special farewell dinner back in Cartagena.

On this day, you have a guided tour to the National Aviary of Cartagena, where you can see hundreds of different species in a conservation place. After that, you will visit the community of Ararca, where you can participate in the restoration project of mangroves led by local communities. You will have lunch there and can experience their dances and their fishing activities, getting a close contact with them, before heading back to the hotel.

On this day, you will have breakfast at the hotel, and you will be taken to the international airport of Cartagena in order to be 3 hours before your flight out the country or 2 hours before flight connections inside Colombia.