The Search for El Dorado

Fly from your chosen airport, via Paris, to Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, and transfer to the 4-star Hotel Cite for a three-night stay.

An introduction to Bogotá begins with a visit to the famous food market ‘La Perseveranica’; and tours the city’s highlights including its historic heart, La Candelaria, a colonial enclave of cobbled streets, convents and churches; the collection of contemporary art by Fernando Botero in the gallery named for him; and the feast of pre-Columbian gold artefacts in the Museo del Oro, the Golden Raft its crowning jewel. In the afternoon a short drive to Monserrate Hill, to take the cable car up to the top (3,048m). Time to visit the iconic church and the to appreciate the unparalleled views over Colombia’s capital.
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Be a ‘bogotano’ and follow your guide by bike (or coach) along the paths from the hotel to the city’s on-trend Usaquén district. A lively hub of French bistros, Asian-fusion eateries, cafés and cocktail bars, it is bohemian and avant-garde, yet somehow retains its Andean small-town atmosphere. Time to visit the Sunday market.
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Travel to Zipaquirá to visit the subterranean Salt Cathedral, built and atmospherically lit in the 200m deep tunnels of an old salt mine. Continue to lovely Villa de Leyva; and take a walking tour of the National Heritage town, its narrow streets lined with colonial convents and whitewashed houses, its Plaza Mayor said to be the largest entirely cobbled space in South America. Overnight at the 3-star Posada de San Antonio.
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Morning visit to the 17^th-century Convento del Santo Ecce Homo, a Dominican monastery with a chequered history, and a beautiful arcaded cloister. Time for a stroll in the surrounding area. Return to Bogotá via Boyacá Bridge, for a flight to Pereira, the commercial hub and gateway to the plantations of the Coffee Region, its three districts collectively awarded UNESCO status. Two nights at the 4-star Hotel Mocawa Resort.
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A tour today combines Colombia’s natural and cultural heritage, visiting the verdant Cocora Valley, in the central Andean mountains, the home to the world’s tallest palm trees, the wax palm, soaring up to sixty metres high; and continue to tiny Salento, a quaint, characterful, and amiable town, nestled amid coffee estates. Time to play ‘Tejo’, a game that comes from the Colombian indigenous communities. In the afternoon visit Filandia, walk along the small streets and appreciate its traditional and colourful architecture. We will try our basket weaving skills during a workshop.
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The luxuriant hills of the Coffee Region are cloaked with traditional farms, where visitors can pick the Arabica beans and experience the lifestyle. We visit one of them this morning, and take time to taste the coffee. Flight to Medellin, the modern provincial capital of mountainous Antioquia, for three nights at the 4-star Hotel Diez.
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A tour of the city starts by taking the Metro Cable up to San Janvier district the entrance to Comuna 13, where murals, graffiti art, and outdoor escalators have transformed this formerly impoverished district into Medellin’s most colourful. In the afternoon the tour takes in the downtown Plaza Botaro, celebrating its most famous son, sculptor Fernando Botero.
(B, L)

Travel to Guatapé, a must-see little town, filled with brightly painted houses, and focused on the mammoth granite monolith Piedra del Peñol. Climb the 740 steps to its summit for dizzying vistas of its scenic surrounds; and enjoy a cruise on the huge reservoir created for a hydro-electric dam. Return to Medellin.
(B, L)

Fly to Cartagena, the cosmopolitan port for sailings to castaway islands, with countless restaurants in its 16^th-century squares, and cafés and condo’s on the Bocagrande, backing its Caribbean shores. Two nights at the 4-star Armeria Real Hotel. The tour of Cartagena starts with a visit to the iconic San Felipe Fortress, still standing after centuries of pirate raids and privateer armies’ attacks followed by a walking tour of Cartagena’s UNESCO listed colonial heart the walled old town includes the urban oasis of Bolivar Park, the Naval Museum, and Santo Domingo Church, as old as the city itself. During the walking tour enjoy specialities of ‘Colombia’s most visited city’ with a Street Food tour.
(B)

Drive to the fishermen town La Boquilla to embark on a dugout canoe to travel on the canals between the ancient mangroves to a lake populated by flocks of egrets, white herons and pelicans. We will plant a mangrove tree and taste fresh coconut water, visit the village and observe and play the Afro-Colombian wild drums. Return to Cartagena for afternoon at leisure.
(B)

Transfer to the airport for the overnight flight, via Amsterdam, to your chosen destination.
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Arrival at your chosen airport.