What makes Colombia so special compared to other Latin American countries is the feeling that there is still so much to discover. Not that you are the "first" to explore, but there is so much to see and do, and not all of it can be found in the usual guidebooks. It is easy to get off the "beaten path" and enrich your experience in Colombia with something different. Most itineraries are confirmed around some of the highlights, while, back home, the experiences that were not planned, or found in the guidebooks, are the ones that are best remembered. The Andean region is full of "highlights", but there are also many more "hidden gems". Nature reserves that hardly anyone visits, unknown trails in the Andean mountains or small villages that will surprise you not only for their beauty, but also for their traditional culture and people.
Rio la Miel is such a hidden treasure. An important river in the east of the Caldas department, with its spring in the municipality of Marulanda. Because of the dam construction at Norcasia, the fluency of the river is constant, giving the river a crystal clear, light green appearance.
Another highlight is the village of La Playa de Belén, in the department of Norte de Santander. This region is already almost invisible for foreign tourists, which makes a visit even more unique. Next to the town you find the nature reserve of Estoraques, full with sand and rock formations.
Deep in the southern parts of the Andes you find the Macizo Colombiano, a paramo where two of the main rivers in Colombia have their spring; Rio Cauca and Rio Magdalena. It’s possible to do a multiple day trekking or horse ride from San Agustin to Popayan, passing by this unique spot.
If you think of wax palm trees, you probably think of Salento and ‘Valle de Cocora’. But not that far away, deeper into the Los Nevados Park, you find a very small town called ‘Toche’, which has more wax palms than you can ever imagine. No offense, but visiting Toche, wipes away Cocora.
Salamina, at a two-hour drive from the city of Manizales in the Caldas department, is one of the oldest and most beautiful coffee villages of the Coffee Region, located on a hill surrounded by green mountains. Founded in 1825, the town has the same traditional Paisa architecture as other villages in the Coffee Region, but with artsy, round balconies designed by a local woodworker by the name of Eliseo Tangarife. Salamina is so well preserved that it was declared a Cultural Heritage Site in 1982, due to its location off the tourist route you will not encounter many other visitors in this town.
