Sometimes, when the valley is very clear, we can see from our little house in Cali the mysterious mountains on the other side. These are the mountains behind the city of Palmira in the Central Mountain Chain, some 50kms away.
So, last Sunday, we decided to go for it and explore this area that is called La Buitrera de Palmira, and the close by Reserva Natural Nirvana.
From Cali to the city just north of it, Palmira, it´s about 25 kilometers. You can do this by bus, by taking a bus from the main bus terminal of Cali, or waiting for a bus stopping by at ´el terminalito´ as the corner just before hitting the highway to Palmira is called.
We decided to take our bikes for a little ride though. The first 10 kilometers crossing Cali is never fun, even though it was a Sunday and traffic is not that bad, but the 100 traffic lights made even Thomas lose his patience. Once you finally hit ´la recta Cali-Palmira´, it´s just 20 kilometers, well.. recta (straight).
Renting a bike
If you do not have your own bike with you, but you do would like to rent one, your best bet in Cali is in San Antonio. In the carrera 12 with calle 3 there is a little shop called Cali Bike Tours from the Travelcol agency. They rent pretty good mountain bikes, and also organize (bike)tours.
After that we did the first 30 kilometers, we had to make a little stop to feed Thomas. I have learned to put in enough of these stops, before the monster comes out. But luckily, in Colombia, a little bakery with some pandebonos is never far away and juices can be found on any streetcorner.
From here on, we continued through the city of Palmira. We are always surprised how many bikes there are in Palmira.. not something you would expect of Colombia! But it is one of the most cycling countries of Latin America, and the capital city of Bogotá actually has the most extensive cyclingpath network of Latin America as well! If you want to read more about what it is like to cycle through Colombia, read Thomas´stories of his cycling journey through Colombia on Cycling the Globe.
Anyways, after that, it was finally time to come out of the valley and climb up the mountains. We now moved from the Cordillera Occidental (the western mountain chain), where our little house is located, to the Cordillera Central (the central mountain chain). It´s a nice but hot ride up of about 10 kilometers before we got to la Buitrera.
Reserva Natural Nirvana
There we met some friends, who are lucky enough to actually live up there, for lunch.
The typical thing to eat is fresh trout (yes, I do eat fish, every once in a while) and of course the famous Colombian patacon (fried plantain). From there on we went to explore the Natural Reserve.
The entrance to this is basically at the end of the road to Buitrera and the fee is 10.000 pesos. We were thinking that this was a wild piece of forest with lost tracks, but really.. it might be one of the most organized treks you can do in Colombia, in my experience! There are signs, and numbers, and little explanation signs of animals and trees you can see. In about 30-45 minutes (depending on how fast you walk and how many pictures you take) you hike to the final point ´el mirador´ (the viewpoint). From here you can see all across the valley of the Cauca river and across towards Cali. Unfortunately we had quite a lot of clouds, fog and rain to look at, but somehow it still makes it very mystical. The way down was quite slippery but we knew there would be a little Colombian coffee down there!
Where to sleep?
There are lots of little cabins and houses where you can rent a room. Most of them are not really on booking.com or any other website, so your best bet would be to go up there and knock on the door of any of the houses that says ´hospedaje´. We were lucky that we could sleep with our friends in La Buitrera, overlooking a beautiful sunset and calm morning, before we did the same 55 kilometer bicycle ride back.
How to get there by bus?
If you would do all of this by bus, you would have to take a bus from Cali to Palmira, from there you switch to a bus that would drop you below the mountain at the entrance of the road up to La Buitera, and from there on you can take one of the typical chivas (country side buses) or a sporadic little bus. Public transportation, especially on Sundays, is not very punctual though, so be prepared that you might have to wait a little. There are of course juice stands at the turn off, so you can entertain yourself during the wait.
