RSS
Home
Natural adventures near Bogota from camping to hiking to one of the worlds most mysterious lagoons
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
If you decided to visit Bogotá and would like to visit some nearby attractions within a 2 hour driving distance of the city, there are plenty of things to do.
When one of my cousins decided to visit me here (and while he was here he also got Lasik eye surgery which is way more affordable than in the U.S and the quality is excellent) in Bogotá we decided to rent a van for the day (great price, about 100$ USD for the entire day) and take a trip (along with my aunt Maria) to La Laguna de Guatavita, or Guatavita Lagoon.
It had to have been one of the most scenic trips I had taken in many years. About an hour and a half outside of Bogotá was this beautiful, mountainous, desolate trail. After paying around 6$USD per person, we had an Indian (native American/Colombian) guide us, along with a group of about 8 other people, up these beautiful green mountains towards the large, strange looking lagoon (about 11,000 above sea level, I would recommend dressing warm, it gets cold up there).
The native guide explained to us many of the theories as to how the lagoon got there, even though not even some of the most sophisticated scientists have actually been able to figure it out.
Many believe that it was because of a meteor which penetrated the earth’s surface thousands of years ago, while other theories range from volcanoes to UFO´s.
Whichever story you may believe, the fact is that this is one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world and definitely worth visiting.
On that same day we had the van take us to the Salt Cathedral in Zipaquirá, also relatively close to Bogotá. This is a marvelous Cathedral which is entirely made of salt and is located underneath the ground. It is about the size of about 3 large malls put together and as dark and mysterious as something out of a suspense movie.
On another occasion I decided to take my cousin on a camping trip with some friends of mine to what is known in this area as El Neuza, or Neuza Park.
Of course the scenery is also amazing and even the 2 hour drive is very fun and entertaining because of all of the beautiful mountains that one must overcome in a vehicle.
Unfortunately we made the mistake of leaving late (Colombians tend to show up late to everything) and we arrived at this desolate camping area after dark. Now as one can imagine, 7 city folks who have gone camping maybe once or twice in their lives may have plenty of trouble setting up a tent and lighting a camp fire after dark, luckily one of us seven was smart enough to bring a flashlight (good idea, duh..) and we managed to pull through, after several frustrating hours.
That night I went with my cousin and one of my friends named Natalia for a walk along the lake near our tent when we saw some strange lights floating on the lake at a distance. They didn´t make any noise as they came towards us at the speed of a motor boat, except these made absolutely no sound.
Natalia was sure they were UFO´s hovering (yes, we were all 100% sober) above the lake, my cousin doesn´t believe in that kind of stuff and said that they must have been the lights of a car on the other side of the lake that just created the illusion of something over the lake that was coming towards us.
I don´t know what the lights were but I know for sure they were not the lights from another car on the other side, they were on top of the lake and they disappeared just as quickly as they appeared. Later a friend of mine told me that Neuza is notorious for UFO sightings.
Whether we believed in that kind of stuff or not, the camping trip was definitely an adventure worth repeating.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
