off the beaten track – Roaming About

After enjoying Villa de Leyva, the end of January, the plan was to embark on another off-the-beaten-track adventure. But, as we wrapped up an extended stay in our favorite Colombian pueblo patrimonio, we faced two possible issues: the weather forecast predicted rain which could make the dirt roads impassable and we were on a deadline, because we wanted to visit our friends Susan and John in El Retiro for a handful of days, before they’d leave on a trip in the middle of February and would have other guests prior to that. Plus, we were in the midst of dealing with a vehicle extension and didn’t know if this would require a last-minute stop in Medellin.

Tiered waterfalls in Florián

Could we fit in a multiple-day side trip to Florián without encountering muddy roads, would the challenging detour be worthwhile, and would we have enough time left to make the two-day drive and visit Rio Claro on the way to El Retiro?

Map Colombia

Florián in Santander, Colombia

Few Colombians have heard of Florián, located in the middle of the mountains of the Santander department. Wikipedia in English doesn’t have much info but the Spanish page has a bit more data. The town is known for its multi-tiered waterfall, which tumbles out of a cave. It sounded cool but would take us a full day to reach; the last four hours over bouncy, slow, dirt roads.

(As always, hover over or click on photos in galleries to read their captions.)

Mountain road

Pretty views along the drive into the mountains

Rocky road surfaces

A busy stretch – if that car can drive here, we can!

Narrow, one-lane roads to reach our destination

Leaving Florián the same way we came

Mark stumbled across this destination a few months ago, probably seeing photos by a fellow overlander on Facebook. He pinned it in Google maps, which is how we now compile lists of worthwhile destinations. And, by reading in our fat South America Lonely Planet.

When we arrived, exhausted and shaken, we parked along the main square for the night. We walked around town and to a viewpoint of the valley, wondering where the waterfall was located. We surely thought we’d have seen – if not heard – it by now. That’s when we discovered there was nothing but a trickle, none of it visible from a distance. To say we were disappointment is an understatement!

After our experience in Gramalote over Christmas, Mark, Maya, and I left the department of Norte de Santander and found more touristy areas in Santander; popular destinations for Colombians. We hadn’t seen and still didn’t see gringos for weeks. This made it special for us to meet curious locals and to practice our limited Spanish. Few Colombians speak English.

We split ways with our friends Sheri and Jeff for a few days, as we looked forward to reaching a couple off-the-beaten track places. The less busy, the less fireworks! Our first objective was Chicamocha Canyon and its town along the river, Cepitá. The more you descend in the mountains, the hotter it gets, so we decided to stop for the night at an area near the top of the ravine.

(As always, hover over or click on photos in galleries to read their captions.)

You know you are in a cooler region when the locals wear wool ponchos

And you know you’re in the mountains when the GPS route looks like this

Narrow road down Chicamocha Canyon

A bit more on edge since the incident in Gramalote Viejo, we both needed to feel comfortable boondocking (wild camping). Being right off the road meant we were visible for passersby, so we decided to only camp here for one night. The view over the canyon was spectacular and we were visited by goats.