A landslide near Hardin prevents our planned visit to the Yellow-eared Parrot Bird Reserve, which was created in a last-ditch attempt to save the parrot whose numbers have declined precipitously due to the harvesting of wax palms-the birds nest in and feed on their nuts. The 15-km road journey to the Los Nevados Lodge in these mountains take several bone-jarring hours on a potholed road. In the north, the Sierra Nevada Mountains rise steeply to a height of over 5,000 m, a mere 40 km from the coastal town of Santa Marta. We travel in November and December, the dry season, although we encounter intermittent rain. Our journey takes us through the Eastern Amazonian region, the Llanos (a vast grassland cut by rivers that run east to the Orinoco and the Atlantic Ocean), the Central Andes and the Santa Marta/Caribbean coast. The separation of the Andes Mountains into three major distinct ranges and the Santa Marta massif creates isolated habitats that allow unique lives to develop. This diversity is a function of Colombia’s topography. Although it covers only 2 percent of the planet’s land surface, it is home to around 18 percent (over 1,800 species) of its avian life forms, and more than 450 kinds of mammals. Colombia is a lusus naturae of natural history. The Latin term lusus naturae means a freak or sport of nature something that exhibits abnormal variation from type. Our six-week trip, however, is focussed on the country’s wildlife. Along the Caribbean coast are beach resorts that provide an escape from northern winters, spiced by slices of Spanish and English colonial history. Favourable temperatures, rainfall and soils in the region produce some of the best coffees in the world. Tourists also visit Colombia’s Triángulo del Café (the Coffee Triangle) centred around the towns of Manizales, Armenia and Pereira. The pieces have a signature style: Figures depicted in large, exaggerated volume, sometimes signifying political criticism, sometimes humour. Both Bogotá and Medellín also have museums and squares dedicated to the work of Fernando Botero, Colombia’s best known artist and sculptor. Gold was also the driver reason behind the barbaric Spanish conquest of the Americas in the 16th century. The items, sacred to the indigenous cultures, represent the life of these ancient societies. It has on display the largest selection of pre-Columbian gold artefacts in the world. However, a peace deal between the government and Farc, one of the major revolutionary groups, gave us a window of opportunity that we couldn’t ignore.Ĭonventional tourists concentrate on the cities, such as the capital Bogotá, which is famed for its Museum of Gold. But, until recently, an ongoing conflict between the government, paramilitary groups, crime syndicates, and left-wing guerrillas had meant that travel was restricted. Image: Top Row - Ondrej Prosicky / Shutterstock Middle Row: Mayskyphoto / Shutterstock Shutterstock Ian Maton / Shutterstock Bottom Row: Ondrej Prosicky / Shutterstock Martin Mecnarowski / Shutterstock Ondrej Prosicky / Shutterstock (From left in top row) an Acorn Woodpecker, an antpitta, aracaris (middle row) colourful parrots and macaws, a Paradise Tanager, a Pygmy Owl (bottom row) a Sword-billed Hummingbird, a common potoo and a toucanet
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