CHICAMOCHA TREK
Hi Rodrigo,
Now that I’m back home, I’ve been describing my great trip to Colombia to friends and realizing that the trek that my son Ben and I did with you at Chicamocha Canyon in Santander was the best part—by far. Not only was the hiking extraordinarily beautiful, but the accommodations you arranged were wonderful, and we very much enjoyed getting to know you along the way. Our overnight stops at both Shangrila Refugio De Caminantes and Refugio la Roca were both perfect. They are each magical places in their own way. Also, I really appreciated your flexibility in changing up our itinerary to accommodate our needs and your matching our trekking route to our goals and hiking experience. Thank you very much. I have already recommended you to a fellow hiker who is planning a trip to Colombia.
Warm regards,
ROCK CLIMBING
End of November 2022 I’ve spend 3 full days rock climbing with Rodrigo in Suesca and had the time of my life! Since I didn’t have any experience at all Rodrigo made sure to focus on the basics first. After the first day of getting used to the equipment we went all out on the second day, climbing walls of over 100 meters!! I never thought I would be able to do that! The traditional way of rock climbing Rodrigo practices makes the learning experience so much more exciting and challenging!
I would definitely recommend Rodrigo as a rock climbing guide! Thanks so much for the great time and the even greater memories! See you soon!!
PNN COCUY – GUICAN
We were a family of 4, 2 parents and 2 girls both over 18 and chose a 4 day trek through the
El Cocuy National Park with Colombiatreks.
We are a family with alot of experience in the mountains and with treking having done alot all over the world, Peru, Kenya, Costa Rica and alot in Europe ( Dolomites ) and at home in the Bavarian Alps where we live so we understand the demands and challenges in treking at high altitudes and difficult terrain and the requirements of Guides and logistics to ensure such a tour works and is successful. Given this I can absolutely recommend Colombiatreks and Rodrigo due to the excellent preparation and support of the 2 guides, Rodrigo himself and Julio and can say without qualification this was an excellent experience and very successful tour.
There are 3 main routes now allowed into the park and we did all of them, there are difficult logistics and permits required for each day as noone is allowed to stay in the park overnight anymore meaning a finca close by outside the park and daily transportation is required.
All of this and the care and support given during the trip was as said excellent and I can only encourage anyone thinking of doing such a trek to contact Rodrigo and organize the trek with his company Colombiatreks which is also reommended by Lonely Planet. As we are also rock climbers as is Rodrigo we also felt a strong bond and can confirm his technical skills if such
requirements are necessary or the glaciers can be climbed once more.
with Best regards
David and Susanne Rogers ( with daughters Sarah and Tessi )
COCUY & LOS NEVADOS
Dear Rodrigo, Alejandro and Yesid,
after finding back in our daily routine we are happy to share with you our experiences in Colombia this summer. We hope that you enjoyed the trekking tours as we did. Please follow the link down below to watch some photos we took on our trip.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/fc4kG37T62C1wZsx9
We are very lucky that we are able to visit foreign countries. Colombia is for sure on the top 3 list. Everything was organized perfectly. A big thank you to Rodrigo!
We would also thank Alejandro and Yesid for your guidance in PNN Cocuy an PNN Los Nevados.
Thank you Alejandro for your endurance on the 2nd tour to pulpito del diablo. The weather on top was really bad.
Thank you Yesid for your wonderful cooking in the high camp! We hope your knee does not hurt anymore that you are able to climb on mountains without pain.
Best regards from Austria
Christian & Stephan
PNN LOS NEVADOS
I was revisiting our photos and realized I had not thanked you again for the wonderful 8-day trek through Los Nevados National Park. We were very appreciative that everything went so smoothly, from being picked up in Bogota, starting the trek in Juntas Village, all the way through to Pereira. We felt well taken care of. I have attached some photos from the trek. I wish you and Sebastian all the best!
Linda from California
Hi Rodrigo,
I sent you this e-mail just to tell you thank you about the good management of our trek despite the bus strike.
Everything was perfectly organized by Julito and Marta.
The 4 days spent in the mountains with Julito will be in our memory for ever.
The last day was a little bit demanding but we managed it.
I would like to give a special mention to the Mirador lodge which was very confortable with hot shower and Wifi!
Thanks again
Frederic & Brigitte
https://medium.com/@pathunwritten/trekking-el-cocuy-national-park-c5627f8b39bc
EL COCUY & GUICAN
Hello Rodrigo,
I e-mail you to let you know that I really enjoyed the Colombiatrek hike in El Cocuy. Everything was perfectly organised, from busticket to hotel and from guide to the hikes. Especially our guide, Julio “Julito” Suarez, made our trip so memorable. His love for the park, the nature, the mountains, the culture Colombian and Guican made that he talked so passionate about everything. Send him many thanks from me and let him know that I’ll send him the pictures through mail.
You also many thanks for all the help and the perfect organisation.
Mucho gusta Colombia y especialmente el PNN El Cocuy!
Kind regards,
Jeroen Allebrandi
Nevado del Tolima
This is just an email to pass on our thoughts to everyone about the 4 days with spent with Rodrigo on our trek to PNN Los Nevados. The 3 of us chose to go with Rodrigo over all the other guides I found in my extensive research because he was the one who was most organised and this inspired a lot of confidence in us. He answered our (multiple!) emails promptly (even letting us know if he was out of comms for a few days), provided an alternative itinerary (originally we wanted to do El Cocuy) and sorted us out for the accommodation in Salento when they didn’t answer my email.
On spending 4 days with Rodrigo I can definitely say he knows his stuff and the Colombian mountains. We felt very safe with him. Right from the beginning he ensured we had adequate kit for the job (bringing spare stuff just in case) and even when one of us developed altitude sickness he made a plan to keep her safe whilst he led the other 2 to the summit of Tolima, which was worth every single peso. It was a challenging 4 days but all the while we felt relaxed, we took our time to enjoy the views and never felt rushed.
Also, the camp fire meals he made us was better than the food we cook for ourselves at home!
We would definitely recommend Rodrigo to anyone looking for a guide to explore Colombia with.
Thanks again Rodrigo (and Jose). Hopefully see you again soon in Colombia.
Bianca, Sarah, Hannah