National Natural Parks of Colombia – Colombian Travel Guide

welcome to colombia today i'm going to talk about national natural parks and sanctuaries in colombia welcome wonderful people all over the world my name is frank i'm swiss and i came to colombia in 2015 and i run a travel agency here in bogota today i'm going to talk about different national parks and sanctuaries i will not cover all of them because there are so many but in a country like colombia which is also recognized as the second most biodiverse country in the world after brazil you can imagine there is quite some potential for nature lovers so in colombia we have the synap which is the national system of protected areas and it consists of 1116 units and that counts for almost 15 of the national territory therefore we can say it's huge because colombia has 1.125 million square kilometers it's very big we have the size of california and texas combined or the size of germany and france some of those areas are private public combined national or run by national or local governments then we also have different entities that take care of the different kind of territories we have the national natural park pnn we have the national natural reserve rn we have unique natural area a anu we have fauna and flora sanctuary sff and we have parkway via pake of the 59 areas 26 are inhabited by indigenous or afro-descendants and also 23 of the parks of the 59 are open to the public and can be visited so i will go through some of those areas and explain you a little more in detail what you can expect there and how you can get there the first one is old providence mega bean lagoon national park this is around the island of providencia unfortunately in the year 2000 there was a hurricane and destroyed the whole island and so far we don't know how affected also the mcbean lagoon territory the the natural park is but hopefully not too much the natural park consists of the second largest coral reef of the caribbean and this part of the sea is also recognized as the sea of the seven colors and it's really beautiful providencia was a very nice caribbean island far away from mass tourism with beautiful beaches so currently they're reconstructing after the hurricane so let's see how they will be able in what speed they can rebuild the island and give access again to the coral reef right now we still don't know how much the coral reef is affected but we'll see in the future you can get there very easily as soon it will be open again for tourism you fly to san andres and there are flights from katahina or from bogota and then from san andres you can take the ferry which i do not recommend or you can take a little plane which takes you 15 to 20 minutes then we have another beautiful caribbean destination and the natural park it's called corrales del rosario national natural park this is around the islands of san bernardo there is a cover fee it's around three dollars so not too expensive and i personally have not been there so far but i hope i can visit san bernardino island in the future because it's very beautiful it's a huge area and the pictures i saw are just stunning and people who visited the those islands they they told me all good stories then we go from the atlantic to the pacific to malbello flora and fauna sanctuary maltello is a island about 500 kilometers away from buena ventura that means when you take the boat it will take you around 35 hours to get there and it's actually the ninth largest protected marine area in the world and the unesco heritage site since 2006. it's a very famous spot for divers because you find big schools of homerhead sharks but if you want to go there you need to fulfill some requirements you need a professional guide for each six participants you need to have quite some experience in diving and it's not so easy to get there so it's not a mass tourist destination as you can imagine and there are also like two or three official providers who offer packages going there then another one in the pacific coast it's utrea national park this is situated between baya solano and nuki so from those two destinations you can book daily boat trips when i visited the area people said it's not so good organized maybe they improved because i was there like three or four years ago when i wanted to go from bio salano to nokia so i stayed in the front of utria and waited for a boat going further south but for sure what you can find is the typical flora and fauna of the pacific and already the boat right there is quite spectacular el coqui national natural park this is very cool because it's bordering four departments it's bordering boyaka santander and a rauka i visited the town el kokui which is on the bottom which is a perfect starting point from bogota if you take the bus it takes about 14 hours if you have your own transport it takes you almost 12 hours it felt a million turns to get there but it's worth going there the altitude is from 600 to over 5 000 meters above sea level this is in feet 2000 to seventeen thousand five hundred feet and it's actually the biggest glacier in colombia there are 25 snow peaks and uva indigenous that live in that territory there are different difficulty levels from normal trekking until mountaineering some time ago they also opened more area some space from the indigenous but then they had problems with garbage and locals they offered tours with horses and they were not respecting the sacred space of the local indigenous so the indigenous said no more so let's see in the future if it will open up again more of the el kokui or not then also a great destination around the coffee triangle is los nevados national natural park and you can access this natural park from the departments caldas resalta quindio and dolima those mountains are a volcanic complex and the altitude is from 2600 to over 5 300 meters above sea level this is in feet 8 500 to 17 500 the mountains you find there are nevado de luis nevado de santa isabel nevado del tolima and paramiles of chisney and santa rosa the different difficulty levels you also find is from easy tracking until expert mountaineering and you can access los nevados actually from all departments from the coffee triangle the next one on the list is sierra nevada santa marta national natural park and you'll find it in the department of magdalena close to santa marta on the caribbean sea it goes from sea level until over 5775 meters above sea level which is zero until almost 19 000 feet the indigenous that still live on that territory are the cancuamo kogi viva yaguako the santa marta is considerate the highest coastal mountain in the world it is also famous for the last city track which you can do in four five or six days it's fantastic for birding you find waterfalls there are coffee fingers and if you want to do some serious mountaineering you need to access the indigenous territory so you will need a local operator that will get the permit from the local indigenous community right next to the siena de santa marta we have the tyrona national natural park which is probably the most famous and most visited park in colombia it goes from zero to 900 meters above sea level or from zero to three thousand feet above sea level we have currently three closing periods a year that the park can regenerate you also have a local indigenous people living within the park it is recommended to have a yellow feet wear vaccine anyway you always should use repellent and according clothes to protect yourself from mosquito bites and in the park you can do birding trekking swimming and animal observation it's a great plan and a fantastic area right next to bogota there's also a great park it's called chingaza national natural park and you can access it from bogota or from vila vicencio in the department of meta the altitude is between eight hundred and four thousand meters above sea level or two thousand six hundred and thirteen thousand two hundred feet you can find paramos you can do camping there are different access points you can go and visit lagunas de sieja which is perfect um sometimes it's a bit foggy and you see nothing but if it's not foggy it's so great you can do hiking camping boarding so those are already the few examples i gave you from national parks here in colombia if you're interested to visit one of those ones you always can contact us if you're looking for more information you will find the link in the description if you like our channel don't forget to subscribe hit the bell button to not miss great content in the future you also can leave your comment or ask questions in the comment section i say goodbye and send you the best wishes wherever you are and i hope to see you soon here back on my channel again or even better here in colombia all the best yours columbia frank bye [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: COLOMBIAFRANK

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Keywords: Colombiafrank, Traveling Colombia, Colombian travel guide, tourism colombia, things to do Colombia, National Natural Parks of Colombia, most biodiverse countries in the world, System of National Natural Parks, sinap colombia, most important natural reserves in Colombia, natural reserves in colombia, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia indigenous communities, Tayrona Park, Corales del Rosario Natural Park, Chingaza National Natural Park, natural parks colombia, nature colombia

Id: oYxo9K-Fzes

Length: 13min 34sec (814 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 24 2021