Rio Claro

At 5:30am Jill (high school English teacher) and Tully (Jill’s seventh grade son) pick us up in a cab to take us to the El Centro metro/transportation center. We are on our way out of town for the three day weekend with a group of 15 or so other teachers and friends to go camping in the jungles of Colombia. This is a record of our adventure.

At around 6:30 we get onto a brightly painted bus with 28 seats. By the time we pull out of the station at a quarter to seven all the seats are taken. Within 15 minutes of leaving town and a few stops to pick up locals from the roadside the aisle is packed with at least 25 more travelers standing shoulder to shoulder ready for the 4 hour trip to Rio Claro and the 7 hour trip to Bogotá (the destination for the majority of the travelers). The trip will take us along the main highway between Medéllin and Bogotá, a two lane mountain road.

The bus creaks along for several hours stopping frequently to pick up passengers or produce. About an hour out of Rio Claro the bus gets a flat tire. No worries, the driver and porter hop out pump up the tire and we continue on for about 2km before the process is repeated, over and over and over. Finally, we limp into a repair shop that mysteriously appears on the side of the road with a Coca Cola stand and nothing else for miles. The mechanic quickly springs into action and puts several cinder blocks under the bus, which is still loaded with over 50 passengers, and removes the tire and rim. After an hour long repair job with people getting on and off the bus we are ready to continue our trek.

Twenty minutes later the bus passes through the town of Rio Claro, with its five or six houses, road side dinner, and waterslide park (?!). The four of us get off the bus at the restaurant and begin the one mile hike up the dirt road to El Refugio, an eco-park that is nestled in the jungle and limestone gorge that is cut into a valley by the Rio Claro. As we reach the “lodge” Taty, one of the caretakers, meets us and instantly knows we are part of the gringo group. In her English, that is much better than any of our Spanish, she welcomes us and lets us know we are the first of the group to arrive. While Sean and Jill check in Tully and Heather explore the lodge. The lodge is a three story open air structure. The bottom floor is an eatery area and front desk. The second floor is divided into a few rooms strung with hammocks and a storage area of kayaks, river rafting equipment, and other outdoor equipment. And the third floor is again subdivided into rooms with nothing more than several single beds that overlook the river.

After check in is completed we begin the 5 to 10 minute walk to the cabanas. The path is a cobble stone like path follows along the river cutting around and in and out of the lime stone cliffs and caves. Near the cabanas we reach moon rock; a large rock that creates a natural beach and is where most visitors enter the river. It gets its name from the textured surface which resembles the dimpled cratered surface of the moon. Over looking the river and moon rock beach are the cabanas where our room is. There are two cabanas that are similar in structure and layout to the lodge; open air platforms subdivided into rooms with beds and nestled high on the hillside and treetops. Our corner room is on the upper floor of one of the cabanas. The room has two open air railings, one wall we share with the next room (were fellow teachers will be staying) and the fourth wall hides the bathroom and shower. As we plop down on the beds we look over paradise and our playground for the next two days.

The river is the place where we spend most of our time; swimming in the roped off area, floating downstream in inner tubes, or jumping into it from the zip line 8m above the water’s surface. During the few occasions we choose to stay dry we go on hikes to near by caves, some with stalactites and stalagmites, others with waterfalls pouring out of them. Lots of time is spent walking the trails and observing wildlife including an oddly colored tarantula the size of an open hand and large iridescent Blue Morpho butterflies. Heather was even daring enough to try canopying; a system of zip lines that criss-cross the gorge and sends you flying over and through the canopy of the rainforest. From this unique few she was able to spot howler monkeys and many colorful birds.

One trek we wanted to do but were unable, because of the broken down truck the lodge used for transportation, was a trip to Pablo Escobar’s nearby finca (country home). This legendary farm is where Pablo set up his own personal zoo and filled the country side with exotic animals from around the world. After his death the animals were sent to zoos throughout South America but the grounds are still rumored to be inhabited by several wild hippos that were never able to be rounded up.

After two days of playing and relaxing in the 80 to 90 degree tropical hideaway it was time to head back to reality. Eleven of the 15 of us set off hiking down the dirt road toward town to catch the bus back to Medéllin together. After waiting about 10 minutes at the open air restaurant the bus stopped to pick us up. As our backpacks were stowed under the bus or tossed on the top we climbed aboard the packed bus. All the seats were taken so we began to fill the aisle standing and sitting to get as comfortable as we could for the four hour ride home. At around 5:30pm Monday evening we pulled in to the central bus station in Medéllin and back to big city life.