Stunning Chingaza National Park covers 77,000 hectares in the eastern Colombian Andes, northeast of Bogota. It ranges from 800 metres above sea level to over 4,000 and is home to an amazing range of Andean fauna and flora.
Almost all of Chingaza’s water flows east into the basin of the Orinoco, in Venezuela, though just 1% flows west into the Magdalena catchment. The park has around 40 natural glacial lakes, the largest of which is Lake Chingaza, which lies at 3,250 metres above sea level.
The spectacularly diverse fauna of the park ranges from jaguar and ocelot in lower altitude humid forest to puma, spectacled bear and mountain tapir in the high altitude páramo, a shrubby, humid grassland habitat above the treeline. The páramo is dominated by highly specialised plants, many of them found nowhere else, including the genus Espeletia in the daisy family and the giant bromeliads of the genus Puya.
Famed for its glorious birds, Colombia is also home to many charismatic mammals. Our superb tour goes in search of the elusive spectacled bear and mountain tapir, alongside a range of other South American mammals and birds including Hoffman’s two-toed sloth, olinguito, kinkajou and lemurine night monkey.
Find out more about Colombia’s Rare Mammals
Our unique birdwatching trip to Colombia visits key sites with an experienced local leader to discover the country’s most sought-after birds, including endemics and other gems like multicoloured, black-and-gold and gold-ringed tanagers, Cauca guan, red-ruffed fruitcrow and yellow-eared parrot.
Find out more about Colombia’s Birding Highlights