Sundown casts a heat glow over Colombia’s distant Mavecure Mountains, the place three towering rock formations rise above the Amazon jungle.
John Otis/NPR
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John Otis/NPR
MAVECURE, Colombia – It is barely sunup within the Amazon rainforest however the sound of howler monkeys, parrots and frogs function nature’s alarm clock.
Together with a few pals from the U.S., I am in jap Colombia, a stone’s throw from Venezuela. Throughout the panorama is inexperienced and pancake-flat to the horizon. Or so it appears. For as we begin mountain climbing, we spot three large rock formations dramatically jutting up some 2,000 ft from the jungle flooring.
These are the Cerros de Mavecure, or the Mavecure mountains. They encompass three large buttes of sandstone, shale and quartz which are barren and rounded on the prime. They remind me of Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, however there’s nothing candy concerning the title. “Mavecure” refers back to the poison-dart blowguns utilized by the Indigenous teams right here for looking.
Our information, Ignacio Rodriguez, says the positioning is sacred for the world’s Puinave and Curipaco Indians who typically climb these ridges to go away choices to the spirits.
As she takes within the view, Marcela Sánchez, an industrial engineer from the Colombian metropolis of Cali, says: “It’s divine.”
Attending to the highest of the smallest of the three peaks within the 90-degree warmth takes a few hours and buckets of sweat. The route is rigged with information ropes and ladders and there are scenic overlooks to cease for water. The climb seems to be properly value it. To me, Mavecure appears as monumental as Machu Picchu.
It is also a first-rate instance of why Colombia holds a lot potential for tourism. In addition to the Amazon jungle, Colombia is house to Caribbean seashores and three Andean Mountain ranges. Such biodiversity makes it a bird-watcher’s paradise. Macaws, toucans and tanagers are amongst Colombia’s 1,900 avian species, greater than another nation.
For many years, nonetheless, overseas vacationers stayed away whereas Colombians stayed house as a result of the nation was mired in a guerrilla warfare and drug-cartel violence. That started to vary in 2016 when the federal government signed a peace treaty with cocaine-trafficking rebels.
From the summit of Mavecure, the jungle stretches out beneath, with two increased peaks rising behind.
John Otis/NPR
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John Otis/NPR
Through the first eight months of 2025, Colombia obtained a file 3.1 million worldwide guests. “Tourism is now the main engine of the local economy,” says Delio Agapito the mayor of Remanso, a village on the foot of Mavecure.
In consequence, many individuals dwelling close to Mavecure have gotten out of gold mining, which polluted the jungle rivers with mercury and sediment, to work as tour guides, function eating places and hostels, or promote arts and crafts.
Amongst them is Fabio Pérez, who used to vanish into the jungle for months at a time to mine gold. As of late, he runs a hostel and an apiary venture and sells honey to vacationers.
“Now, I don’t abandon my family like I used to,” Pérez stated as he gave us a tour of the bee hives. “My family is with me. My sons are with me. Tourism has improved our quality of life.”
But in comparison with Colombian hotspots like Cartagena or Medellín, Mavecure will get only a trickle of holiday makers.
One downside is that there aren’t any roads connecting Mavecure to the remainder of the nation — solely rivers. Flights out and in of the closest airport are sporadic. With no correct lodges, vacationers who make an effort to get right here sleep in rustic bunkhouses.
“Tourism here is still very small-scale,” says Fernando Carrillo, who runs Aroma Verde, an environmental basis that additionally promotes sustainable tourism.
As we work our manner up the mountain we appear to be on personal. Rodríguez, our information, warns us to not seize bushes branches or bushes for stability or we would get a handful of thorns. Additionally, he says, watch out for snakes. Nevertheless it’s dry season our climb seems to be reptile-free.
Close to the highest, we lastly meet just a few different climbers. Their information has noticed some edible rainforest ants. Sebastian Rivera, a Colombian anesthesiologist, pops one into his mouth and is stunned by the feeling of citrus.
“It’s weird,” he says. “The head of the ant tasted like lemon.”
We fall in behind the opposite vacationers and shortly attain the summit. The payoff a panoramic tableau of the jungle and the winding Inírida River punctured by Mavecure’s two different peaks which are even taller than the one we have simply ascended.
“This is a dream come true,” says Catalina Laverde, a Colombian lab technician, who made the climb with 5 of her girlfriends.
As for Rivera — the man who ate the ants – he is pleased to have these mountains virtually to himself. “I know they’re trying to make it more touristy. But for most Colombians it’s still a little too out-in-the-forest,” he says. “Here, it’s not the five-star resort, but you do get these natural wonders.”
