A walk in the clouds: hiking at Chicaque Parque Natural

 I guess it is safe to assume that we enjoyed our Chingaza hike enough that we decided to go for another hiking trip at Chicaque, located in the municipality of San Antonio del Tequendema (thirty minutes outside of Bogotá).  We went here to go hiking and horse-back riding. We began our excursion walking among the clouds in this high-altitude cloud forest. With over 18km of trails, we took one of the easier trails from the entrance to Refugio (the restaurant and cabin located in the heart of Chicaque) as we were traveling with children. Needless to say, at one point or another, DD#2, our 4-year-old, had to be carried for stretches.

We trekked about 3km downhill in what were the most difficult trails we’ve done with the kids! I hounded my very adventurous 6-year old (DD#1), who was almost always leading the pack, and reminded her not to walk too fast. The trail was slippery and steep and would make for a dangerous fall (and besides, I couldn’t keep up :P). Midway through the trek, our knees started to hurt.  Some of us were already wishing for a jeep to pass by so we could hitch a ride to Refugio. We didn’t have any luck, though.  With the kids in tow, it took us over 2 hours to get to our destination—lunch and a wonderful view.

Lunch was grilled baby beef, Pollo ala Plancha (grilled chicken) and soup. We were already starving by then so I really couldn’t say whether the meal was amazing, because everything tastes good when you are hungry.

After lunch, we could no longer muster the energy and willpower to hike back. And since it would still take long to go on horse-back (although faster than walking), we decided to ride a jeep on the return journey. The kids were not thrilled to have missed the chance to ride a horse, but they had to content themselves by petting the horses and burros and running after the Refugio’s resident peacocks.

I still cannot believe the kids managed that hike! Such troopers they were and they made us very proud with their very few complaints. I also still cannot believe I managed that hike. What a walk in the clouds!