This wild and beautiful place was so stark and stunned all of our senses. We drove from the lush subtropical valleys of Manizales up into the national park and were instantly blown away by the chilling winds and fresh air. The landscape goes from grassy plains to moonscapes to snow capped peaks. We went up from 2600m to 4800m in just over an hour, chewing coca leaves like adventurous cows the whole way in an attempt to combat the altitude sickness which creeps in at those heights. Los Nevados is a huge chain of volcanoes, the beginnings of the Andes. In 1985 Nevado del Ruiz exploded wiping out entire villages. We had hoped to reach the top of one of its craters, but since its started to act up again last year, it has been put onto a Yellow Alert, so no craters for us. On the way down we swam in mineral rich thermal pools, steam rising as torrential rain fell all around - the perfect way to get over the cracking head aches we had from the sudden loss of altitude.
 |
| Wild Arnica |
 |
| Volcanic ash dunes |
 |
| 4800m and freezing |
k
No comments:
Post a Comment