Rio Claro (Part 1)

After nearly a week in the big city of Medellin it was nice to kick back for a couple nights in the middle of nowhere.

The Reserva Natural Canon del Rio Claro is about three hours east of Medellin on the road to Bogota. It is a private "eco-hostal" with good accommodations for groups.

Our travel guide warned it might be swarming with teenagers on the weekend but on our first night there was only another pair of tourists, a nice guy from Winnipeg and his German traveling companion.

The rooms are open to the elements which is nice if you don't mind a few moths on the wall above your head. The jungle is very noisy at night.

Both nights we were there, there were dramatic lightning storms and hard rain during the night, but we stayed dry.

Rio Claro is at a lower elevation than we have been in, so the climate is more tropical. It was warm and humid but not uncomfortable, and it cooled off a bit at night.

It reminded me of the climate in Hawaii.

The activities here are hiking and swimming in the river and rafting. You pay a fixed price of about $42 per person which includes three meals. The food wasn't great, but it was okay. This being Colombia there was a big urn of coffee that you could help yourself to any time of the day.