Colombia Adventure Sport Capital: San Gil

In a country abound with opportunities for adventure it’s quite a thing to be crowned the ‘Adventure Capital of Colombia’. But then San Gil is quite a place.

Offering opportunities for an abundance of adventure in Colombia, including rafting, biking, sailing, abseiling, climbing, caving, swimming, rappelling, paintballing, kayaking, hydrospeeding, paragliding and (incredibly) more, San Gil is a haven for veteran adrenaline junkies and people that are just a little bit curious what all the fuss is about (after all, isn’t trekking just walking?). Best of all it’s incredibly cheap, so you can give all this a go without breaking the bank, just a few bones.

The great thing about San Gil is that in addition to these attractions you can also explore nearby towns and wildlife and find yourself apparently in a different century. Villages such as Barichara are acronyms in our modern high-rise, high-tempo life and walks such as the one from Barichara to Guane are just about as chilled out as you can get while staying in motion.

Similarly, San Gil and its nearby areas are stunning places just to walk and relax. Undulating, verdant hills surround you from all angles and there are places such as the Juan Curi Waterfalls where you can go and marvel at Colombia’s breathtakingly diverse landscape before having a nice little swim in that same breathtakingly diverse landscape. Nearby Chicamocha National Park offers you the chance to take one of the longest cable cars in the world and see some rather strange statues.

To get to San Gil you can travel from many of Colombia’s main cities by bus (prices and times are rough guides and subject to change):

Bogotá: $35,000 (7 hours)
Cartagena: $70,000 (14 hours)
Medellín: $60,000 (11 hours)
Santa Marta: $60,000 (12 hours)
Tunja: $20,000 (4 hours)

Paul