Last month I wrote a blog post all about the Cano Cristales of Santander (that’s what I christened it anyway!) – this focused on the amazing red rivers flowing around the small town of Guadalupe in Santander department, and their similarity to the iconic Colombian attraction of Cano Cristales…the key difference being that the red rivers of Guadalupe are red all year round (as they get their color due to the rocks they flow over) and much cheaper and easier to visit.
I then, naturally, posted a few of the best photos of the red rivers of Guadalupe on our Instagram feed (check us out – 5000 followers and rising!). They got lots of likes and comments, and I was happy…so far, so good, right?! Well, it got a whole lot better actually – if you read my post you’ll see that I highly recommended a local guide and hotel/restaurant owner named Jose. He was very passionate about promoting his home town as a tourist destination, and I told him that I would do my best to show off the magic of the place via this blog. I honestly thought my blog post, Instagram snaps etc. would be the extent of that promotion…
However, the red rivers clearly struck a chord with people: since I posted the photos of Quebrada Las Gachas, they have been shared by some of the biggest Instagram travel accounts, not just in Colombia, but in the world, and the combined numbers on these posts stands at over 25,000 likes and at least 2,000 comments (mostly saying variations of the word “Wow”). To say I am pleased with those numbers would be an understatement! So, assuming that many people are now googling Quebrada las Gachas and Guadalupe, Santander in the hope of finding out more about this beautiful place, here is a photo gallery of the beautiful red rivers of Santander! And don’t forget to click the link at the beginning for full information on how to visit Guadalupe, Santander…
2017 UPDATE – There have been worrying recent reports from Guadalupe about tourists leaving large amounts of trash behind when they visit Las Gachas – please, please, please (and we really can’t emphasise this enough) clean up your rubbish and take it back to town to dispose of it properly! Las Gachas is a wonderful natural treasure and needs to be properly protected.
When I visited Las Gachas and took these photos I really thought people on our social media accounts would respond well (and get it confused with Cano Cristales – which they did), and they certainly did. However, for these photos to be as popular and well-received across Instagram as they were was an amazing thing. Las Gachas is one of the those places that justifies the whole “Colombia is Magical Realism” slogan: as one Instagram share said, “Red rivers, green jacuzzis, blue skies…Is this real life?” Couldn’t have put it better myself…
Chris
