LONELY PLANET'S OFFICIAL ITINERARY INFORMATION
Itinerary: Cali to Ecuador
TWO WEEKS
Southwest Colombia provides a safe cushion between you and the more touristy areas around central Colombia and the Caribbean coast. It's a culturally and geographically rich area and is still home to large of numbers of indigenous peoples, mainly the Paez and Guambianos.
Off-the-beaten-track travel in Colombia can mean rougher roads and possible contact with risky areas held by paramilitaries or Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). The following areas are regarded as 'safe' destinations, but it's still a good idea to ferret out the latest travel warnings wherever you go.
Start with a flight to Cali, the jumping-off point for the Isla Gorgona, a remote, lush island off the Pacific coast, which is definitely worth visiting, especially if you can time it with the whale migration (November). Back on the mainland, make a trip to San Cipriano, set deep in the tropical forest and only accessible by a unique hand-propelled rail cart. After visiting Popayan , spend a few days in Silvia and the Guambiano Indian region. The unique, remote and little visited pre-Columbian site of Tierradentro is also in the region. The famed San Agustin archaeological site, with its monumental statues, is better known but receives few visitors because of past guerrilla presence in the area. Keep your ear to the ground and be ready to alter your travel plans if fighting breaks out.
From Popayan, continue south towards Pasto where you can organize a trip up the still-active Volcan Galeras. If you're heading towards Ecuador, make sure to visit Santuario de Las Lajas, an architectural wonder hovering above the Rio Guaitara, just a few kilometers from the border town of Ipiales .
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