A Thousand Words - Colombia

Photo Date: March 2019

Photo Location: Parque Nacional Natural Los Nevados, Colombia

The Background:

Our band of spirited, albeit naive, backpackers are about 4 hours from the nearest other group of people on the planet and about 12 hours away from the nearest thing resembling a town. We are at the base of Paramillo del Quindio – a 15,000+ foot Andean peak in the middle of a Los Nevados National Natural Park outside of Salento, Colombia. The only thing, or I should say people, keeping us from being lost forever are our amazing trekking guides – Matty, an Englishman who found love as an environmentalist in the Bolivian jungle and married a Colombian veterinarian specializing in jungle cats (not kidding), and Luis, a young Colombian who grew up in the national park and is learning to be a full time trekking guide. Soon after this picture, our group will spend a couple of hours summiting Paramillo del Quindio, but let’s not skip ahead to the destination, because as is often true at Pale Blue, the journey is the most memorable.

The Picture:

In an effort to stay hydrated at high elevation, I had been a little too aggressive in pounding water out of my Camelbak and I was in need of a “personal” break. So on this damp, foggy, Colombian morning, I lagged behind the group, impatiently dropping my backpack and jamming my hiking poles into the muddy earth so I could stretch out my back and catch my breath. With the other six hikers in our group a few minutes ahead of me at this point, I had lost all sight and sound of them. The mountainside was silent, and in this moment, I felt like I had the world to myself.  I breathed deeply again, drawing the cool air in through my nose and down into my lungs, thinking all along about how I could ever put the way I felt in this moment into words and knowing that it would be impossible. I knew that I would quickly catch up with the sloshing, chattering, and gasping for air that our group emitted as we trudged along, hunting for a patch of green grass in the mud to provide a brief moment of solid footing.  So I took this picture, allowing me to freeze a second in time, and to savor the true majesty of this untouched part of the world.

The Why:

First, this picture has always stood out in my mind from this trip because I think it so perfectly captures our ragtag trekking group. Whether it’s the fact that I set my backpack down directly in the mud or the fact that I have two clearly mismatched hiking poles or possibly it’s the fact that I brought cotton, water absorbent gloves to a rainforest – this picture embodies the enthusiasm of our group in a perfect way.

Second, I love this picture because it shows the incredibly unique ecosystem within Parque Nacional Natural (“PNN”) Los Nevados. PNN Los Nevados obviously has the towering Andean peaks, but it also has a cloud forest, wild horses, a farmer nicknamed the Tiger of the Mountain, and frailejones. Frailejones are one of the most unique and curious plants I’ve ever seen as they only grow in a very specific climate, specifically the high altitude paramo (further described as alpine tropical tundra) ecosystem we were hiking through. Given the specificity of the required climate, frailejones can only really be found in parts of Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador. What a beautiful, unique piece of the world’s ecosystem that we were able to trek through.

Last, I think the main reason this picture is so clearly ingrained in my mind is that it is such a stark reminder to me of the thrill of adventure from experiencing such an untouched part of the world. The world’s population is growing rapidly because of all the great advancements and improvements to our quality of life, but that also means fewer parts of the world that remain raw and unaffected. I can confidently say this small piece of Colombia – due to historical violence, due to an outdated stigma of a misunderstood country, and due to pure inaccessibility – has remained an untouched, pure form of nature.

Maybe I’ll have many more moments like this in my life or maybe I won’t, but I’ll for certain always have this one, and this picture.