After enjoying Villa de Leyva, the end of January, the plan was to embark on another off-the-beaten-track adventure. But, as we wrapped up an extended stay in our favorite Colombian pueblo patrimonio, we faced two possible issues: the weather forecast predicted rain which could make the dirt roads impassable and we were on a deadline, because we wanted to visit our friends Susan and John in El Retiro for a handful of days, before they’d leave on a trip in the middle of February and would have other guests prior to that. Plus, we were in the midst of dealing with a vehicle extension and didn’t know if this would require a last-minute stop in Medellin.
Tiered waterfalls in Florián
Could we fit in a multiple-day side trip to Florián without encountering muddy roads, would the challenging detour be worthwhile, and would we have enough time left to make the two-day drive and visit Rio Claro on the way to El Retiro?
Few Colombians have heard of Florián, located in the middle of the mountains of the Santander department. Wikipedia in English doesn’t have much info but the Spanish page has a bit more data. The town is known for its multi-tiered waterfall, which tumbles out of a cave. It sounded cool but would take us a full day to reach; the last four hours over bouncy, slow, dirt roads.
(As always, hover over or click on photos in galleries to read their captions.)
Mark stumbled across this destination a few months ago, probably seeing photos by a fellow overlander on Facebook. He pinned it in Google maps, which is how we now compile lists of worthwhile destinations. And, by reading in our fat South America Lonely Planet.
When we arrived, exhausted and shaken, we parked along the main square for the night. We walked around town and to a viewpoint of the valley, wondering where the waterfall was located. We surely thought we’d have seen – if not heard – it by now. That’s when we discovered there was nothing but a trickle, none of it visible from a distance. To say we were disappointment is an understatement!
Mark and I decided to stick to plan and go on the hikes we had planned. The first one was a long and steep descend towards the bottom of the falls, to a pool located on private property. The entrance fee was negligible at 5,000 pesos ($1) a person, but I was not looking forward to climbing this 1,300ft drop later!
Before we were faced with the climb back up, we discovered a beautiful, clear pool to immerse ourselves in. The sprinkle of a waterfall allowed the water to remain turquoise and undisturbed, which was an advantage. The place was attractive and solely ours for an hour, before our sweaty haul back up.
On the second day, we moved parking spots. Now we had a view of the mountain side that held the cave and trickle. Lo and behold, that Friday afternoon, someone turned the tap to the waterfall on! A rush of water cascaded down in multiple tiers. It was the weirdest thing, as it hadn’t rained (near us).
Despite the fireworks (mostly) being done, Maya was still neurotic. We happened to be camped not too far from a tejo field (indoors). Tejo is the national sport of Colombia and involves throwing objects at pouches filled with gunpowder, while drinking beer. The pouches explode when hit right.
In addition to being freaked out by those sounds (we can’t blame her), Maya became fearful of everything that fell on the roof of our camper, like small sticks, leaves, needles, or nuts from trees and rain drops. All this caused many sleepless nights for all of us. And a church event did involve more fireworks over the weekend. But it never rained, so we never got stuck in the mud.
When we were not exploring or walking Maya, we received visitors – children, townspeople, campesinos, Efren (the self-declared town’s fool) – and practiced our Spanish, shared snacks, and were given local corn, carried five miles from his finca by a farmer, and a minuscule emerald by our new friend Efren. Colombians are friendly, curious, social, and hospitable. There is never a private dull moment!
The main attraction of Florián is the cave where the river turns into a waterfall. We walked there, uphill, from town early in the morning, to beat the crowds. It took about forty minutes and a decent amount of sweat.
The grotto was immense! We crossed a couple of rickety footbridges and arrived at the mouth of the cave. The now brown river disappeared over the edge. We didn’t get too close to that occurrence, since people have died doing so.
After a few days in this fascinating but hard-to-reach place, we braved many hours on slow and narrow roads again, before reaching pavement and heading southeast towards El Retiro in the Medellin area.
Note: All photos by Liesbet Collaert – No part of this post was composed with the help of AI or ChatGPT.
Curious about a previous ten-year chapter in our nomadic lives, which includes eight years aboard a 35-foot sailboat in the tropics with dogs, check out my compelling, inspiring, and refreshingly honest travel memoir:
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April 22, 2023 at 16:55
Those roads are definitely a little too rugged for us. Hope your truck holds together. Thanks for sharing your travels. I think we’re done exploring the globe.
April 23, 2023 at 12:31
Hi Leslie,
That’s too bad about not exploring more, but – I’m the first one to admit that – this lifestyle and means of travel can be very challenging, stressful, and exhausting! After every adventure of this kind, I need a short break sitting somewhere!
Many of the places we have visited in Colombia and the roads we’ve taken, we would not have attempted in a Westy! But that’s why we changed to a truck camper. 🙂
April 22, 2023 at 20:34
Those bumpy roads would definitely upset my balance, Liesbet. Thanks for showing us the terrain and culture of Florian.
Happy trails!
I will trust you never to write an AI-assisted post! 😀
April 23, 2023 at 12:33
Haha, Marian. There’s probably a place for AI, but not in experience-based stories. 🙂 We just finished a five-day off-road adventure in the Tatacoa Desert. The roads were the most challenging we’ve driven on! And we did it with a patched-up tire… Life is an adventure!
April 22, 2023 at 20:35
You continue to amaze me in where you travel. Thanks for taking me along!
April 23, 2023 at 12:34
My pleasure, Jacqui. If you stick around, there will be more challenging adventures coming up. I’m only a few months behind with my blog reporting! 🙂
April 22, 2023 at 21:58
Hello –
Enjoyed hearing about this part of your travels and the teal water you swam in for the hour looks wonderful
Also, glad the people are so friendly even if less privacy
☀️😊
April 23, 2023 at 12:35
Hi Yvette,
Colombia has been an interesting and rewarding experience all around. Wow. We’ve had some serious adventures, events, joys, and mishaps during our six months in the country. We will leave with mixed feelings, early next month.
April 23, 2023 at 09:22
Some of those photos of dirt roads reminded my driving in Alaska 😊. So sorry to hear you traveled all the way to Florián only to be disappointed at the waterfall, except for the sudden rush of water. At least you were able to enjoy the turquoise pool at the bottom. Tejo sounds like a very strange sport, like beer pong on steroids. Loved the photos of the cave and grotto. Thanks for sharing. Jim
April 23, 2023 at 12:40
Hi Jim,
Thanks for following along still and leaving a comment. Yes, some of the roads we’ve taken here are similar to the ones in Alaska, but it’s less remote here and the distances are shorter. Plus, the fuel is cheaper and more readily available. But the local drivers are crazier. 🙂
The good thing about our days in Florián is that we got to experience three situations: no water, some water, and brown water. Of course, we didn’t know any of this when we arrived to a dry waterfall.
You might be right about your impression of Tejo. It’s noisy. Everything in Colombia is noisy. It’s one of the things we don’t like about this country. Hard to escape from people and sounds. But more about that another day. 🙂
April 23, 2023 at 10:54
Poor Maya, her nervous system will be shot by the time you leave the country. Love the emerald pool and yes, I also wondered how the waterfall magically appeared. Maybe there is a big faucet up there!!
April 23, 2023 at 12:44
You know, Suzanne, the first months of us being in Colombia with Maya had us seriously second guess the decision to come to South America with her. Between the fire works and the fears she developed because of that (we always worried about the long-term effect of these) and then her ripped toe nail… But, she’s doing really well the last two months, so we can now focus on other things. 🙂
About the waterfall suddenly appearing, we heard two theories of the locals: 1) there is a diversion of water flow that has to do with agriculture (sometimes the water goes to the fields, sometimes to the waterfalls), and 2) it rained further up in the mountains, which fed the river and falls.
April 23, 2023 at 12:09
Wow, what spectacular scenery; but that ‘road’ made me shudder! Are you saving up for an early replacement of your vehicle’s suspension system? 😉 Here’s hoping poor Maya gets a break from explosions soon!
April 23, 2023 at 12:48
Hi Diane,
The truck actually handles these roads pretty well. It’s the camper we sometimes worry about – and everything inside our house that rattles around. It’s been a task to figure out how to secure most of our belongings and prevent them from escaping cubby holes and cupboards (when we open de doors after a ride like this). 🙂
We’ve found that driving these roads are not really an issue, as long as we take it slow and it’s not too busy. Other Colombian roads are more annoying, because of the idiotic drivers, massive semis not fitting in their lanes, haphazardly “parked” cars, sunken road surfaces, land slides, and, the worst, toll roads where you think you can actually drive more than 20 mph, to then unexpectedly face a few potholes – or topes (speed bumps)…
April 24, 2023 at 09:47
How bizarre that the waterfall just “turned back on!” I’m glad you got to see it as well as swim in that lovely turquoise pool. The drive along that rock face might have freaked me out, and I have driven some gnarly roads!
April 24, 2023 at 21:33
Hi Lexie,
I’m sure you’ve encountered a few scenes and crazy roads during all your road trips! It’s an interesting story that rock face… After driving four hours on narrow, bumpy, dirt roads, we were welcomed to Florián, our destination, by a road sign indicating a height restriction of 2.50 meters. We are 3.3 meters!
Can you imagine our heartbeat? WTF, right? Why didn’t we know we could not reach town?
But, there was no tunnel or bridge or low-hanging cables or branches. All we still encountered was this stretch of rock face, where the road had been widened a bit with a metal plate. So, all we could think of was that this must be an old sign, which indicated the height of the rock sticking over the road before it was widened. No need to remove old signs, right?
Anyway, Colombia has been a crazy country to drive in and rock faces have been the least of our worries. I hope to write a post about that, one day. 🙂
April 24, 2023 at 21:51
The cave is amazing. So nice to have the foot bridges. Love the silhouette of you guys on the cave opening.
It sounds like Florian is a lovely place. I hope the detour was worthwhile.
April 24, 2023 at 21:56
Hi Duwan,
Florián was a fun adventure – from a sightseeing, activity, and learning more about the locals perspective – and it was worthwhile. But, like after each multiple-day off-road trip, we needed a break to recoup (= sitting in the same spot for a few days). After Florián, it took a while to get that. But that’s a story for another day. 🙂
April 25, 2023 at 09:47
I’ve been wondering, is the amount of living space in the truck camper “worth it” given “Thirsty” truck and narrow roads? Or knowing what you know now, would you consider a smaller vehicle? Trying to decide on next set-up since tent camping from compact SUV that is just barely big enough to sleep in is economical and flexible but not great in bad weather.
April 27, 2023 at 16:12
Hi Marie,
Great question and one we have pondered as well. The short answer is yes, the extra comfort is worth the inconvenience in towns and the fact that we have missed out on reaching certain places, because we are too big. Since our camper is home for many years, we wouldn’t want to give up the storage and water capacities we have, the comfortable bed that we can sit up in and doesn’t have to be converted, and the “generous” living space inside. Plus, enough room for our dog and her food/belongings. Especially in Colombia, where it has rained every day in the last four months and there are few good camping spots where one can actually sit outside. We’ve spent a lot of time inside lately.
All that being said, we do think a smaller vehicle is beneficial for Colombia, but further south, where there is more “breathing space,” this truck camper setup will be ideal. If you are starting from scratch, a van with high clearance suffices for South America. 4WD is less important – from our experience – than having a decent amount of clearance under the vehicle.
Where you save on gas in an SUV, you probably spend more money on hostels and accommodation, because you would need established campgrounds with bathrooms. We find that boondocking 100% of the time saves us a lot of money. We rarely pay for campgrounds.
April 25, 2023 at 10:10
Wow! Watching the front of Bella rocking from side to side showed me just how bumpy that road was, Liesbet. And I dread to think what would have happened if another vehicle was coming towards you. Are there passing points on the roads?
The Florián falls look amazing. I’m so pleased that somebody turned on the tap. How strange that it had not rained, yet the water started again. Unless it rained further up where the water comes from?
And what is it with columbians and their love of fireworks? It sounds to me as if those fireworks are going off all year long. Poor Maya. I so feel for her knowing how our two dogs react to fireworks. But at least it’s only twice a year in the UK.
April 27, 2023 at 16:20
The roads have been very tricky in Colombia, Hugh. If not for the questionable road surfaces and ignorant, impatient drivers, then for the fact that they are often super narrow! No, there rarely are places to pull over. None of them built in anyway. When someone comes from the opposite direction, one of the two vehicles has to back up towards a slightly wider stretch in the road, a ditch, or a driveway. It’s super stressful.
Also, when this video was taken, with the heavy rocking, there was only about half an inch of space between the front overhang of the camper and the roof of the truck. Because of an incident which I will report on in the next blog, that distance became even smaller and at some point, a month ago, we found both parts were colliding, banging above our heads when we were driving! That has been our latest alteration and fix, a couple of weeks ago.
Colombians do celebrate events with fireworks. Fortunately, the worst part was from mid-December to mid-January (none over Easter). We haven’t heard much boomies lately, except from backfiring motorcycles. Plenty of that to go around!
April 25, 2023 at 19:43
Wow, just sayin’, you guys are brave, lol. I give you lots of kudos for your brave explorations. 🙂 xx
April 27, 2023 at 16:21
Haha. We are modern-day explorers. Except, we have an awesome vehicle and all the time in the world to really immerse ourselves. 🙂
April 28, 2023 at 10:05
Thanks for the mention and link to our blog. It was a pleasure to meet you 3 and know we have a lot in common. Cheers!
April 30, 2023 at 13:04
Hi Susan! It was great to finally meet you both as well and I’m glad we planned around it.
Maybe Florián can be a next adventure for you both as well? It’s a long and bouncy ride to get there, but tourists do visit and there are a few hotels. Certainly an off the beaten place. 🙂