Puracé Overview

By Lorraine Caputo

A road heads east from Popayán towards Parque Nacional Natural Puracé. After 18 kilometers (11 miles) it forks: one branch goes to La Plata and Garzón, the other to Pitalito. The largely unpaved La Plata road skirts the northern edge of the national park. At Kilometer 12 is Puracé village.

Almost eleven kilometers (seven miles) beyond is the Cruce de Mina, the turn-off to a sulfur mine and the main ranger station at Pilimbalá (altitude: 3,350 meters/10,988 feet).

Continuing along you encounter other attractions of this sector of Parque Nacional Puracé: a condor observation point (Km 25), Laguna de San Rafael (Km 31), Cascada Bedón (Km 35), Termales San Juan (Km 37) and Cascada San Nicolás (Km 41). This finally arrives at La Plata, 147 kilometers (88 miles) from Popayán.

The southern fork is paved until Coconuco (altitude: 2,734 meters), where there are two hot springs: Agua Herviendo and Aguas Tibias. Twenty-four kilometers (14 miles) further along is Paletará. Both villages have good trout fishing and are also access points for Parque Nacional Puracé; from Paletará you can reach Laguna del Buey in the park.

The next 62 kilometers (37 miles) of road is very rough until Isnos, near some of the archaeological and natural beauties of the San Agustín region. Twenty-seven kilometers (16 miles) beyond is the Cruce de San Agustín, the crossroads to that village. After another 27 kilometers (16 miles), the main road ends at Pitalito.

Puracé National Park has Andean forests, high Andean forests and páramo. Within its territory are the headwaters of Colombia's mightiest rivers: Cauca, Magdalena, Caquetá and Patía. It is home to over 160 species of birds, spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus), mountain tapir or danta de montaña (Tapirus pinchaque) and puma, among other mammals. In the 1990s, the San Diego (California) Zoo helped to reintroduce the Andean condor to the region. A study is presently underway to document the number of orchid species. Most of the park is resguardo indígena, or indigenous reserve lands, of the Coconuco, part of the Nasa (Páez) nation.

Reservations must be made with the national park office, Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia Surandina, in Popayán. The $7.40 entry fee is paid at Pilimbalá and Termales San Juan.