Thursday, March 16, 2023 – Los Naranjos to El Dorado Reserve via Minca (Author: J)
Photo: Sunset at El Dorado
It’s pretty common for travelers to Colombia’s Caribbean Coast to add a stop in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The ecotourism hotspot of Minca seems to be the standard stop, but we chose to head further into the mountains and stay at El Dorado Reserve. El Dorado protects the habitat of 40+ species of birds, but we chose the location for a different reason: night monkeys. The reserve puts fruit on a platform each evening, a practice that all but guarantees sightings of the tiny nocturnal primates.
This was the one day of our trip where I felt like the itinerary needed work. We started our journey to the mountains quite early. Cristián arranged to pick us up at 6 am. The driving distance between Los Naranjos and El Dorado is only about 2 hours, so the early wakeup didn’t seem to make sense.
We had bid farewell to Goyo the night before because he did not have the 4 wheel drive vehicle needed to make the journey to El Dorado. Cristián and our new driver (whose name I no longer remember) arrived promptly at 6. We checked out of Casa Tayrona, paid for our meals, and started out towards Minca. Because we had departed Casa Tayrona so early, we were not able to eat breakfast. That meant that our first stop was for breakfast at a different hotel in Minca. The views of the mountains and hummingbird feeders at Hotel Minca made the simple meal of eggs, fruit, bread, and coffee something special.
Photo: Breakfast in Minca
After breakfast we continued our journey up the winding mountain road to El Dorado. Along the way, we passed small restaurants and shops, isolated homes, and a coffee plantation. We turned down the opportunity to visit the plantation because I had already made P suffer through a coffee plantation tour in Costa Rica. (The plantation stop was not something that included in our tour and Cristián didn’t discuss it with us before making the suggestion, so I don’t believe that our vetoing the idea explains the “off” timing on this day).
Not long after leaving Minca, the paved road ends. While we were prepared for an unpaved road, we were not prepared for an unpaved road like the one we encountered. The grooves in the road made by the many cars that had gone up and down the mountain gave the appearance of the tracks on an amusement park ride. That appearance was heightened by the fact that the road was so close to the edge of the mountain in many places that our driver had to hang his head out the window to make sure he was keeping the truck’s tires on solid ground. Adding to the excitement was the fact that the road was strewn with large boulders and broken bits of rock, ensuring that we were jostled and shaken thoroughly as we made our way up the mountain. All of this added an element of adventure to the journey, but it also added a risk of concussion as I smashed my head repeatedly into the window.
Photo: an interesting green bird
The drive was mercifully broken up by a stop to see more hummingbirds at another restaurant along the road. Much like Hotel Minca, the restaurant had a back patio lined with hummingbird feeders. After about 30 minutes of watching the hummers, we told Cristián we were ready to go. At that point, he told us that he had decided to stop there for lunch and had already put our order in. I was mildly annoyed and that annoyance grew as we waited another hour for the restaurant to cook us lentil soup from scratch. When our meal was finally ready, we ate and then headed back to the truck to continue our drive. Unfortunately, we made the mistake of leaving our water bottle at the restaurant, something that would come back to haunt us later in the trip.
Photo: one hummer a humming
We arrived at El Dorado well before the usual check-in time of 3 pm. Fortunately, we were able to check in early and head to our cabins for a nap. Yes, the plural is correct here. El Dorado only has double occupancy cabins. Our choice was to rent two cabins or one room in the older lodge building. (Pro Aves was unmoved by the fact that our third person was a child). We chose the cabins because of their huge windows overlooking the mountains and because we were promised that they were closer to the restaurant.
From reception, it was a 20-minute walk uphill to our cabins. During the walk, I apologized repeatedly to D, whom I correctly suspected was none too pleased with the walk. Finally, we arrived – some of us huffing and puffing – at cabins 9 and 10. We selected 9 as our sleeping cabin and 10 as our luggage storage cabin. The views from the cabins almost made up for the arduous journey to reach them.
Photo: relaxing in the cabin
We were happy to see that our cabins had hot water, something that always seems a treat when you are somewhere remote. However, the cabins did not have potable water or any toiletries other than hand soap. I hiked back down the hill to request both. The gentleman working at reception gave me a carafe of water and some cups but told me that the property does not supply toiletries. I was frustrated by this given the price we paid for our rooms (which was more than twice the cost of our cabin at Casa Tayrona). I think that El Dorado needs to give some thought to what type of property they want to be. The new cabins are marketed as a higher end eco-tourism project; travelers looking for that type of accommodation don’t expect to have to pack in their own shampoo.
Back at the cabins, we spent our afternoon relaxing and enjoying the view. It was as beautiful as promised and, from the chairs outside our cabin, we could enjoy the bonus of a periodic howler monkey serenade. At 5 pm, we made the journey down the hill for the highlight of P’s day, the night monkey feeding. As the sun sets, the staff at El Dorado place bananas on a platform in the trees near the lobby. Guests have an excellent view of the platform from the back deck of the building. Not long after the bananas were put out, the monkeys reported for eating duty. We stayed until the monkeys had eaten every last bite and then headed inside for dinner. (If you are keeping track, P had now seen 5 species of monkeys – not bad for a trip to one small section of Colombia).
Photo: grey-handed night monkey eating banana
El Dorado does not have any guides on staff, so most of the parties staying at the property had hired their own guides. (There was also a group traveling without a guide, so a guide is certainly not required). There is lodging for the guides near the temporary lobby building. That meant that Cristián joined us for both the night monkey feeding and dinner. During dinner, Cristián told us that El Dorado was temporarily using the building we were in as the restaurant and lobby. The brand new lobby and restaurant building – a mere 5 minutes from our cabins – had been hit by lightning. Although repairs were almost complete, the steady stream of bookings during the high season meant that there was no convenient time to move operations back to the new building. The gentleman who was working reception during our trip had been in the new building when it was hit. Fortunately, he was able to escape unharmed, but one of the rangers at the reserve was injured while fighting the fire.
After dinner, we made the 20-minute hike back to our cabins in the dark. We were very thankful that we remembered our flashlights; although the path is fairly wide, there are places where there are sheer drop offs that are not visible in the dark. Before turning in for the night, we spent some time looking at the lights of Santa Marta below us and the light of the stars above us.
Travel Monkeys 