2019 was a very exciting year for Tingua Hidden Journeys. Our team won a new member, we expanded our products and services, helped many travelers explore Colombia in their own terms, and we went scouting for great experiences that now we can help our travelers with. Here are our favorite highlights of the year:
1. Bikepacking most requested routes: Mixed options to keep your crew happy
Probably our strongest differential in the travel market is we offer bike rental and advisory for bikepackers in Colombia. We started in June 2018 and the most requested routes we get are Bogota to Guatape on hybrid setups (MTB frames with slim tires, 700 x 38) and Bogota to Salento, doing the famous Alto de Letras along the way, for those who love route cycling.
Great news is you don’t need to be an extremely advanced cyclist to do any of these: in our Bogota – Guatape route there are stops every 50KM on average, while if you want to do Letras but your partner is skeptic, he or she can skip it by taking a support car in Mariquita, and just do the ride down to Manizales.
We do recommend you take 7 to 9 days for these rides, to allow yourselves time to visit the towns where you will be staying during your biketrip. From natural spring waters to help your body recover, to historical town that seem to be frozen on time, your bikepacking trip can be as magical as the time you allow it to be.
2. New ways of experiencing places: Hiking + Yoga
In 2019 we teamed up with Fluorita DC, a yoga, meditation and crystal store in Bogota, to create a hiking experience that became something totally different. We went to Laguna de Ubaque, a sacred lagoon for the native cultures of the area, and La Chorrera, the highest waterfall in Colombia. Both places are splendid just as they are, but the experience of adding a soft yoga session at the end of the hike, finished by a deep meditation exercise became something out of the ordinary.
We will keep on doing these excursions as group trips and private trips, so if you are interested and want to know more, just contact us through this page or our email: info@hiddenjourneys.co
3. Colombia is more than Bogota, Medellin and Cartagena
Our company’s name, Hidden Journeys, comes from the interest of expanding the menu for destinations that travelers that come to Colombia can choose from. Don’t get us wrong, we love these 3 cities (we were born and we live in Bogota and we adore our city), but if you want to have a glance of the diversity of ways of living in our country, you can find more authentic experiences in less popular places. Last year we were able to help travelers visit places as small as San Juan de Rioseco, but also get to know our favorite PIT stop over the Magdalena River when driving from Cartagena to Santa Marta, at Las Flores in Barranquilla.
Although not all of Colombia is advisable to visit (there is some increasing conflict in areas where some hope for opportunities had shine), some other places have embraced their cultural and natural heritage as an asset to offer to visitors and they are waiting to host you. Some others are pristine and safe, and they can offer authentic experiences if you are up for the adventure. We are hopeful that more travelers are eager to get lost in translation, accept our advice and travel to new and exciting places in our country.
Hopefully this short overview left you wanting to travel, to Colombia or anywhere else in the world. We are looking forward to many more travel experiences in 2020, and we hope you have them as well!
Happy New Year,
The Tingua Hidden Journeys Team 😊