#61 best destination in the world

 

Gold Museum, Bogotá

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  • Museum that exhibits a selection of pre-Columbian gold and other metal alloys
  • #23 of the top 25 museums in the world
  • Contains the largest collection of gold artifacts in the wrold
  • Also features pottery, stone, shell, wood, and textile objects made by indigenous cultures

 

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  • Colombian river known as the “River of Five Colors”
  • Quartzite rocks formed 1.2 billion years ago
  • Fast river with many rapids and waterfalls

 

Cartagena

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  • Colonial walled city and fortress
  • Settlement by indigenous people dates back to 4000 BC
  • Served as a place of expansion for the Spanish empire
  • UNESCO World Heritage Site

 

Santa Cruz de Mompox

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  • Spanish colonial town reached in 1812 which recruited nearly all the able bodied men to form the basis of the army for victory in Caracas
  • UNESCO World Heritage Site

 

San Agustín Archaeological Park

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  • Contains the largest collection of religious monuments and megalithic sculptures in Latin America
  • World’s largest necropolis
  • UNESCO World Heritage Site

 

Monserrate

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  • Mountain 10,341 ft above sea level where a 17th century church with a shrine has been built
  • Considered sacred in pre-Columbian times when the area was inhabited by the indigenous Muisca
  • Pilgrim destination and major tourist attraction
  • Can be reached by funicular and aerial tramway

 

Castillo San Felipe de Barajas

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  • Castle located on a hill in a strategic location, dominating approaches to the city by land or sea
  • Built by the Spanish during the colonial era
  • Construction began in the year 1536

 

Museo Minca

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  • Storytelling of the history of Minca, they also try to help the local community
  • Learn about the history of coffee, indigenous people, civil wars and political conflicts in Minca
  • Afterwards, have a chat and drink a coffee together

 

Las Lajas Sanctuary

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  • Basilica church built inside the canyon of the Guáitara River
  • The present church was built in a Gothic Revival style between 1916 and 1949, taking up a total time frame of 33 years to build

 

Tequendama Falls Museum

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  • Museum and mansion that overlooks Tequendama Falls on the Bogotá River
  • Before renovation, the building was an abandoned hotel, known as the Tequendama Falls Hotel
  • Built in 1923, as a mansion to elite citizens of the 1920s
  • The building functioned as a hotel from 1928 until its abandonment in the early 90s for more than two decades due to Bogotá River contamination

 

Guatapé

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  • Resort town known for its houses decorated with colorful bas-reliefs
  • It sits by the vast, man-made Peñol-Guatapé Reservoir, a busy water-sports center
  • Piedra del Peñol, a giant granite rock southwest of town, has hundreds of steps to the top, where there are sweeping view

 

Cave of Splendor

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  • Unique cave with a river running through it in the mountains above Jardin, a small pueblo
  • Carved out by a running stream that turns into a waterfall as it flows through the roof of the cave

 

Phoenix Air Museum

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  • See 27 full size aircraft and 4 locomotives, two model airports and two giant working model railroad layouts
  • More than 3500 models, many in realistic dioramas
  • There is also a collection of 30 uniforms and flying suits, both military and civilian

 

Tierradentro

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  • One of the ancient Pre-Columbian cultures of Colombia
  • It started to flourish around 200 BC, and continued into the 17th century
  • Contains a hypogeum that has an entry oriented towards the west, a spiral staircase and a main chamber, usually below the surface, with several lesser chambers around, each one containing a corpse
  • The walls are painted with geometric, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic patterns in red, black and white
  • Some statues and remains of pottery and fabrics can be seen scarcely due to grave robbery before the hypogea were constituted as protected areas
  • The pre-Columbian culture that created this funeral complex inhabited this area during the first millennium AD
  • Tierradentro Archaeological park features hypogea dating from 6th to 9th centuries AD
  • UNESCO World Heritage Site

 

 

Costs

all flights $1,836

food $10/day x 17 days = $178

hotel $23/day x 16 days = $368

tickets (all attractions) $327

TOTAL for whole itinerary $2,709