Hiking around the archaeological park of Tierradentro is a unique opportunity to discover the mysterious indigenous past of Colombia. On site there are five different sites where you can visit anything from artifacts, tribal idols, statues and hypogea (a.k.a underground tombs) while enjoying gorgeous landscapes. While statues and artefacts might not be the most exciting thing to do, being able to walk down the old rocky stairs leading to the tombs its something out of this world!
Our sketched version of Tierradentro haha!
Choosing the right trail
In order to visit the park, you can choose to hike (1) an easy trail encompassing Alto de Segovia, El Duende and El Tablón or (2) a more challenging hike leading to Alto San Andres & El Agucate. Both trails can be easily taken from either the Park Entrance or the nearby village San Andres de Pisimbala but given the difference in steepness, we suggest you start from the entrance for trail 1 and start from the village for trail 2. Check map above !
EASY TRAIL: ALTO DE SEGOVIA, EL DUENDE & EL TABLÓN
This trail is definitely the easiest yet more rewarding in terms of archeological sights. In fact, the sites of Alto de Segovia and El Duende both offer some of the most recent, colourful and well-preserved hypogea of the park (30 available to the public). On the other hand, in El Tablon you’ll be able to see some interesting statues and idols (apparently linked to the ones found in the archaeological site of San Augustin) which provenience is still unknown.
TIP: In Alto de Segovia the most interesting tombs are the #8 (deepest), 9-10-11-12 (amazing colours), 28 (urns with human bones can still be seen) and 30 (most interesting patterns).
Even though the actual hiking time for this path is just under two hours, expect to spend at least a total of another hour or so wandering around the sites. It might sounds crazy but climbing up and down the tombs can take quite some time!
Distance: 5.5km | Hiking time: 1h45min | Total time: 3h15min
HARD TRAIL: ALTO SAN ANDRES & EL AGUACATE
This trail might not offer the same archaeological beauty of the easy one but in terms of landscapes is unbeatable. In the site of Alto San Andres there are only some tombs (6), which due to no lighting, are hard to fully enjoy even if you’re carrying a torch or headlamp. What really makes this hike worth the effort is the site of El Aguacate. There, all the tombs are not in a great state (even though a couple are really beautiful) but are located on top of a mountain peak from which you have 360° views over the surrounding valleys. As a results, the views from the top are the best of the park!
TIP: Contrairly to the other sites, there’s no lighting inside the tombs so make sure to bring a long a torch or headlamp to see at least something.
What makes this trail hard to hike is the steepness of the path but if you’re a fit hiker you shouldn’t have any problem, just bring along a lot of water and several small snacks.
Distance: 6.7km | Hiking time: 3h15min | Total time: 4h15min
Our loyal guide that lead us around on the hard loop!
Making the most of Tierradentro
Most people prefer to split hiking Tierradentro over two different days, so that you have two relatively short hikes each day. During our stay, we initially wanted to do the same but then opted to pack everything into a single long-ish hike so that we could enjoy a full-day at the site.
We started the hike for the first loop (easy trail) at 8am from the Park Entrance, arrived at the village of San Andres at 10.30am, then continued on the second loop (hard trail) and finally ended back up at the park entrance at 3.30pm.
The total time we spent actively hiking was around 5hr, everything else were breaks at the sites or along the road. The longest breaks we took were in Alto Segovia and El Aguacate (both 1h each).
The path from Alto San Andres to El Aguacate: crazy views!
Our Long Hike
Entrance to Alto Segovia | 850m | 17min
Short steep hike, easy.
Alto Segovia to El Duende | 750m | 19min
Short steep hike, easy.
El Duende to El Tablón | 2.8km | 50min
Short steep part before descending on dirt road, easy.
El Tablon to San Andres Pisimbala | 1.1km | 15min
Mostly following a descending dirt road heading down into town, easy.
San Andres Pisimbala to Alto San Andres | 850m | 15min
Short very steep hike, medium.
Alto San Andres to El Aguacate | 3.1km | 1h30min
Long up&down hike, mostly very very steep, hard.
El Aguacate to Entrance | 2.7km | 1h30min
Short flat walk on top of the mountain ridge and then very steep descent into town, medium.
PLANNING A TRIP TO COLOMBIA? CHECK MORE GUIDES BELOW!
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