Los Pinos - an overnight hiking adventure in Minca, Colombia

Welcome to Minca!

Minca is a small town just outside of Santa Marta, which is easily reachable by bus or taxi. The bus leaves from the ‘Mercardo publico’, costs 10,000 COP per person and takes about an hour.

Minca

@zoeschneider

Minca is a small town made up of eateries, hostels, artisan shops and surrounded by mountains with fincas, camping spots, viewpoints and waterfalls. Many people say it is their favourite place in Colombia!

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The hike

This hike was a great loop starting and finished in the town centre, with a total distance of 25km, including some optional deviations from the main track to visit a few spots.

Although this is definitely doable in one day if you’re short of time, I would strongly recommend extending the trip to allow you to take everything more slowly, and most importantly allow you a night at the incredible viewpoint hotel!

We left at about 10 am on day one from the town centre, arriving at the top at about 3:30. The following day we set off at a similar time and reached town at about 3. This included lots of relaxed time at the spots detailed below! Our total walking time according to Strava was 2h15 on day 1, and 3h25 on day 2.

The route

We always use the maps.me app to look at the different routes available in our hiking areas, but would advise to remain aware that any path (no matter how scrambling/small/private) is shown as an option, so often it’s best to cross-reference! However, in this case we found the route given by maps.me to be perfectly accurate and very helpful!

Here is a visual of our route, which you can easily replicate in the app by adding the stops.

For some reason it wouldn’t let me put the finishing stop as Minca, so I just picked a random spot on the map in the town centre.

IMPORTANT: when leaving Marinka waterfalls, take the uphill path to the left, don’t follow the same path back to the main road you just left.

Stopping points: day 1

Cascada Oido del Mundo, Minca Sierra Nevada

@zoeschneider

This small waterfall is just off the main road up from the town, which also goes to Marinka Waterfalls. Look out for the small wooden sign on the right which directs to a small pathway to the waterfall.

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Marinka Waterfalls

@zoeschneider

Costing 16,000 COP per person, this waterfall area is well-equipped with facilities including restaurant, picnic area, changing rooms and toilets. There are two waterfalls to visit, one of which has a large swimming pool at the bottom. This was my favourite, as my favourite part of visiting a waterfall is always the swimming! The whole area was quite crowded but definitely worth a visit.

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Overnight stay

We stumbled across this hostel kind of by accident, and we are SO THRILLED that we did. I can’t recommend it enough!

Mirador aires de la sierra

@zoeschneider

This stunning hotel and restaurant is one of my favourite spots so far in Colombia! The views are incredible, and the environment is lovely, surrounded by nature and birds. The owners are really friendly and the food from the restaurant is delicious! They have a few rooms, two glamping pods, and one camping space; whatever level of luxury you’re after, they’ve got you covered! Breakfast is included in the price if you book with the link below :)

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Stopping points: day 2

Mirador Los Pinos

@zoeschneider

Just 5 minutes into day 2, we stopped briefly at this gorgeous viewpoint overlooking Minca, and with distant views of Santa Marta and the Caribbean sea!

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Finca Victoria

@zoeschneider

Finca Victoria is a lovely coffee farm and cafe. They offer coffee tours for 25,000 COP per person (the cheapest we’ve seen yet) and you can buy food/snacks to eat in their cafe. They also sell bags of coffee to take home, as well as other souvenirs!

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Pozo Azul

@zoeschneider

Probably the most famous spot in Minca, this swimming spot is actually quite low-key, only costs 6,000 COP entry and has some nice stalls with food and drinks vendors. It’s a good spot for a picnic lunch.

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From here, just follow the route back into Minca!

Other recommendations

This hike covers just a few of the many things you can do in Minca - if you have time spare after your hike, here are a few other things I would recommend!

La Candelaria Coffee Farm B&B

@zoeschneider

Finca la Candelaria was a great spot to visit, and had the most amazing Cacao tour available for 30,000 COP per person! Including loads of tasters, information, and the famous ‘cacao face mask’, it was great value and really enjoyable.

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tukamping_minca

@zoeschneider

For a lovely spot to stay just outside of town, tukamping was perfect, with a restaurant onsite, good value facilities and great access to ‘La cascada perdida’.

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Thank you!

Thanks so much for reading, I hope it’s been helpful and that you enjoy your visit to Minca! If you’re wanting more advice about some great spots to visit in Colombia, or many other destinations, check out my paid services!

Zoe Schneider

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