ble. Most everyone arrives via plane
to Macarena, and to see Cristales you
now have to book a tour with a guide
and permit, which will run around
$300k COP. No vehicles are allowed
to cross the river from the Macarena
side to the Cristales side. There are
six trucks permanently stationed to
shuttle tourists from Guayabero to
Cristales.
The difficult track that we took
from the north (Vista Hermosa to
Macarena) is also off limits. Appar-
ently it was built by the FARC years
ago. There is also a rickety old FARC-
built bridge as you near Caño Cano-
TRAVERSE
24
as. We were told that the Colombian
government doesn’t support this road
because of its sordid history. This is
sad because it isolates the locals that
live between the two villages. On the
other hand, there’s an unintentional
benefit as it preserves some of the
most magical landscape in the world.
We stayed in La Macarena for the
night and headed out early the next
morning after some routine mainte-
nance. There were also a few nonrou-
tine repairs, but you can’t do a trip like
this without sustaining some collater-
al damage. Note, if you do this route
be sure to stock extra brake pads and
chains. The consistency of the mud
was wearing everything much quick-
er than usual. In all, we had two bro-
ken chains, replaced brake pads front
and rear on the majority of the bikes,
a broken mirror, three flat tires, and a
small hole in a radiator (cleverly fixed
by pouring in two egg whites sourced
roadside).
That said, the trip couldn’t have