Colombia is the land of puentes or long 3-day weekends. In Colombia there are about 17 holidays of which the majority fall on a Monday. This gives you the perfect excuse to travel somewhere within the country and escape the city chaos. On one of these long three day weekends we were invited by a group of friends to celebrate a friend’s birthday in the lovely surroundings of Rio La Miel.
I didn’t have much information on the location. I briefly looked over the flyer they sent me. It consisted of a big farmhouse and a lovely river. Planned activities included tubing and horseback riding. It sounded like a pretty typical plan in Colombia.
The price seemed like a great deal. The only downside was that it was about a 5-hour drive. Rio La Miel was closer to Medellin than to Bogota.
And we all know that 5 hours on the road in Colombia are most likely to turn into a painful 7 hours.
Although everyone left Friday night, the boyfriend and I decided to drive up there early Saturday morning. We left at around 8 AM and to our delight we arrived just in time for lunch. Indeed 5 hours it was!
The house was big enough to accommodate the eight of us. Although a bit rundown, we didn’t care much given the price.
We relaxed, had lunch, and around 4 PM started our first activity: horseback riding. I figured we would go horseback riding until nightfall. Boy was I in for a surprise.
After popping a couple of antihistamines, I jumped on a horse and off he went through the land. It was truly beautiful.
A bit of guaro, and we had ourselves a great evening amongst friends.
Our group was a little bit on the wild side and there came a point where we actually crossed Rio La Miel by horse. I’m not talking about ankle deep waters. I’m talking about waters that were calf deep when you were sitting on the horse.
Not to mention the currents were pretty strong.
I’ve ridden a horse less than 10 times in my life. And here I was trying to get it to cross the river! Feeling the current push against the horse, I’m not gonna lie I was terrified the current would sweep him up and in I’d go under him.
But we all crossed successfully and continued on our way. As long and no is hurt, the adventure continues!
Just when I thought we should be getting back because of nightfall, we landed in small town. We parked our horses to get a few beers. What I thought would be a 10-minute break turned into a 2-hour Tejo and aguardiente match.
Riding our horses back in the pitch black, all of us being kinda drunk, didn’t seem to alert anyone in the group. Nor did our guide say anything…..
I hope by now you’ve figured out that Colombian safety guidelines are pretty much nonexistent.
Around 8 PM we finally got back on our horses but this time it was our horses guiding us back to the house as we couldn’t see a damn thing through darkness.
I’m not gonna lie, the starry sky was absolutely amazing and it was quite peaceful whenever I wasn’t trying to stop my horse from galloping in pitch black.
Did I mention I was trying to keep my horse on the left hand side so we wouldn’t fall over the edge of the cliff? ( I remembered a few steep edges on the way there). But of course I couldn’t see jack in the pitch black darkness.
Talk about an adventure! From here, the weekend only get better.
The next morning it was rise and shine early to go on a short hike through a river that let us to a stunning waterfall.
We took a dip and waddled around and headed back for lunch.
In the afternoon, we were programmed for tubing. We were taken out to the river with our tiny tubes and hung out the whole afternoon drinking beers and smoking cigarettes on the river.
Only in Colombia!
The whole afternoon experience must have taken about three hours. We came back to the house to rest and followed up the evening with board games and cocktails.
I couldn’t have imagined that our trip to Rio La Miel would have been so much fun.
Of course, part of the experience that made it so amazing was the fact that there were absolutely no safety standards or fixed times and schedules to abide by.
It was the typical Colombian weekend but with a lot more adventure and outdoors. It’s the perfect plan to do with friends.
Rio La Miel is really just 5 hours and is a perfect alternative to the classic Anapoima, La Vega or Cartagena long weekend experience.
For the full experience, check out my friends video of our weekend getaway!
If you’re interested in weekends trips closer to Bogota, read about my experience hiking to the Chorrera waterfall and about my weekend stay in a treehouse in Chicaque.
Have you taken a really cool trip during one of these puentes that you think is worth sharing?
Let know when the comment box down below! Or if it deserves it’s own article send me a message!
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Hey Jade, what a nice and fun article you wrote!! I hope I will have the occasion to have a weekend like this one when I'll come back to Bogota!
beers + Aguardiente + Tejo + Tubing + horseriding is such a great Colombian expedition ^^. And we all know that beers help a lot when we're playing Tejo haha
Is there a bus going directly from Bogota?
There are so many surprises "around" Bogota!!!