Colombia is not only known for the excellence of its coffee, or red as we call it here, but also for its excellent and beautiful views from Puerto Estrella, located in the north of the country (more specifically in the department of Rioacha) to Leticia, capital of the Amazon, where the Amazon jungle is located, better known as "the lung of the world".

The great diversity of climate and biodiversity in Colombia is impressive and incredible; this given that we are within the TOP 10 of the countries with the highest number of species. In Colombia, we are positioned in the first positions in terms of: birds (2.344 species), mammals (737 species) and freshwater fish (4.155 species); and, insofar as the estimated number of existing insect species in Colombia can be close to 14.573 species, this is approximately 31,8% of all the species present in the world (Biodiversity in figures, SIB Colombia. 2021).

This without even including the flora, which also presents a great variety of species depending on the thermal floors found throughout the country. In this aspect, you can find the largest number of species of the Orchid (approx. 3.992 species), considered a representative and national Colombian flower, in addition to the well-known Wax Palm of Quindío.

Although all this sounds very “cool”, if you are a traveler who will not be in Colombia for a long time, I recommend a place located in the northwest of the capital in the Engativá neighborhood, Bogotá. 10 km from the headquarters of Nueva Lengua In Bogotá, there is a natural park (headquarters for the conservation of some species of Colombian flora): The José Celestino Mutis Botanical Garden, founded in 1955 and named to honor the memory and work of the botanist with that name, who was in charge to explore, document and classify Colombian species.

On May 13 of this year, we visited this wonderful place with three students from the Bogotá campus, who were from Canada and the United States, who were amazed from the beginning and were expecting what they would see in this place. Upon arrival, we find a beautiful view of the fountain next to the Guadua bridge.

Then we go to our first stop: El Tropicario, a place that contains a small part of the most common thermal floors and climates in the country (paramos, dry forest, humid and temperate forest). We start from the cold to the warm part of the greenhouses, in other words, we start with the moors and their flora. This part shows the different volcanoes, mountains and snow-capped mountains that can be found in different parts, such as the well-known Nevado del Ruíz in the department of Huila and part of Tolima. Something curious about this adventure was the little vegetation and the knowledge of the students about the frailejones, the typical flora of these areas, and smaller plants.

We continued climbing to the temperate and warm thermal floors, in the area of ​​the humid and dry jungle of the Amazon, where the differences between the cold and the warm climate could be seen, these in terms of: the size of the plants and of the leaves for reach more sun and retain more water.

It was also possible to see the representative leaves of this area, the water lily, one of the largest plants that can be found in the rivers of the Amazon jungle. In addition, there is a tree barely 2 years old that is already more than 10 m tall, which can grow to more than 20 m in 100 years.

Already in the dry zone, the environment was warmer due to the flora found in this area:

After this first stop, we headed to the waterfall. We entered several paths full of different large and small trees. We find the zone of the palms and then the one of the ferns, to arrive at the part of paramo trees.

Not far away, we found the waterfall, a place that left us without many words to comment, given how fascinating this hidden place is.

NO MATTER WHAT: WE MUST TAKE CARE OF OUR NATURAL PARKS AND RESERVES!

Our last stop was the Maloca, a cultural center for meetings of Colombian native communities, such as the Uitoto, which was gathered that day in front of a campfire, which is not just any campfire but the representation of the soul of the matriarch or patriarch of that community. , in this case it was the soul of the matriarch or grandmother, as they called her. Something that seemed curious to us was the way of calling the community: through large drums made of wood called "grandfather and grandmother".

Although it was not the only curious thing, inside the maloca you felt a sacred and magical atmosphere, where you could feel that the "grandmother" (the campfire) was listening and watching us. He mentioned it because, at the moment we arrived, they were not going to let us in and the flame looked like it was going to go out, but the moment they let us in...the flame flared up on its own and stayed until that we left