Small Group Tour
Epic Horseback Horsetrekking 4 nights
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Highlights ✓ Spend nights in an ecolodge and on remote farms ✓ Epic wildlife watching (herds of capybaras, anaconda, parrots, anteaters, monkeys, owls, caimans, jaguar etc.) ✓ Experience Colombia's cowboys, the Llaneros ✓ Prairie sunsets and sunrises and hundreds of birds ✓ Extreme wilderness and pristine savannas |
Location and sceneries: Around 5 hours from Yopal we'll spend our days traversing infinite savannas, wetlands and grasslands, savanna forests and scrubby bushland on horseback. Our journey takes us from Yopal to one of Casanare’s most traditional and remote hatos, La Aurora, in the northeast of the department. It is Colombia's biggest private natural reserve and home to jaguars, pumas and ocelots, as well as to about 42,000 capybaras, about 2500 deer and plenty of other mammals such as anteaters, armadillos, wild pigs and monkeys and over 350 species of birds. This is also the place to go to see anacondas in the wild with a probability of 70-90%.
Our trip takes us from "fundo" to "fundo", as the farms inside the large reserve are called. We will stay at an eco lodge and spend nights camping out in hammocks.
Our trip takes us from "fundo" to "fundo", as the farms inside the large reserve are called. We will stay at an eco lodge and spend nights camping out in hammocks.
Duration: 5 days (4 nights)
Itinerary
Day 1
Arrival to Yopal in the morning and transfer to the La Aurora Natural Reserve (4-6 hours). On the way we already keep our eyes peeled for wildlife and receive an introduction to the region, its customs, history and traditions.
We arrive to the reserve and the eco-lodge in the afternoon and head out for a first short horseride to familiarize ourselves with the terrain, the climate and the horses (5 km).
Listening to the sounds of the night, we are lulled to sleep by the night hawks, owls, crickets and the wind swaying the palm trees that surround the lodge in the east of the reserve.
Day 2
Today we start our adventure!
After a full breakfast we saddle up and cross Rio Ariporo to reach the other side’s riverbank. From here we head out into the prairies for our first stage of 20 km, passing lagoons and savannah forests along the way. Lunch will be served as a picnic by the lagoon.
In the evening we reach the central farmhouse, the hato’s mainhouse, where we unsaddle our horses and spend the night.
Day 3
Our stage today leads us through jaguar territory, a part of the reserve where jaguar population is densest.
Riding a trek of a 26 km across dry forests and scrubby vegetation we keep our eyes peeled for traces of the felines, footprints, scratched trees or droppings.
In the afternoon we reach the Western farmhouse. Llanero style we spend the night in hammocks here.
Day 4
Our last stage takes us all the way back to the ecolodge via diverse savannah and dry forests, bushland and savannas rich in wildlife and exotic birds. We pass lagoons and keep our eyes peeled for some of the most spectacular wildlife of the country.
After 26 km we reach the eco-lodge of the first night again, completing our horsetrek in a large circuit. A night of delicious food and some regional music rounds of our horseback adventure and we contemplate the extraordinary memories made in Colombia’s largest private natural reserve, as the sun sets and dips its golden rays into the Ariporo river.
Day 5
We enjoy a well-deserved full breakfast and relax. On walks near the ecolodge we can observe howler monkeys and exotic birds. We embark on the return journey to Yopal, reminiscing a few fine days in the saddle – an epic cowboy adventure in Colombia’s prairies.
Day 1
Arrival to Yopal in the morning and transfer to the La Aurora Natural Reserve (4-6 hours). On the way we already keep our eyes peeled for wildlife and receive an introduction to the region, its customs, history and traditions.
We arrive to the reserve and the eco-lodge in the afternoon and head out for a first short horseride to familiarize ourselves with the terrain, the climate and the horses (5 km).
Listening to the sounds of the night, we are lulled to sleep by the night hawks, owls, crickets and the wind swaying the palm trees that surround the lodge in the east of the reserve.
Day 2
Today we start our adventure!
After a full breakfast we saddle up and cross Rio Ariporo to reach the other side’s riverbank. From here we head out into the prairies for our first stage of 20 km, passing lagoons and savannah forests along the way. Lunch will be served as a picnic by the lagoon.
In the evening we reach the central farmhouse, the hato’s mainhouse, where we unsaddle our horses and spend the night.
Day 3
Our stage today leads us through jaguar territory, a part of the reserve where jaguar population is densest.
Riding a trek of a 26 km across dry forests and scrubby vegetation we keep our eyes peeled for traces of the felines, footprints, scratched trees or droppings.
In the afternoon we reach the Western farmhouse. Llanero style we spend the night in hammocks here.
Day 4
Our last stage takes us all the way back to the ecolodge via diverse savannah and dry forests, bushland and savannas rich in wildlife and exotic birds. We pass lagoons and keep our eyes peeled for some of the most spectacular wildlife of the country.
After 26 km we reach the eco-lodge of the first night again, completing our horsetrek in a large circuit. A night of delicious food and some regional music rounds of our horseback adventure and we contemplate the extraordinary memories made in Colombia’s largest private natural reserve, as the sun sets and dips its golden rays into the Ariporo river.
Day 5
We enjoy a well-deserved full breakfast and relax. On walks near the ecolodge we can observe howler monkeys and exotic birds. We embark on the return journey to Yopal, reminiscing a few fine days in the saddle – an epic cowboy adventure in Colombia’s prairies.
Possible wildlife sightings: Armadillos, burrowing owls, capybaras, great horned owls, giant anteater, southern tamandua (small anteater), red howlers, capuchins, various species of ibis such as scarlet ibises and buff-necked ibises, species of herons including whistling herons and night herons, various hawks such as savanna hawks and white-tailed hawks, falcons, parakeets, cardinals, macaws, swallows, flycatchers including fork-tailed flycatchers and vermillion flycatchers, yellow-crowned parrots, various woodpeckers and wood creepers, wood storks, jabirus, various hummingbirds, the jaguar, agoutis, wild pigs, white-tailed deer, foxes, spectacled caimans, red-footed tortoises, hoatzins, horned screamers, turtles, boas such as their biggest family member, the anaconda, ocelots, pumas, iguanas, Orinoco geese, roseate spoonbills, piranhas and many more.
From USD $1115
Tour includes: Transport and transfers from/to Yopal, accommodation, entrance to reserve, horse hire, bilingual guide, drinking water, meals full board, insurance.