Buritaca

Buritaca exists, functionally, because of the trek. Everyone who passes through — and a lot of people pass through — is either about to disappear into the Sierra Nevada for four days to reach Ciudad Perdida, or has just stumbled back out of it looking shell-shocked and mosquito-bitten. Lia and I did both ends of that in the same week, and the town itself became this strange bookend to the whole experience: chaotic and half-asleep when we left, and the best-looking place on earth when we limped back in.

The village runs along the river and the highway in equal measure, with trekking agency offices lined up one after another, jeeps idling outside guesthouses at absurd hours, and mules being loaded with supply sacks for the trail. It’s not a place built for lingering — most people spend one night before the trek and one after, tops — but that transience gives it a specific energy. Everyone you talk to at breakfast is either terrified or triumphant, and the conversations at the hostel tables are almost entirely about blister count and how many river crossings there are this week depending on rain.

Our guide picked us up at 5:15 a.m. from a guesthouse a five-minute walk from the river, and even at that hour the town was moving — other groups loading into jeeps, a woman already frying arepas at a cart, dogs that clearly knew the routine better than we did. Four days and around forty-four kilometers later, we came back down the same dirt road into Buritaca and the first thing I did was order a beer that I’m fairly sure I drank in under ninety seconds.

Beyond the trek logistics, there’s not a huge amount to do in the village itself, and I don’t think that’s really the point of it. What I’d say is: don’t rush the day after you finish. We stayed an extra night, mostly slept, ate more than was reasonable, and let our legs recover before getting back on a bus toward the coast. Buritaca earns its keep as a decompression chamber as much as a launching pad.

When to go: December through March for the driest trail conditions, though the trek runs year-round; book your agency and arrive in Buritaca the evening before your departure time.