Colombia Forum

WesternTanager
Joined 2019
Posts: 98

4 years ago

Car rental and itinerary details

4 years ago

As mentioned in a previous post my wife and I are considering eventually retiring abroad (in about 12 years). We hope to spend some vacation time over the next several years getting a better idea as to whether we really want to do that and if so where that might be. For our next trip we are considering flying to Medellin next February or March (which would be best weather wise?) and renting a car and then over about 10 days time driving to my folks place near Cayambe Ecuador. They retired and moved from Washington State USA in late 2011. We visited them in 2012 and then I went down on my own in November of 2018.

I have heard that one cannot take a rental car across the US border from Canada (and presumably not from Mexico either). Does anyone here know if one can rent a car in Colombia and drive it into Ecuador and leave it at the Quito airport? If so then we might do just that.

I would be delighted if you good folks would make suggestions regarding my proposed itinerary keeping in mind our goals as noted below.

Our first possible place to visit might be Guatape. We are not big city folks so spending time in Medellin is really not of interest to us. I am sure that there are fun and interesting things to do in Medellin but as this trip would mainly be a scouting trip for possible places to live during retirement as well as seeing some of Colombia and doing some birding along the way (birding is one of our favored hobbies) we do not foresee taking time to see Medellin.

After Guatape then maybe we would head through Rio Negro to Retiro (2 hour drive) to see this place: San Sebastián de la Castellana Ecological Reserve for some bird watching. Does anyone know if there is good birding here also in the Retiro area?- Los Salados Ecological Park. Here is an interesting link I found about Retiro-

https://kladar.com/blog-en/el-retiro-a-place-to-visit-and-live-better/?lang=en

From Retiro we might head to La Ceja or maybe directly to Jardin which is a town we definitely want to see. We would probably spend two nights in Jardin. Any good parks or reserves for birding near Jardin? La Ceja to Jardin= 3.6 hour drive.

Then probably we would head for Manizales for birding at The Río Blanco Reserva Natural. Jardin to Rio Blanco= 4.5 hour drive.

Then on to Pereira (1.5 hour drive). Then to Salento (1 hour drive) and then on to Armenia (40 minute drive). I am not certain if we would stay a night at each of these 3 places or just in Armenia.

Between Armenia and Ecuador I suspect we would stay a night in Popayan (5 hour drive) but beyond that I have no thoughts on what to see or where to stop. Any suggestions for good birding areas along the way and/or retirement spots (we prefer cooler mountain living without too much annual rain or too high of humidity).

What would be a likely amount of time required to cross the border into Ecuador near Ipiales?

Maybe we would just stay the night in the Ipiales area (7.3 hours from Popayan)- or would it be better to go ahead and cross the border and stay the night in Tulcan?

Our first stop once into Ecuador after spending the night in either Ipiales or Tulcan would probably be this birding reserve unless someone can recommend an earlier stop for birding:

https://www.elrefugiocloudforest.com/birding-in-intag

Tulcan to El Refugio is a 4 hour drive. We would probably stay 2 nights at El Refugio. El Refugio to my folks place would be about 2 hours drive.

Thanks for any insights you can offer.

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