best tours medellin
The Tunnel Tour
Colombia´s history with the railroad train has been a bittersweet one. The first official Colombian national railroad system was born by a governmental decree in 1954. Consequently, this action by the government unified four independent railroad systems into one, centralized railroad system. However, the national railway system was liquidated in 1991 due to financial insolvency. But, lucky for adventurers, remnants of the railway system still provide a lot of fun during our tours in Medellín!
The scenery in the northwest region is breathtaking with vertical green mountains and deep canyons with pristine rivers!
And lots of fun riding the train dollies made by the locals to move around the area and across the tunnel.
Eighty-five kilometers (53 miles) and an hour and a half drive northeast there is one of the best tours Medellín has to offer!
We have canyoning, coffee plantation, or panela tour (more on panela later) during this day trip. One of the highlights of the day is the crossing of an over a century old tunnel made by pick-ax and shovel for a commercial railway system that no longer exists.
The tunnel is narrow, damp, dark, and four kilometers (2.5 miles) long.
The locals have used their ingenuity and built train dollies powered by small gasoline engines to move people, crops, and supplies around the area between the small towns and villages.
Riding through the ancient dark and dank tunnel on a makeshift dolly is an eerie experience And scary if you believe in the tales of haunting spirits!
The northeast of Medellín is a picturesque region with towering vertical green mountains and crystalline rivers running down a narrow smooth bedrock canyon carving wondrous secret sparkling dive pools along the way.
Waterfalls precipitate from the cloud covered mountain tops creating rainbows with their mist. Coffee farms and sugarcane plantations decorate the mountain skirts.
Whenever you enquire about tours Medellin has to offer this one never comes up because this beautiful area has yet to be discovered by mass tourism so the visits here are full of the authentic feel of the Colombian countryside and the culture of its people, plus of course some adventure and fun activities designed the Guanabana way!
Watch this 25-second video and get a look of the countryside and tunnel!
The northwest region of Medellín countryside has so much beauty and fun to offer. There’s also coffee farms and sugarcane plantations to visit. The tunnel is a remnant of a past railroad system that no longer exists but makes for an exciting ride through the mountain!
We have a full-day tour that starts off with the 1.5 hour drive towards the town of Cisneros. Upon arrival to our start point, we embark on a 30-minute train dolly ride, ten minutes which are through the tunnel (if you want to scare the bejeezus out of your group, let us know, we’ll make sure of it!).
The ride then goes through the jungle, the scenic countryside, and small villages until arriving at the spot where depending on your choice we will do some thrilling canyoning down a beautiful 80 meter/250 ft waterfall (after a 30-minute trek) or an interesting and very educational coffee farm tour, or the panela manufacturing tour.
Cost per person:
- 2 persons …………USD $185 each.
- 3 persons ……….. USD $150 each.
- 4 persons …………USD $ 132 each.
- 5 persons ……….. USD $132 each.
- 6 persons ……….. USD $132 each.
Itinerary:
- 8:00 am: Leave Medellín be in the Cisneros area around 10 am with a stop for breakfast (included).
- 10:20 am: We get on one of the railway transport carts and begin our journey through the jungle and countryside where we will do the canyoning or coffee tour. The total train ride lasts 30 minutes, 10 of which are passing through the tunnel, 20 through the jungle and small settlements.
- We arrive at the last stop around 10:30 am and begin our hike up to the waterfall to do canyoning, total hike time around 30 mins, or drive to coffee farm 15 mins, or drive to panela tour 1 hour.
- 11:00 to 12:00 am: Begin activities, total activity time approximately 3 hours.
- 2:00 pm: Lunch in the town of Cisneros or Yolombó (panela).
- 3:00 pm-ish: Return to Medellín with an ETA of 5-7 pm.
Included:
-
- Doorstep transportation in company SUVs with English speaking drivers.
- Typical Colombian breakfast.
- Typical Colombian lunch.
- Snacks and refreshments.
- Coffee farm, or sugarcane plantation, or canyoning.
- Risk insurance.
So, What is Panela?
Panela is unrefined whole cane sugar, typical of Latin America in general, which is a solid form of sucrose derived from the boiling and evaporation of sugarcane juice.
After the sugarcane is cut it is brought on horseback from the fields to a processing plant called trapiche.
The trapiche is a mill that will squish the sugarcane through rollers to extract the juice out of it from which the panela will be made in a process that has existed since the middle ages and the elaboration of panela nowadays mixes tradition with technology and art form, a very interesting process to witness!
And don’t forget all our other cool stuff!
