Chingaza National Park is just 50km from Colombia’s capital. Bogotanos have a special relationship with the park since it’s the capital’s main water source. Chingaza is one of the larger Andean national parks at 76,600ha and was created to protect a large and very important area of paramo, lakes and Andean forest that extends from the eastern edge of the city towards the foothills of the Llanos Orientales (Eastern Plains). Remote and well-preserved, Chingaza has made news in the past couple of years for frequent Andean spectacled bear sightings as Chingaza is a stronghold for them.
Chingaza is excellent for birding and its surrounding high-Andean forests are some of the most beautiful habitats in Colombia – gnarled trees, bright flowers and thick mosses cling from a landscape where the Hobbit would have felt at home. White-tailed deer and black-chested buzzard-eagle are but two of the many species that can be found here, along with various endemic species of frailejon, the silent sentinels that watch over the páramo, swaying in the moist wind. Chingaza is a principle birding destination for the eastern Andes and covers many species that are otherwise difficult to see, with many endemics and near-endemics shared with Venezuela to the north.
