Laguna de la Cocha, Colombia

I know the scene isn't entirely natural with the botanical garden in front, but this marks the end of our travel day where we arrive at a new site: Laguna de la Cocha, which sits at about 3,000m asl. The lake in front is the actual lagoon, a volcanic crater lake that is part of the Amazon basin and outflows into these rivers: Guamués River, Putumayo River.

Those rivers, are the rivers that enclose La Isla Escondida:

1103La Isla Escondida

...which sits at 850m asl. They start here. We had no idea about this connection.

All the way to the right in the lake itself you see the beginning of a small island. This is Isla de la Corota, Colombia's smallest national park.

Given the altitude, the weather here is foggy and cold. At night, temperatures may be sub zero, and early mornings are still freezing. Mid day, temperatures were around 10-15C. Quite a departure from the lower altitude jungles we came from.

This area has a surprising Swiss architecture applied, which makes you feel like you're into the Alps.