TIME VISITED: November 2017 BUSY ? NO
WEATHER: High 80s 🌤 REASON FOR VISIT: Los Nevados
WHERE TO STAY: Sweet Harmony Hotel EXPENSIVE?: $$
I would love it more than anything to keep this blog filled with only positive travel stories and information but unfortunately that wouldn’t be practical. The truth is there are hiccups and somedays things just don’t go as planned when you travel. Luckily these hiccups don’t happen often! I am not going to bore you will all the details but a our journey to Minca was one of those “not so perfect travel days”.
Long story short our airport transport didn’t show up and we ended up in an unsettling situation driving up a mountain with a car that seemed it could breakdown at any moment-and the road conditions😳(sorry Mom). Once we finally arrived we couldn’t wait to sleep in our stunning hostel we booked-except it definitely wasn’t stunning and to put it nicely our beds smelled like wet dog. First world problems right? But seriously the smell was awful and after the day we had and frightening ride up the mountain it set us over the edge. Because we arrived late in the evening, we had to stay at the hostel, luckily aside from the cleanliness this hostel wasn’t bad, we met some nice people and we got to wake up to this amazing view!
After the scary experience up the mountain and not so pleasant hostel conditions we switched our plans a bit and decided to stay right in town in Minca for the next two nights. We promised ourselves we wouldn’t take transportation down and instead made the sweaty 45 minute descent to the town of Minca. As usual pictures don’t do it “justice” but here’s a somewhat good example of the road conditions.
WHERE TO EAT
Looking like a couple of hot messes we walked into a restaurant we heard amazing things about called the Lazy Cat. We really loved their veggie burger and they had great juices-located right next to the river, tons of hummingbirds flying around and a super friendly staff. We came back two more times the happy hour was incredible drinks were (6,000 COP ($2USD) the lime daiquiris were our favorite. I wish I would have brought my phone that time to get a picture of them, I’m craving one now writing about them!
After lunch we made our way to our hotel using google maps, it said we had to cross over a bridge to get there. Well who would have thought google maps would have this as a bridge!? We thought “Shit can we do it with our huge backpacks?! But then this local passed us, threw his wheelbarrow over his shoulder and went, and we thought, “Ok, if he can, we can!”
Still can’t believe this was a route on google maps-too funny.
WHERE TO STAY
We decided it was ok to splurge a bit and stayed at Sweet Harmony Hotel -it is funny to say splurge because it was only $28/each a night and the hotel was super cute and nice, for backpackers it’s definitely expensive-but so worth it! Huge room and bathroom, awesome bedding(only down comforters I saw in Colombia in three weeks), balcony, private river access, amazing staff and your breakfast included.
View from breakfast
One of my favorite parts from this weekend in Minca. Oh the joys of traveling-sometimes they advertise they have laundry service (but they don’t) and you just have to wash your underwear in the sink and then have a “underwear drying party” on your balcony! (they never fully dried thanks to high humidity)😂
HIKES FROM SWEET HARMONY
Minca is a great place for hiking. The one’s we did weren’t too challenging but you will still feel exhausted because of the high heat and humidity. The mountains have much better weather in morning so I recommend leaving early and getting to these view points by 10!
MUNDO NUEVO
This is where we didn’t like the accommodation but the location is amazing. I would recommend people stay in town then walking up the 60-90 minutes for this viewpoint from the hostel. If you are feeling up for it continue up another 45 minutes for a 360 degree view of Los Nevados and there are even some hot springs and waterfalls in the area. You can ask for directions to these places once you arrive at the hostel because to give directions on this mountain is confusing to say the least.
The view from the bathroom was pretty amazing!
Sunrise😍😍😍
Side note: If you are looking for an extreme eco-hostel-Mundo Nuevo may be for you. The hippie in me loved this place-the location great, family styled dinners, I also loved learning about their self-sustainability project, but the cleanliness ruined it for us. Reviews of places are quite difficult to give because someone might be looking for a place just like this I’m simply saying as a whole it wasn’t for us. (You can tell how hard it is for me to give a shit review!)😞
HIKE UP TO THE WORLD’S LARGEST HAMMOCKS
For a bit longer of a hike you can walk up to Casa Elemento this hike is just over 2 hours. This hike was quite easy minus a few parts (about 20 minutes total) but once again exhausting because it is so humid. We kind of booked it up the mountain so if you wanted to take it slow or spend some time in the river or at the waterfalls -add an hour or two for timing wise. Once again this is a hike up to hostel, I don’t recommend staying here because of the cleanliness and it’s more of a party hostel but for 10,000 COP ($3US) you can have a day pass here and it offers beautiful views and here they have the “world’s largest hammocks.” Hang out in the hammocks, enjoy a fresh juice and relax. FYI we heard that they had good lunch but the kitchen was closed when we got there at 11 so definitely eat something before you come because they may only have snacks ! The hammocks are an awesome photo opp.
After hanging here head back to Minca for some amazing snacks at La Minga – incredible fresh bread, homemade hummus and cream cheese basil dip. Next door there is an adorable juice place and the juices were the best we had in Colombia (couldn’t find her website!) 
THAI MASSAGE
After booking it up and down that mountain my hips were feeling it. My mama is a massage therapist so I always try and get one in each country to compare the different techniques and to be honest, the prices. Right down the street from our hotel was a woman providing Thai Massage out of her home. I was lucky enough to get in for a 90 minute massage after our hike and it only cost me 80,000 COP or $26USD! Her massage was absolutely wonderful (she learned her Thai Massage right in Thailand.) As a bonus before the massage started I got to watch the sunset from her massage room. You can not leave Minca without a visit to my new friend Ana Maria, she is currently working on her website but her information is listed below.
So it wasn’t so fun getting to Minca but once we were there safely, we sure fell in love with this town! What’s your favorite thing to do in Minca- comment below!
Interested in traveling to Colombia, check out my other blog posts HERE!
