Visit Pasto Travel Guide: The best things to do in Pasto (2026)

The department of Nariño is one of Colombia’s hidden gems that few travellers take the time to visit, yet it’s well worth the stop to discover its richness. Pasto, the department’s capital, is obviously one of the must-sees on a visit to Nariño, and not just during the madness of Carnaval de Negros y Blancos!

Pasto hides many treasures, fascinating museums, spectacular crafts and a history that sets it apart from the rest of the country. A cultural melting pot on the border with Ecuador and Quechua culture, blending colonial and Inca Empire heritage, strong indigenous identity and the confluence of Amazonia, the Andes and the Pacific coast.

Pasto Historic Centre

What to visit in Pasto

Pasto may not be the most beautiful city in Colombia, but surrounded by mountains and dominated by the Galeras volcano, its historic center has a certain charm, with numerous churches and colonial or republican buildings.

The plaza de Nariño is the heart of the city, and it’s pleasant to stroll the streets around it, where you’ll find Pasto’s main monuments.

Pasto is renowned for the sheer number of its churches, so much so that it is also called the “Theological City of Colombia”! These include the Cathedral, of course, but also the Church of San Juan Bautista in the Plaza de Nariño, the Church of San Andrés in the pretty Parc ambiental Rumipamba, the Cristo Rey Temple with its strange statue resembling Lenin, and the Sanctuary of La Merced.

Our local partner offers two completely different guided tours, providing a comprehensive overview of the city’s past and present:

Historical tour of Pasto

Discover Pasto’s churches, carnival museum, Barniz de Pasto workshops (local crafts), and a workshop for making the famous “paila” ice cream.

Pasto Graffiti Tour

A tour to observe Pasto’s murals by various local artists. The tour guide is a local artist and shares his knowledge and stories. At the end of the tour, the artist will present you with an original work created on site.

Gold Museum

What to do in Pasto

Pasto’s Gold Museum presents the heritage of the indigenous cultures that have occupied the department for some 2,500 years.

In the vast border zone between Colombia and Ecuador, archaeologists have identified two major regions of pre-Hispanic human occupation: the Pacific coast and the Andean highlands. The diversity of these landscapes shaped the social organization, economy and worldview of these peoples.

At the end of the 15th century, the Incas attempted to conquer the regions north of Quito as far as the Nariño highlands. New trade networks were developed along the “Qhapaq Ñan” (Inca road), but also forced entire communities to migrate.

The Inca invasions were followed by those of the Spanish Empire, which from 1536 onwards reorganized ethnic groups into villages, mandates and reserves, thus overturning their social organization, territories and beliefs. Some languages and traditions disappeared, while others survived but were transformed.

The Pasto Gold Museum’s permanent collection features ceramics, goldsmiths’ and silversmiths’ work, stone, wood and textiles from the Tumaco, Quillacingas, Sucumbíos, Mocoas, Masteles, Abades, Pastos, Barbacoas and Sindaguas civilizations.

The museum is divided into three main halls, allowing visitors to discover the lifestyles, cosmovisions and interrelationships of these societies.

The museum also pays tribute to contemporary indigenous communities struggling to preserve their precious culture.

Carnival Museum

What to do in Pasto

The Museo del Carnaval de Negros y Blancos de Pasto (PastoCarnival Museum of Negros and Whites ) enables visitors to Pasto outside the Carnival period (early January) to discover the full richness of this incredible event all year round.

It’s a permanent exhibition space showcasing the popular art expressed during the Carnaval de Negros y Blancos.

It features emblematic works by the great masters who have made the various editions of the Carnival such a success.

The Carnival Museum is divided into two areas:

• Photographic exhibition : tells the story of Carnival and its raison d’être
• Exhibition of Carnival works: mannequins, costumes, bands, floats and all references to the various parades

Taminango Museum

Things to do in Pasto

Declared a national monument in 1971, the Taminango Museum is housed in a beautiful colonial-style house. It is one of the most representative showcases of the crafts and traditions of the department of Nariño.

The Taminango Museum’s permanent collection features :

• Dr. Leopoldo López Álvarez’s Greek-style printing press
• Wood carving
• Barniz de Pasto
• Wool weaving
• Paja toquilla weaving
• Cabuya weaving
• Metalwork
• Medicinal plants
• Objects in cacho and tagua
• Stone carving

Carnaval de Negros y Blancos

What to do in Pasto

Carnaval de Pasto is a must-attend event if you’re in Colombia in early January. For a week, it’s madness not only in Pasto, but in the whole department of Nariño. All the villages celebrate Carnival with the same “weapons”: talcum powder, water-based paint and Carioca (foam spray)!

So pack your least fragile clothes, buy a protective kit (goggles, mask, poncho, etc.), and enjoy this exceptional atmosphere and the many concerts taking place all over town.

But the beauty of the Carnaval de Negros y Blancos is, of course, its grand parades:

• The “Canto a la tierra” parade on January 3 is for us the most beautiful of all.
• The “Desfile Magno ” on the last day, January 6, is also incredible, and is the highlight of the show with its huge, impressively beautiful floats.

But even outside the Carnival period, you can learn more about this extraordinary event at the Carnival Museum and visit the studios of the artists who work all year long to prepare the next edition.

Activities around Pasto

Nariño coffee is considered one of, if not THE best coffee in Colombia. Almost every year, coffees from the department win awards at major international competitions.

In the historic center, a few steps from Plaza de Nariño, you’ll find Café el Obraje, which a few years ago won the “World’s Best Coffee” award. Inside you’ll find a cosy space for drinking one of Nariño’s finest coffees.

Our local partner in Pasto, meanwhile, offers a great tasting experience based around special coffee (high quality coffee), including a visit to a processing laboratory and the discovery of three types of coffee from the Nariño mountains prepared using three different filtration methods. These coffees are grown by peasant families demobilized or displaced by armed conflict.

Gastronomy in Pasto

Discoveries in Pasto

Pasto is fast becoming one of Colombia’s gastronomic capitals. And we’re not just telling you this because we had one of the best cooking experiences of our lives there, but also because the city’s culinary offering is impressive, and the number of young chefs developing ambitious gastronomic projects is growing all the time.

Pasto is renowned for its traditional dishes and products:

• Cuy (guinea pig)
• Paila” ice cream (ice made in a copper container)
• Amasijos” (corn flour products)
• Tubers you’ve never heard of (Cubios, Chuguas, Ibias…)
• Hervidos” (alcoholic fruit infusions),

A number of gourmet restaurants and young chef projects have sprung up in Pasto in recent years. These include

• La Vereda
• Migrante
• Taller de amasijos

Crafts in Pasto

Discoveries in Pasto

You may know this if you’ve been following our adventures around Colombia, but we’re in love with Colombian handicrafts. Whenever we can, we visit artists’ studios and make a point of highlighting their fantastic and often little-acknowledged work.

Nariño is an exceptional department in this respect!

Barniz de Pasto

Derived from the Amazonian mopa-mopa plant, there’s something magical about the material used in the Barniz de Pasto crafts. The process of transforming it into a colorful, elastic sheet is simply breathtaking. The meticulousness and patience required to produce the raw material and then cut it into tiny pieces to be attached to wooden objects with tweezers is incredible.

La Paja Toquilla

Paja Toquilla handicrafts transform iraca (a variety of palm) fiber into decorative items and accessories such as bags, wallets, earrings, bracelets and hats. The tradition is handed down from mother to daughter in the villages surrounding the Galeras volcano.

The Tamo

One of Nariño’s most representative craft techniques is “tamo plating”, also known as “tamo de Pasto”. Like Barniz, Tamo is an art of patience worthy of Zen masters. Tamo fiber is cut into thin strips, which are then laid by hand, one by one, to decorate various wooden objects.