Carbonera Valley travel guide: visit the largest wax palm forest in Colombia (2024)

Welcome to the world’s largest forest of wax palms in Colombia! The Carbonera Valley is a unique, indescribable, magical place that, if you’re lucky enough to visit, makes the Cocora Valley seem like a mere amuse-bouche. Yes, yes, you heard us right.

The only drawback is that access is not at all that easy, and the budget for discovering one of Colombia’s most beautiful landscapes suffers as a result.

But the scenic beauty of the Carbonera Valley is beyond compare. Nothing prepares you for it. For us, it’s simply one of the most beautiful sights we’ve ever seen in Colombia.

But you might ask, if it’s so beautiful, why is this valley less well known and less visited than the Cocora Valley? Well, you’ll find out in our post.

Contents

1. Carbonera Valley (Tochecito)

2. Colombia’s largest wax palm forest

3. The endangered Wax Palm

4. The Camino nacional

5. Toche and Machin volcano

6. Carbonera Day Tour: Contact a local guide

7. How to get to the Carbonera Valley

8. Where to stay to do the Carbonera

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General information Carbonera valley

Name: La Carbonera or Tochecito
When to go: all year round
Surface area: 330km2
Ecosystem: Wax palm forest
Climate: cold and humid
Altitude: between 2300 and 3300m
Region: Andes
County: Tolima

Carbonera Valley travel guide: visit the largest wax palm forest

Disclaimer: we apologize in advance for any grammatical or syntactic errors, as our native language is not English (we're a Colombian-French couple), so we hope you'll forgive us and still enjoy the information we share with you! Please note that all the information on our blog is based on our own experience, and is checked and updated regularly.

Carbonera Valley (Tochecito)

Colombia’s most beautiful valley

Today, we’re meeting our guide in Salento for a 4×4 tour of the Carbonera Valley.

By 4×4? Isn’t the Carbonera Valley accessible on foot? It’s perfectly possible to walk to the Carbonera Valley from Salento, but you’ll need to allow for several days’ walking.

This isolated valley is only accessible by a dirt track, and we’ll need to drive for a good 2 hours, climb a pass at 3.300 m to the highest point called Alto de la Linea, which marks the border between the departments of Quindio and Tolima, and start descending into the valley to reach the first viewpoints.

A long-forgotten territory

The entire rural area around Alto de la Linea, including the Carbonera valley, was a battleground for the army, paramilitaries and guerrillas in the early 2000s. At the time, the Carbonera valley was reputed to be FARCS-held territory.

On the road up to the Alto de la Linea pass, we stop at an abandoned house. Our guide tells us that this is in fact an old country school, and the setting for a tragic story of the kind that is told all over Colombia. A school, innocents, a massacre, and then nothing..

The air is cool at this altitude, but heavy with the weight of history. That’s what Colombia is all about. And it’s important to come face to face with it, to get a glimpse of what lies behind the smiles and human warmth of the Colombian people.

The landscapes of the Carbonera Valley

Continuing along the road, we pass the Alto de la Linea pass (from where the cyclists depart for the descent into the valley) and begin to descend into the valley. Rounding a bend, the first wax palm forests appear in the distance. What a shock!

We quickly ask to stop and take photos. We’re going crazy. We want to stop at every bend, at every new vantage point! Our guide laughs, because he knows we haven’t seen a thing..

When we think of wax palms, we think of Cocora, and we have the image of these meadows with wax palms here and there punctuating the landscape. But what we see in Cocora are dying palms. You’ll notice that there are no shoots, no “baby” palms. Each palm is an adult, finishing its life and will not be replaced, because its natural environment has been destroyed.

The Carbonera Valley is a different story. It has the highest density of wax palms in Colombia (and therefore in the world).

Here we discover the true ecosystem of a wax palm forest. In other words, we get a glimpse of what the landscape might have been like before human intervention and the disasters caused by grazing. Landscapes that would have been found throughout the equatorial Andean mountains at altitudes of between 1.500 and 3.000 metres.

A dense forest, a jungle, where we see the wax palm in all its stages, the seed, the young shoot, the first palms, the beginning of a trunk, and the adult palms… Forests from which an enormous quantity of wax palms emerge, an incomparable, breathtaking spectacle.

It’s a real visual shock.

Wax palm species

Wax palms are endemic to the equatorial Andes mountains of South America. They live at altitudes of between 1.500 m and 3.000 m.

There are 16 different species of wax palm in the world (from western Venezuela to northern Bolivia).

Colombia is the country with the most wax palms and the greatest variety of species. There are 8 species of wax palm in Colombia, 6 of which are native to the Quindio and Tolima regions.

Species differ in trunk height and growth rate. The different species are also specific to certain altitudes.

La Carbonera or Tochecito?

Continuing along the road, we finally arrive at the finca “La Carbonera” where we make our first stop. We walk a few hundred meters through a meadow to admire one of the most beautiful landscapes we’ve ever seen in Colombia. Quite simply.

As you may have guessed, La Carbonera is the name of a finca (farm) in the middle of this valley. But it’s also the name of the valley where history tells us coal was mined.

In the end, operators coming from Salento speak more of the La Carbonera valley and those coming from Ibague speak more of Tochecito, which is in fact the name of the river that runs down to the village of Toche, easier to reach from Ibague.

In any case, what you need to understand is that all the valleys between the village of Toche (2300 m) and the Alto de la linea (3300 m) are covered with islands of forest, filled with wax palms of incomparable density.

Colombia’s largest wax palm forest

Carbonera Valley

If this valley is unique, it’s because it contains almost all the world’s wax palms. The world? You might say that’s a bit much! And yet..

This species of palm is endemic to the Andes of Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela… Scientists believe that over 80 of the world’s wax palms are found in the Carbonera Valley.

Take a closer look:

Cocora Valley: around 6.000 wax palms
Carbonera Valley: approx. 600.000 wax palms

100 times more wax palms… Now that’s clearer!

Why has this valley been preserved?

It may seem strange, but it’s a phenomenon found in many parts of Colombia. Since the peace accords of 2016, many Colombian regions formerly in the hands of the FARCS have been made accessible again. And everywhere you look, you realize that these territories have been incredibly preserved from the ravages of human development.

Indeed, the territory around the village of Toche was long controlled by guerrillas. The valley was isolated from the rest of the world, and this limited agricultural development and mining in the valley.

The Carbonera valley is therefore a kind of landscape frozen in time, a small glimpse of what the mountain landscape of the equatorial Andean region might have been like before human intervention. And, as in many Colombian regions, it was curiously the armed conflict that protected the ecosystems.

Now that the guerrillas have left, it’s up to the landowners (because everything is privately owned) to protect these forests and allow them to regenerate. As is often the case in Colombia, tourism has a role to play, because when tourists come to discover these landscapes and forests, the owners realize what a treasure they have, and are more inclined to imagine protecting it for the future. But nothing is won..

Wax palm forests in Colombia

So you see, the Cocora Valley is not the only place to admire wax palms. And even that the Cocora Valley is probably the least interesting place to see them..

So far, we’ve only been lucky enough to discover a few different places where you can see wax palm forests. Now we’re starting to hear about different destinations where to see wax palms, many of which we haven’t heard of yet:

Salento, Quindio
Pijao, Quindio
Toche, Tolima
Anaime, Tolima
Roncesvalles, Tolima
Samaria Valley in San Felix, Caldas
Tenerife, Valle del Cauca
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

To be continued..

The endangered Wax Palm

Carbonera Valley (Tochecito)

Be aware that this landscape has been sculpted by man for livestock, and that it is this deforestation to make way for pastureland that has led to the loss of over 70% of the Cocora Valley’s palm trees since 1985… something to think about!

The wax palm is the national emblem of Colombia, yet it is an endangered species. The wax palm is a tree endemic to the Andean regions of Colombia, growing at altitudes of between 1.500 and 3.000 m, mainly in the coffee region, i.e. the departments of Quindio, Tolima, Risaralda and Caldas (it can even be found in Antioqui, Santander, Cauca and Caqueta)

There are two reasons for the reduction in the number of wax palms in Colombia: Christian tradition and deforestation.

Tradition, as the leaves of wax palms have long been used by Colombians during the Palm Sunday festivities of Holy Week (now banned). Deforestation, because the need to create ever more grassland for livestock and access for mines has destroyed the native wax palm ecosystem, preventing its reproduction.

Cutting palm leaves for holy week is now forbidden, and replanting programs are underway, but all is made difficult by the wax palm’s specific characteristics and slow growth. It’s a safe bet that by the end of the century, the Cocora Valley will unfortunately be nothing more than a prairie landscape without wax palms.

To sum up: a wax palm in a meadow is a wax palm with no future.

Wax palm reproduction

After our stop at the “La Carbonera” finca, we set off again for another finca, where we’ll have lunch and then discover the interior of a truly preserved wax palm forest.

The scenery along the way is simply breathtaking..

We arrive at the finca and are greeted by a hearty traditional meal: pasta soup, chicken in sauce with rice, potatoes, yuca..

Well satisfied, we set off with our guide to discover the wax palm forest, which the owners of the finca have decided to protect as much as possible (and therefore to try to keep the cows out, even if it seems complicated)

In this forest, we’re finally going to discover the natural ecosystem of the wax palm and see the different stages in its reproduction. It’s also an opportunity to see the incredible biodiversity of a wax palm forest, and in particular the presence of a wide variety of bird species. The Carbonera Valley is a great spot for birdwatchers in Colombia.

To reproduce, wax palms need a dense, shady forest. The seeds fall to the ground, where the humidity allows them to germinate and develop in the shade of the forest.

The wax palm is extremely slow-growing: it needs 25 years in the shade to develop its leaves and see its trunk appear, then several decades more before it breaks through the canopy and reaches its full-grown height.

In open grasslands such as those where the Cocora Valley palms are found, the seeds of the wax palm will fall to the ground without being able to germinate or develop, as they will either be eaten or trampled by cows, or if they are lucky enough to escape, the young plants will be burnt by the sun.

The very slow growth of the wax palm

The seed falls to the foot of the adult palm or is carried away by birds
The seed can take up to 1 year to germinate in the shade of the dense forest
The first leaves appear and grow in the shade of the forest
Young leaves can reach up to 5 m in length
It can take up to 25 years before the palm’s trunk is made
The palm will then begin to seek light upwards
The trunk will grow a few centimetres a year (each line represents one year)
It can take around 70 years for a wax palm to reproduce
Mature wax palms can grow up to 60 m tall and live up to 200 years

The Camino nacional

Carbonera Valley (Tochecito)

We climb down from the wax palm forest to take the road back to Salento. We’ve seen nothing but wax palms and wax palms, by the thousands, and seeing the same landscapes as on the outward journey, we reflect that it’s impossible to tire of this spectacle!

On both the outward and return journeys, we take a route unlike any other. It’s the Camino nacional (which on this leg is called the Camino del Quindio).

The Camino nacional is an ancestral route used by indigenous populations before colonization, linking Bogotá to Quito (capital of Ecuador). As elsewhere in Colombia, after colonization, the Spaniards developed these communication routes, renaming them “caminos reales” (royal roads). Traces of these roads can be found throughout the country.

It’s fair to say that the camino nacional has been responsible for the creation of many villages, and Salento is clearly one of them. On this long and difficult route, it was necessary to create resting places where people could sleep before continuing on their way. It was for this purpose that the village of Salento came into being.

The road may have been paved in the distant past, but with the creation of more modern roads on other routes, it was abandoned and returned to its original state of earth, stone and gravel. Especially since the presence of guerrillas for many years meant that the road was no longer used. Today the road is open again, but its condition makes it accessible only by 4×4 (or a good car ready for adventure), by bike or on foot.

This road starts in Salento and leads up to the Alto de la Linea pass at 3.300 m altitude, which defines the border between the departments of Quindio and Tolima. Once at the summit, the road descends to the village of Toche in this valley of spectacular, relatively unspoilt scenery.

Toche and Machin volcano

Carbonera Valley

Coming from Salento, if you go further down the valley to the village of Toche, you’ll discover a tiny village frozen in time. Like the rest of the valley, Toche is a village that has long lived through the dark hours of armed conflict, but which today sees the opening up to tourism as a way out for its inhabitants.

In Toche you’ll find places to sleep and a few restaurants to eat. Take advantage of the village’s peaceful atmosphere to chat with the locals. But the area is most famous for its Machin volcano.

We didn’t have time to go there, but we’ve had good feedback from our friends who did.

The Machin volcano is an active volcano with a crater measuring around 2.5 km in diameter. Its particularity lies in its dome, which is still present and represents the greatest threat should the volcano one day explode. In fact, Machin volcano has not erupted in over 800 years… a sort of pressure cooker waiting to blow its lid off!

The volcano’s activity is visible, smoke can be observed and there are numerous hot springs where you can relax. The risk of eruption doesn’t seem to worry the farmer’s family, who literally live inside the volcano, in the crater!

In short, it can be a ~~long and~~ enjoyable day to add a visit to Toche and the Machin volcano to that of the Carbonera Valley. It’s perfectly possible to do it all in one day from Salento. You’ll simply spend less time admiring the wax palm forests.

Carbonera Valley travel guide: visit the largest wax palm forest