Last week I was invited by ProColombia (the government agency to promote tourism) to attend the Colombia Nature Travel Mart in Manizales Colombia, after having attended it virtually the year before. Fortunately there were a lot of local nature tour operators attending this year that were not there last year, so I was able to broaden my knowledge of the touring possibilities in all of the regions of Colombia.

Of course in a place with as much biodiversity as Colombia, nature tours can encompass a variety of subjects such as active tours, adventure tours, cultural tours and birdwatching tours, as I will explain below.

For many years, if travelers wanted to do an Amazon tour in Colombia, they needed to fly to Leticia, at the Tres Fronteras border with Peru and Brazil. From there, they could either do a lodge-based stay in the area, catch a cruise boat or a speedboat to Iquitos, Peru, or catch a cargo or transport boat towards Manaus, Brazil.

But when the vast majority of the FARC guerillas quit fighting in 2017,  other areas of the country became safe to travel to and it opened up fascinating areas in the Amazon made famous by the famous ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes, during his explorations in the early 1940's, as are mentioned at  

Looking for somebody knowledgeable about Patagonia to help you to plan a trip there? Jorge was one of 32 people from around the world selected to be hosted at an Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) event in September called AdventureNEXT Patagonia – Magallanes. The event is designed for a diverse set of industry professionals to have the opportunity to gain insight on travel trends and tools, build business relationships, and work together to reactivate the adventure community after the terrible effects of the pandemic.. Together they will share ideas and case studies on how the travel industry can regenerate the planet.

Over the years, I've been asked many times if it is safe to travel to South America. I had one American guy who was planning a family multisport trip, but he had read that somebody was killed in Peru, so he decided that he didn't want to travel there or to Ecuador, Chile, Argentina or Brazil because they were too close to Peru and it wasn't safe.

I recently read an article in "Travel Weekly" where a travel consultant said:

When most people think about Peru, they think about the Incas - just like people associate Mexico with Mayans. But if you travel around Peru, you will see that there were other interesting cultures that left their mark on the country.

Did you know that there are 16 World Heritage sites in Argentina and Chile and 1 across the border in Uruguay? Ten are Cultural Heritage sites, five are Natural Heritage sites and two have Intangible Cultural Elements. Below are the sites:

Are your plans for a European vacation looking grim now that the European Union is considering restricting the entrance of Americans, especially unvaccinated ones? If so, here are a few reasons to consider Brazil instead:

Many people are eager to travel to South America again and are looking for information about when that will be possible. We will try to keep this post updated with the latest information we get from our local operators in each country.

While things have slowed down, we have been busy updating our website with new travel options and with information about what local operators and properties are doing to try to keep you safe when traveling. Among the things we have added are:

This is a question that I'm sure is on the minds of a lot of people, including me, so I did some investigating.