Essential Colombia Adventure Ride

Eight nights in a dual sport loop from Cali led by a named local guide, through the coffee region and the Cocora valley, with one day on which the bikes are left behind for an undisclosed destination. The hire is included, with upgrades.

The Cordillera Occidental ridges carry the route into the coffee plantations, then Termales del Ruiz, where hot spring pools sit below the Ruiz volcano looking out over Manizales.

Rio La Miel comes next with a ferry crossing, and then the mystery day: the bikes are parked and local transport takes the group deep into rainforest to a destination the operator declines to name in advance, which is either charming or irritating depending on temperament.

Sonson follows through river and stream crossings and sand, then Salamina, a national heritage town known as the City of Light, reached on back roads that see only farm traffic. Filandia comes next with a coffee farm visit in a colonial town, and the Cocora valley holds the wax palm, Colombia’s national tree and the tallest palm species in the world at up to sixty metres, standing in open pasture in a way that looks faintly unreal. The Cauca valley and its sugar plantations close the loop into Cali. Prices are quoted in US dollars. Eight nights with a local guide who knows which back roads are passable is the right way to approach Colombia, where the mapping is unreliable and the good riding is rarely on the obvious route. The CFMoto machines keep the entry price down, and the upgrade list runs up to a KTM 890 for riders who want more bike under them on the sand sections.