start for hike to laguna del otun | Tourist Attraction

February 9th, 2019 by dutchonwheels

Don't drive up here without high clearance, although we saw a few cars doing it, which I really don't understand! The road is in parts bad and rocky which starts at the barrier gate 2,5 km's before La Suiza. Untill La Florida the road is asphalted and the area is very nice and popular whith locals.
In weekends crowded with mountainbikers, which made the drive annoying. Also many hikers during weekend. Probably deserted during weekdays.
We left the car here for the night, which is perfectly safe since it'a dead end (off)road and the people from the tienda/restaurant live here and keep an eye on the car for free.
There are around 40 beds (28.000 pp incl warm blankets & cold shower) in La Pastora, which is a big, nice & clean hostel, campground & information centre, so even in weekends no reason to make a reservation. You can have diner (12.000 pesos) here, also breakfast & lunch but dont know the price. Nice area, recommended.

June 14th, 2017 by joostsjoukes

From here you can walk to laguna del Otun. It took us three days there and back. You can camp at various places: la Pastora (2 hours), El Jordan (6 hours), la Escuela (at el bosque, 7-8 hours, at 3600 m) or the laguna itself (10 hours, at 4000m). We camped the first night at El Jordan, then went to la escuela, left our heavy stuff there and continued to the laguna and back. It's super beautiful, but come prepared for rain. In the camping places that we mentioned there will be a shelter for cooking (bring your camping stove, fires are not allowed). El Jordan also has a couple of beds if you don't want to carry a tent etc. From there you can also make it to the laguna and back in one day. Just check availability (google?) in holidays. La Pastora is a nice place with beds (many!) only a 2 hour walk from el Cedral and a nice base for some nice short hikes through this amazing dense forest with all its waterfalls.

We left our car here at el Cedral without problems for 3 days, but you might consider leaving it in la Florida and take the chiva (bus) to el Cedral for the following reasons: 1. the road is bad. You need high clearance and it will take you much longer than the chiva. 2. we slept at el cedral the nighy before we started, but that was a mistake: loud music all night long ( literally, it was still playing when we left in the morning). When I asked whether they always play their music all night long she said: yes we always have music... So be warned🙂

For the rest, enjoy this hike! It's so beautiful that we don't understand why its not more popular. We met only one other couple. (Perhaps because of the wheather?). Oh, and good to know, you don't have to pay any entrance fee for the national park here, just some small camping fees (6000 at el jordan, the escuela was free, but we don't know whether that's always the case).