Meinhardts in Colombia: God's Night Mountains...Chingaza.

No one lives on God's Night Mountains, Chingaza.

No one spends the night.
But our friends, German and Fernando, got permission to hike to some of the sacred lakes, Laguas de Buitrago. (Map here.)

In lakes like these, the ancient Muisca and Guayupe peoples made their offerings of gold that gave rise to the legends of El Dorado, the City of Gold. And that of course led to the subsequent Spanish plunder of Latin America. (Lesson here: If you got it, don't flaunt it.)
This photo is a golden raft from Bogota's Gold Museum. The raft (about eight inches long) was an offering made long ago (1000 years give or take) and recovered in 1969.

Today, much more precious than the golden raft is the pure water supply for the 14,000,000 people of Bogota. And the purity of Bogota's water is why access to Chingaza is so difficult to get. Fernando and German, worked far in advance to set up the trip. (Thanks, Guys! They are both US Naval Academy grads and classmates of mine. Definitely the guys you want on your team.)

Our brains rattled as we drove up the impossibly long, rutted and steep dirt roads to about 11,500 feet altitude. But we were tough, and we were only mildly irritated by the hundreds of cyclists that were making the 40 kilometer ride up the same roads. OMG! These weekend Bogota ciclistas make the Tour de France look like a coast along the Ocean City boardwalk. The thin air of Bogota can make life tough for us flatlanders. But these Colombian guys and gals race up mountains three miles above the ocean! On bone-rattling dirt roads!
Can you hear me down there along the coast? Or is the air too thin up here for my voice to carry?
[To be clear, I was in a Toyota SUV with a full tank of gas and air conditioning; I was not on a bike.]

German and Mrs.

Let me catch my breath... Okay, back to work.

Much of the Chingaza is above the tree line, but the dense, low vegetation traps the fogs and clouds to keep everything green in this unique alpine tundra ecosystem, called the Paramo. Check out Wikipedia for the details and here for excellent photos.

Our group just marveled at the beauty and shared the happiness.