Located in the eastern Andes Range of Colombia, the Chingaza National Forest the park expands over 76,000 hectors and rises in elevation to over 13,100ft of elevation.

The high elevation grasslands are home to over 500 alpine lakes within the Andean ranges and protect a large array of diversity within the national park.

Bogota relies on the Chingaza as that is where the city gains most of its water and potable water for cleaning.

Animals that inhabit the Chingaza include the spectacled bear, deer, tapirs, pumas, Andean condors, Cock-of-the-rocks, jaguars, turkeys, woolly monkeys, nocturnal monkeys, ocelots, and toucans.

There are over 40 kinds of peat moss that can absorb over 40 times their own weight in water.

Another interesting plant that lives in the Chingaza is the Paramo. 

The Paramo is refered to the high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline plant

This plant looks like a type of palm tree with a pineapple like top to it. It is very interesting as they grow below the snowline and above the tree line

The hike started at a elevation of 10900ft and gained up to 11400 ft of delta.

The terrain was a grassland with rolling hills above the clouds with clouds forming around the small peaks as we gained out elevation to the laguna.

Once we got to the top of the final approach, we could see the peak with the beautiful lagoon and a bog of sorts with peat moss and the paramo trees scattered around the base.

It was like walking through a different world with the clouds coming through the trail and the rare plants at the elevation that we were at. The time when the sun came out my skin started to burn quick so having sun screen is vital.

We stopped at the lagoon and hung out while the clouds passed through the trees and as I attempted to catch my breath from the sickness that I was infected with all week.

The hike was beautiful and it was wonderful to get out to the lagoon and see this side of the Andean range.

There has been talk about caves that are in the region but we were running out of time and did not have access to visit these caves. 

I am looking forward to coming back to the andes in the near future to explore more of the regions high elevation grassland plains.