Travel guide: Tolima

Pools in Melgar, colonial Honda and Tolima-style lechona

• Melgar, the City of Pools, 2-3 hours from Bogotá.
• Honda: a historic center on the Magdalena River.
• Carmen de Apicalá, about twenty minutes from Melgar, has similar fincas.

Melgar and Carmen de Apicalá

Melgar (about 320 m above sea level) is in Tolima, not Cundinamarca, even though people think of it as part of Bogotá's tierra caliente (the hot lowlands where the capital goes for the weekend). It is nicknamed the City of Pools. The Piscilago water park is nearby, on the highway, on the Cundinamarca side. Carmen de Apicalá, about twenty minutes away, has the same kind of fincas and the lowest median in the area.

Honda and Mariquita

Honda (about 230 m above sea level) was a port on the Magdalena River in colonial times and keeps a historic center. It is called the City of Bridges for the ones that cross the Gualí and Magdalena rivers. In February, when the bocachico fish swim upriver, the town celebrates the subienda (the upstream fish run). Mariquita, less than an hour away, was the seat of José Celestino Mutis's Royal Botanical Expedition and has fincas with fruit trees. Supply in Honda and Mariquita is smaller than in Melgar, so it pays to book early.

Tolima's food is lechona (whole roast pig stuffed with rice), tamal tolimense and, by the Magdalena, viudo de pescado (a river-fish stew).

Getting there

Melgar is on the Bogotá-Girardot highway, 2 to 3 hours away without a trancón (a traffic jam). Honda is 3 to 4 hours away via the road to Villeta and Guaduas. Buses to Melgar leave from Bogotá's Terminal del Sur (south bus station). Ibagué has an airport, but for Melgar and Honda it is almost always more practical to drive from Bogotá. Ibagué to Melgar takes 1.5 to 2 hours.

What they won't tell you

Honda and Mariquita are above 30 °C (86 °F) much of the year. A finca with neither air conditioning nor a pool makes for hot nights there. Ask about both before you book. In Melgar, puentes festivos (long weekends: Colombia moves most public holidays to a Monday and everyone leaves the city at once) fill the town and the listed prices stop applying.