I met two German girls in San Gil who wanted to go hiking in El Cocuy. We stopped over in Sogamoso for 2 nights on the way, which gave us an ideal test run - the hike to Páramo de Oceta, from 3000m to 3800m, about 6 hours all in.

The weather wasn’t good - it was cold, rainy at times and a little windy. The girls wanted to turn back, they were wet, cold, tired, couldn’t breathe, the guide sucked, their gloves were wet so they couldn’t wear them, how much longer was it going to take, are there any shortcuts…

They decided that El Cocuy was perhaps not a good idea, and left for Bogotá, leaving me on a solo mission up the mountains.