This appears to be the most conventionally promising, although it ain’t easy, and requires a consistent hike up either of two long Valleys Running east west from what appears to be an old glacial junction near the village of San Jose, about an hour in by foot from the Road Head in Guatapuri, which is at about 5000 ft. the Road is Paved to Pillal more or less, and pretty much paved from Pillal to Atanquez, but from there it is a combo of cement tracks and dirt to Guatapuri, where you set out on foot through this Kancuamos Village, essentially modern, up the Guatapuri River (which runs down below town all the way to Valledupar, as the town straddles a divide between two watersheds, the one you were driving through from Pillal and Atanquez and La Mina, that you crossed at a popular swimming spot, being the Rio Badillo ). the last part of this road is best done in a raised vehicle at least. I did it on foot half way up and all the way down from Atanquez, and it’s not horrible, like the road from Pueblo Bello to Nagusimake, but I had to jump off the guy’s motorcycle a few times when it got rocky towards the top (it wa getting dark, the ride was cheap, and kind of fun I won’t lie) There is regular service in a bunch of old Land Cruisers to Guatapuri and it’s sister town whose name now escapes me, a few hundred yards to the left from the last junction which is pretty much at the town by the school and the pass into the Guatepuri valley.
It looks like about a two to three day hike to base camp from here,but it also looks like a beautiful hike up a deep valley. The Valley to the North, the Guatapuri, has a series of lakes that would no doubt be pretty. The other river, which seems to be called the Donachui, is the southerly of the two Long Valleys, and is a little trickier to get into from the Pueblo of Guatapuri, since you have to go over a bit of a pass. I can only imagine what it holds for beauty. The two mountains are split by a mountain called Sinimin, which is over 4000 m, and has the appearance of a Papal crown. It would be about 20 miles up each of them to the 5 Blue Lakes, with a 7000 ft elevation gain.. steady hard work.. You are above tree line pretty quickly it appears, as these deep valleys don’t seem to allow a lot of sunlight, maybe at 7000 ft from what I could tell.
San Jose seemed to lie at about 6000 ft, and is the last outpost of Civilizados in the Guatepuri Valley, the nickname for educated non indigenous people from the low lands. There are basically two nurses of sorts, a male and a female when I was there, who look after the Koguis in this valley. the buildings in San Jose are a combination of cement for them and thatched huts for the chief who lives there with what might be a bit of a harem, Jose Gabriel I believe was his name. I didn’t talk to him but saw him, and he was an older looking Kogui with a wry smile it appeared. Going furthur up this trail would involve either sneaking past or massaging him, and the first step would be engaging the local municipal head in Guatapuri whose name is______
From there, maps show a few more settlements, then just a long streatch of steep valley running west to join a plateau where the 5 Blue Lakes are. There are a series of Lakes as well in the Guatapuri Valley, the Donachui might have one or two but is mostly river. I have no idea how passable they are, or how difficult it would be getting from the head of the Valley to the plateau, or if they valley walls might be so steep that it becomes impassable, or whether there are boulder fields or waterfalls or cliffs that block the valley.. the only way to find out I guess is to go there or find someone who has… My instinct tells me that the north Valley, the Guatapuri, is the most straight forward of the two, to the lakes. When I asked a guy in Guatapuri how far it was to the sierra, he motioned towards the Upper Guatapuri Valley and said 2 days.. that just might mean “we have big parties up there all the time!”