Rio Claro Jungle River Private Tour from Medellín

If you have never been on a hike, then this trip might be okay for you. But if you have, then you will probably feel like just as much of a schmuck as I did for paying this ridiculous sum of money for what is essentially a hike in a forest. "Jungle River Tour"! Sounds great, doesn't it? And it costs a lot of money - so, if you're an idiot like me, then you'll think that's proof that you're about to go on an Alan Quartermain style adventure into a dark and forbidding wilderness. No. Not at all. After sitting in a van for two hours, you pull into the parking lot of what is basically a wilderness park. You get out and you follow your "guide" down a trail. I put "guide" in parenthesis because you don't really need a guide here. This is a well-traveled path that you'll see dozens of people walking on - none of who paid anything to be there other than the admission for the park. There are some people Zip-Lining and some people doing some Spelunking. They're having a good time. Us? We're just walking on a path. The caves we walk into aren't caves. They are indentions. On the way back, we were stuck in traffic and it took about three hours to get home. Five hours in a van. About one hour walking on a trail in a forest. And I spent over $200 on it. I told the guy who ran the operation that this not come anywhere near being a "Jungle River Tour", and said that I believed it wasn't unreasonable to ask for half my money back. Because it wasn't just about the mediocrity of the trip. I feel that I lost an entire day of my trip to Colombia. The whole day was taken by this. But the guy told me that he wasn't going to be giving me anything back. I did enjoy one bit of swimming that I was able to do. But - showing how far this is from deserving the title "Jungle River Tour" - there was a lifeguard at this river. And he made sure that nobody did anything out of the ordinary. Other than that, the only good thing thing that came from this was that I now have something to which I can refer whenever I'm jokingly warning myself or others about being careful how they spend their money during travel. "Just make sure it's not a jungle river tour!" "No jungle river tours!"

Beautiful! Nice drive and the river was wonderful. Our guide was knowledgeable and fun and the transportation was clean and comfortable.

We had an amazing day with Medellin Travels exploring the Rio Claro jungle area. We were picked up in a clean van at our hotel. The driver, Chappi, was great at navigating the mountain roads quickly but safely. Our guide, George (who is from Medellin), spoke excellent English, studied Colombian history at university, and captivated us during the roughly 3 hour drive with a full explanation of Colombia’s past and present. The stories were so interesting that the time passed very quickly. This area of the jungle was controlled by the cartels until recently, but is now safe to visit. The jungle is expansive and dense, and the drive through the mountains is stunning. When you get to the park, you can hike along the banks of the river as far as you would like - the trail gets rougher the further you go, but that was part of the fun. We stopped to swim along the way. The canyon has steep walls covered in vines, and the floor of the river is marble, so when the water is clear (no rains) it is green. They have 3 activities you can choose from aside from hiking and swimming - rafting, cave exploring, and ziplining. We did the ziplining, which was super fun. The caves would be amazing to do but it is a 3-hour trek through the limestone cave system, and we didn’t have enough time because we trekked and swam for a while. It was an unforgettable experience in Colombia. We did this with 3 kids - ages 11-15, and they were two steps behind the guide, completely engaged, the whole time. They LOVED it. I highly recommend escaping the city and exploring the jungle, and you must go with Medellin Travels.