My experience

In this blog, I am going to talk about my visit to the Nirvana Natural Reserve. It is located in Valle del Cauca, Colombia. This place allows  people to connect with the nature and know about the natural beauties of the country.

Nirvana Natural Reserve is considered a natural paradise which is located between the limits of Palmira and Pradera Municipalities, exactly in the hydrographic basin of the river Aguaclara, known by the name of La Buitrera. This reserve has 100 hectares of land that represent a patch of hillside on the Central Cordillera of the Colombian Andes at a height of 1500 meters on the sea level, with a temperature of 20°C.

A year after graduating, a teacher invited me and a group of friends from school to a trip that he made on June 17, 2011 to Nirvana Natural Reserve. The meeting point was the main entrance of the school at 8:00 am. The bus trip from there to the reserve was approximately two hours, therefore we arrived at 10:00 am.

In the reserve, we moved to a saloon where we were welcomed and shown the place as an environmental education center, consisting of 8 kilometers of path, a botanical garden and plant nursery, an apiary, a  trout harvest, a park of roots of “Comino Crespo”, and “El Mirador de los vientos”.

Before starting the tour, we were divided in two groups and everyone went with a guide. The first group in which I was, began with the trout harvest, where we could observe different types of trout, “Bailarinas” and Japanese carp. After that, we went of the park which preserves root “Comino Crespo” (Aniba perutilis), one of the finest woods of América; these are trees that are between 300 and 1000 years old. They are also known as “Oro vegetal” because when worked in carpentry it shows a golden color.

From there we went to the tree known as “Jaboticaba” (Myrciaria cauliflora), from Brazil and Paraguay. It was introduced to the reserve in 1933 and from there the seeds were distributed to other parts of Colombia. This tree is used for its ornamental characteristics in the art of “Bonsai”. Its fruits are used to make juice, wine and jam.

Continuing with the tour, we started the road for the path, where we saw a collection of "Heliconias", anthuriums and orchids that are part of the botanical garden. We also find different types of trees such the “Comino Crespo” (Aniba perutilis), black cedar (Jugles neotropica), “Arenillo” (Ocalea sp), oak (Quercus humboldii bonpland), "Higueron” (Ficus luschnathiana), "Pumarrosa" (Syzygium jambos), among others, where many of them are in danger of extinction, due to their high exploitation because these trees are considered very good quality wood.

Following for the path, we arrived to the area of captivity of some birds like the Macaw, and some Colombian parrots, also into the reserve there are 150 types of birds such the “Barranquero” (Momotus momota), the “Guacharacas”, toucans, woodpeckers, hummingbirds, among others. At the end of this path, after walking it for one hour or more, we got to “Mirador de los Vientos”, a place from where you can see a great landscape of the valley.