Pacific Coast (Nuquí or Bahía Solano)

The Pacific coast in Colombia is a paradise of mountains covered with pristine wet jungles, mangrove wetlands, coastline vegetation and beautiful beaches bathed by countless streams of crystal clear fresh water dripping down from the mountains.

Being inside the Chocó bio-region, one of the wettest on earth, it is a prefect place for observing a high diversity of orchids and other tropical plants which have colonized those different lowland habitats. If you visit between end of July and early October, humpback whale observation is also possible. Guillermo Misas, orchid explorer who dedicated his life to exploring and studying the orchids in this region, published the book titled “Orquídeas de la serranía del Baudó”, where the huge variety of species living there are very well illustrated.

Many other interesting creatures inhabit the area, like the Black-Red Poison Dart Frog (Oophaga histrionica), the Splendid Tree Frog (Cruziohyla calcarifer), the Chocoan Bushmaster (Lachesis acrochorda) and many more herps, birds and invertebrates.

It is also possible to climb the Cerro Mecana, more than 1000m high, with different and amazing plant and animal species living only on the super-humid montane forests of the Chocó.

Highlights: Charismatic orchid species like Clowesia warczewiczii, Miltoniopsis roezlii, Coryanthes flava, Gongora chocoensis, Neomorea wallisii, Paphinia seegeri, Phragmipedium longifolium and Psychopsis krameriana can be found, together with several species of Brassia, Aspasia, Chaubardiella, Dichaea, Gongora, Epidendrum, Pleurothallis, Platystele, Scaphyglottis and others.