Travel Guide La Carbonera

La Carbonera is a finca located between Salento and Ibagué (Tolima), in the basin of the Tochecito River. It is here, at an altitude of 2,730 meters, that we find the largest concentration of wax palms in the world, the giant palms that have made the Cocora Valley famous. It is estimated that there are 600,000 of these trees out of the 700,000 found throughout Colombia (and the world). Other areas where these trees can be seen (there are 14 species of wax palms) are La Murilla, La Línea, Anaime, Pijao, Tenerife and Roncesvalle. Unlike Cocora, where the palm trees are in danger of disappearing because of cattle ranching (cows eat the young shoots), in Tochecito the palm forests have been preserved from cattle ranching and chainsaws, because it was in a territory where the FARC guerrillas operated (bygone era). The landscape is incredible, with these dense forests of palm trees reaching up to the sky.