A visitor center, a lookout and a trail in the páramo.
Between August 2025 and February 2026, with Patrimonio Natural (Colombia’s Fund for Biodiversity and Protected Areas) and funding from KfW (German development bank), MARA built the ecotourism infrastructure of Galeras Fauna and Flora Sanctuary in the Telpis sector: a two-storey timber visitor reception center with its own solar power; a lookout over Telpis Lake (Laguna de Telpis); and the upgrade of the Wayra Ñan trail, with a footbridge of about 6 meters, a boardwalk, handrails, gravel-filled terraced steps, two covered rest stops and an entrance gate.
Telpis sector, between 3,200 and 3,800 meters.
The site is in the rural district (vereda) of El Rosario, in Yacuanquer (Nariño), about 30 km by road from Pasto —the last 5 on concrete wheel-track and dirt roads— inside Galeras Fauna and Flora Sanctuary: páramo and high Andean forest, with temperatures of 6 to 12 °C, night frosts, fog and strong sun. The Telpis sector is the only part of the sanctuary open to ecotourism.
Everything went up by mule and on foot.
Mules are not allowed in the páramo: materials went up by mule as far as the Piedra del Libro rock and were carried by hand from there to the lookout. When heavy rains and cattle destroyed the access path, all transport over the last 3 km had to be done on workers’ backs, and the daily load dropped from 1,600 to 800 kg; even the solar panels were carried up this way. The soil at the lookout also proved too soft for the planned concrete footings.
Pressure-treated timber on piles, and solar power.
The lookout was redesigned to stand on round pressure-treated timber piles instead of footings, which also avoided digging up páramo soil: 14 cm round-timber columns, board flooring, railings, a roof and connections in stainless steel and galvanized threaded rod. The visitor center is a two-storey frame in timber pressure-treated with CCA salts, with a 20-year warranty, on concrete footings, with stairs, an upper floor, timber lattices and insulated sandwich roofing; it has lightning protection and an off-grid solar photovoltaic system, commissioned on February 5, 2026.
On the trail, steps were kept to a maximum width of one meter to reduce the impact, and excavated soil was reused as fill. There were no accidents in 185 days of work, and about 700 kg of reusable debris was handed over to the sanctuary for its own maintenance.
A gateway to the páramo.
Work was completed in February and accepted in March 2026. The sanctuary now welcomes visitors at a center with its own power, takes them along a safe trail and offers them a view over Telpis Lake. The crew was hired from the rural communities around the sanctuary.
