Calima Lake Colombia: Routes from Cali and highway tolls

To get to Lake Calima Darién by car from Cali you must travel a distance of 95 kilometers and the average arrival time is 2 hours depending on which of the two routes you take. To quickly get to Calima Darién from Cali by car, you must take the road through the Cali exit of the first race, which takes you to the Cali - Palmira straight line for the entire variant. You continue along this road for 40 minutes until you reach the southern entrance to the town of Buga. After the entrance, continue along the variant until you come to an elevated bridge where you will have to take the left route to the Mediacanoa roundabout. The distance for this route is 110 kilometers and the entire journey is dual carriageway because it is faster than the next option. The second option for getting to Calima Lake is to go through the Cali exit of third north avenue. This route will take you to the municipality of Yumbo, which is where you take the "old" road to Lake Calima. You continue along it for 45 minutes and you arrive directly at the mediacanoa roundabout. The distance along this road is 94 kilometers but the road is a single-carriageway. In Mediacanoa is where the two routes to Lake Calima meet. After the roundabout begins an ascent to the mountains that surround the lake and is also the route to the sea in Buenaventura. At its top are the two entrances to Lake Calima and the municipality of Darién, a guide is to see the Buga - Loboguerrero route sign. The first entrance to the lake is in Puentetierra, 20 minutes from the roundabout. Once you cross, you must go around the lake to get to the town of Darién. It is a narrow one-lane road where bus routes also pass, so it is advisable to go slowly. From Puentetierra to the main park of Calima Darién it takes 30 minutes. The second entrance to Calima Darién is in Madronal, 16 minutes from Puentetierra. From this entrance you surround the lake on the left side, it will take you 35 minutes to get to Darién and you will be able to see the walls of the Calima reservoir or the Calima Lake dam.

Tolls from Cali to Calima Lake vary depending on the route you take to get there. If you choose the first option that we gave you, through Palmira, you will find two tolls; one at the exit from Cali and another upon arrival in Buga, each with an average value of 10,000 Colombian pesos (3 dollars). The advantage of going this route is that it is faster and safer because it is a dual carriageway. If you are going to take the second route that we gave you, through Yumbo, you will find only one toll in the middle of the journey (almost when you reach mediacanoa), for a cost of 9,000 Colombian pesos (3 dollars). The disadvantage of going this route is that it is a single carriageway and many trucks or "mules" travel. To get to Lake Calima from Buga you only have to take the Buga – Loboguerrero road, get to Puentetierra, and follow the aforementioned indications. Because it is very close to the Darién, there are no tolls.

If you want to go to Calima Lake without having to pay tolls, there are two options that we will describe below. With these options, you will not find any toll but it can take you about 20 more minutes to get there. The first option is to take the exit to the sea from Cali. You must exit through the Terrón Colorado neighborhood as if you were going to Buenaventura, go through “kilometer 18”, “kilometer 26” and “kilometer 30”. They continue along this road until before the Loboguerrero tollbooth, where there is a "Y" that unites the people who come from Cali with the people who come from Buga. At that "Y" you must turn right to take the Loboguerrero - Buga road, where the ascent to Lake Calima begins and you will first see "the second entrance" that we described above. By this route, it will take two hours to reach the town of Lake Calima from Cali (1 hour and a half to the second entrance and 35 minutes to the town square) but you will not have to pay tolls. The second option to getting there without paying tolls is to take the Cali - Yumbo road and enter the town of Yumbo through Carrera 5. They cross the town on this street and they will end up on the Yumbo - La Cumbre road where they will begin to ascend the mountain. This road is a bit narrow, it is a single carriageway and you will have to cross the towns of La Cumbre, Pavas and Restrepo. But you will see incredible landscapes of the mountains of Valle del Cauca. Once they pass through the municipality of Restrepo, they continue for 10 minutes and arrive directly at the second entrance to Lake Calima, at the top of the mountain. By this route, it will also take two hours to get to the town of Lake Calima from Cali (1 hour and a half to the second entrance and 35 minutes to the town square).

To get to Lake Calima from Cali by bus, there is only one company that takes you directly to the town of Darién called transcalima or transportes Calima. The bus trip to El Darién lasts an average of two and a half hours from the Cali terminal to the main Darién park. The bus must be taken on the third floor of the Cali transport terminal, routes leave every hour from 6:00 am to 7:00 pm and the cost of the ticket to the Calima Darién lake is priced at 16,000 Colombian pesos (it would be about 5 dollars). If you arrived at the terminal and due to time constraints you were unable to take the trans-Calima routes, you can opt for the following option to go to Calima Lake from Cali. They must take a bus at the transport terminal to Buga, the value of the ticket has a cost of $9,000. Then at the Buga terminal, they find several routes to the town of Darién where the ticket costs $7,000, and from the town park, they can take a motorcycle or jeep that transports them to their lodging.