Popayán · CO

Cerro las Tres Cruces

Cerro de las Tres Cruces is Popayán's balcony. A short but steady hike up a forested ridge behind the White City of Colombia ends at a cluster of three big concrete crosses, where the valley, the whitewashed rooftops and the green folds of the Andes open out below. More than just a viewpoint, it is one of the city's favorite weekend escapes—a place to run, walk the dog, drink a glass of freshly pressed sugarcane juice and watch the light slide across the mountains. The hill takes its name from those three crosses, but locals also call it the cerro de la Eme because of the M-shape of its skyline. The summit is the high point of a popular tangle of trails that links several of Popayán's landmark viewpoints, and the climb is as much of the experience as the panorama: shaded paths, roadside vendors and a steady sense of the city falling away beneath the trees.