This year the October long weekend runs from Saturday the 10th to Monday the 12th, and in Bucaramanga the usual question comes back: where do we go without spending half the weekend on the road? One good answer in Santander is the water. Here is a short guide, in three steps, to build a long weekend plan around the Topocoro Reservoir, known locally as "el mar de Santander" (the sea of Santander).
First, decide what kind of day on the water you want
The reservoir gives you more than one way to spend a day, and it helps to choose before you leave. At the reservoir's water sports facilities you can do kayak, paddleboard, jet ski and wakeboard. If you are traveling with family or want a gentle pace, kayak and paddleboard are a calm way to be out on the water. If you want more adrenaline, jet ski and wakeboard are the other side of the coin. The practical move is to pick one main activity and keep the second as a bonus if the day goes well, instead of trying to fit everything into a single morning.
How to get there and what to add besides the water
From Bucaramanga it is 50 minutes along the old road to Barrancabermeja. The landmark is to pass the La Renta rest stop and, just after a stop sign, keep going straight ahead. Leave early: with the drive out of the way, the whole day is left for the water. The area also has a commercial and hotel zone nearby, handy if you want to turn the plan into an overnight stay.
Beyond the reservoir itself, the Altos de Yariguíes project gallery shows other experiences in the surroundings: a natural waterfall, ATV trails, horseback riding, a beach volleyball court and a soccer field. If the long weekend gives you three days, a good formula is one day for the water, one for the land and a third for doing nothing at all.
One concrete example for people who want to come back more than once
Some people visit Topocoro for a long weekend and keep wondering what it would be like to have a place of their own there. Altos de Yariguíes Country Club, on the shore of the reservoir, is one example of what that can mean: it sits just 500 meters from the water sports facilities, with a panoramic pool looking straight at the reservoir, a social bar and ecological trails through native forest, and its model home is already built and open for tours. There are 138 residential lots starting at 1,250 m², each with its own independent title deed (matrícula inmobiliaria), and if you want to see the layout before you go, there is a 360 degree virtual tour for each stage.
Whatever your plan for the long weekend, my advice is the same: pick one activity, leave early and save time to watch the sunset over the water. If the trip leaves you wanting to repeat it every month, that is where a different conversation starts, and we would be glad to have it.