The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is the highest coastal mountain in the world. The pyramid-shaped peak rises up from the Caribbean coast of Colombia, reaching 5,775m (18,946ft) above sea level. The mountain has a huge range of microclimates that nurture some of the world’s most diverse wildlife and plantlife.
At the top of the mountain the temperatures are freezing and sustain a glacier — the northernmost glacier in tropical South America. But satellite pictures reveal that the ice is rapidly shrinking, with 41 per cent gone in 20 years. And a recent study warned that this and the other five glaciers in Colombia were forecast to disappear completely by 2022 at the latest.