About Us · Pelecanus SAS
About Pelecanus — your Swiss tour operator in Colombia
Registered nature tour operator in Colombia. Pelecanus SAS — RNT 51402.
Frank Spitzer
- From: Zürich, Switzerland
- Education: MBA — Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá
- Prior career: 20 years in the financial industry in Switzerland
- Pelecanus SAS: Founder and registered operator since 2017
Born in Zürich, Switzerland, I worked in the financial industry for 20 years until I decided to leave my country and start my own business. To learn the language, the culture and build a network, I did an MBA at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá. After traveling around Colombia following my first semester, it became very clear very fast that I would start a business related to tourism — the place where I could combine my passion with my work.
Pelecanus SAS has operated formally since 2017, registered with the Registro Nacional de Turismo (RNT 51402) and NIT 901012952-7. I build every itinerary personally with the client — we are not resellers of off-the-shelf packages. I know the regions because I have walked them on the ground — the Amazon, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the Pacific coast of Chocó, the Llanos, the Coffee Region, the Andes — and I documented much of that on the COLOMBIAFRANK YouTube channel, with more than 700 videos so any traveler can verify before deciding.
My goal is to build a sustainable business in the Colombian context, with clients who come back, recommend the service, and leave with an experience that justifies the trip down here.
Custom itineraries, no intermediaries
We do not resell prepackaged trips. Every itinerary is built from scratch with the traveler — region selection, length of stay, lodging type, group size, photography vs birdwatching vs general nature focus, and pace. Frank or a senior planner is on the call directly; you do not get bounced through a sales funnel.
Our role is to handle the part that is hardest to do from abroad: the local logistics. Permits inside national parks and reserves, transport between regions on roads and rivers that change with the rainy seasons, lodges that are full six months in advance, biologist-guides in Casanare or Chocó who only take a small number of clients per year. We coordinate it; you experience it.
We bill in COP, USD, EUR or CHF. We hold the legal RNT registration with the Colombian Ministry of Commerce, which is the only legal way to operate tourism in Colombia. Every payment is invoiced; every leg of the trip is documented in a written itinerary before you depart.
Six biogeographic regions, walked in person
Colombia’s nature is split across six radically different regions. We have field-tested operations in each, and we publish the regional logic openly on this site rather than treating it as opaque expertise:
- Llanos (Casanare and Meta) — flooded savannah, anaconda, giant anteater, capybara, jaguar, 350+ bird species. Dry season December–March. Llanos safari →
- Pacific Cho&coacute; (Bahía Solano and Nuquí) — humpback whale calving grounds July–October, primary rainforest, indigenous Embera and Afro-Colombian communities. Whale watching →
- Amazon (Leticia and Puerto Nariño) — river dolphins, manatee reserves, Yagua and Ticuna communities, primary forest with night walks for herpetofauna. Wildlife safari →
- Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta — highest coastal mountain in the world, four endemic indigenous nations (Kogi, Wiwa, Arhuaco, Kankuamo), endemic birds. Wildlife safari →
- Andean páramos (Chingaza, Sumapaz, Los Nevados) — high-altitude tundra ecosystem unique to northern Andes, source of Bogotá’s water, frailejones plants. Destinations →
- Caribbean coast (Tayrona, La Guajira) — dry forest, coral reefs, Wayuú communities, transition between mountain and sea. Destinations →
The regional logic decides everything else: Pacific does not work outside whale season, Llanos does not work in the wet half of the year, Amazon tends to rain regardless. We help you sequence the regions so you do not chase the wrong rainfall.
Verifiable, before you commit
You can verify almost everything we tell you before sending us a deposit. The COLOMBIAFRANK YouTube channel has more than 700 field videos: regions, species, gastronomy, indigenous communities, festivals. Most were shot by Frank in person, with original audio. The press page lists every media mention with outbound links to the actual articles — Swiss, German, Colombian and US media — not screenshots.
Our company data is open: RNT 51402 in the Colombian Tourism Registry, NIT 901012952-7 in the tax registry, registered address in Bogotá. Reviews live on TripAdvisor and Google Business Profile, both linked from the home page.
The point is simple. Colombia is still an unfamiliar destination for most North American and European travelers. Trust is earned by being checkable. We made a decision early to operate that way and have not changed it.
Pelecanus SAS
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Legal name | Pelecanus SAS |
| RNT (National Tourism Registry) | 51402 |
| Tax ID (NIT) | 901012952-7 |
| Year founded | 2017 |
| Headquarters | Bogotá, Colombia |
| info@pelecanus.com.co | |
| +57 321 2146210 | |
| YouTube channel | COLOMBIAFRANK |
From the COLOMBIAFRANK channel
Eight videos from Frank’s own channel — Amazon, Sierra Nevada, Coffee Region, Caribbean, Andean páramos, Medellín and the Llanos. Field-shot in each destination.
BEST of the Colombian Amazon — Full HD Travel Tour
Santa Marta — Overview HD
Cocora Valley — Quindío
Rosario Islands — HD Tour with Drone Shots
Chingaza Natural Park — Hiking in Cundinamarca
Whale watching in Bahía Solano (Pacific coast of Chocó)
Meta — the new birding hotspot
Birding in the Western Andes
Plan your Colombia nature trip with Frank
Tell us what you want to see and how long you have. You get a custom itinerary back, built by Frank personally.
Talk to Frank →