The wild wild east

Leaving from Palomino I headed for Rioacha, the last "big" town before the desert. My plan was to get there in the afternoon in order to look at the options to get to Cabo de la Vela. The lonely planet was advising going on a tour but it did look super expensive. Anyway the first thing was to find somewhere to sleep, but has it appeared Rioacha is a really touristic town and it was the middle of the Colombian holiday. Therefore I struggled a bit to find a budget accommodation. Finally I found a private room for something like 10 pounds which was the most expensive night I had paid so far.

Rioacha Sea Front

Speaking with the guy who rented me the room, the best option to go to Cabo was to take a car to the small town of Uribia and then from there take a 4x4 to Cabo. The other advice I got from him was to take a lot of water and some food as they have massive shortage at the end of the peninsula. So I spent the rest of my day shopping for supplies and walking on the waterfront.
The next morning I headed fairly early to find a car to Uribia. As always it turned out that it was really easy to find a transport. Walking in the middle of what could look like a bit of a chaotic street you hear "Uribia Uribia aqui amigo" and there is a few chairs in the shade to wait for the car to fill. I took the car with a couple of English folks Alex and Felicity who both had some south american origin and who were therefore speaking a really good Spanish. Arriving in Uribia again we found really quickly a 4x4 to go to Cabo.

Uribia City Centre in the morning

 We took advantage of the stop to get a bite to eat and buy a few more supplies. The town of Uribia was quite mental. It is the last city before the desert and if is located close to the Venezuelan border therefore it is the place where everybody is going to get cheap supplies. The town looks like a massive market selling all kind of random things ranging from mountains of medicine to rice and plastic bottles of petrol. In the middle of that there are hundreds of rickshaws racing through the street as if this was the best business idea ever. We got into the 4x4 and started to wait for the car to fill.

4x4 to Cabo

As the wait was long we decided to drink a few beers with Alex Felicity and Jack another English guy. After an hour and a half we were still sitting at the back of the pick up in the same place in the middle of the main street and starting to feel quite tipsy. Finally after two hours we left Uribia with our load of water, rice sugar and gas cylinder. The ride on the dirt track was fun and bumpy and took us through many super small villages in the middle of the cactus where we were stopping to unload or load different goods.

On the road to Cabo

The arrival in Cabo was pretty spectacular, and I got really excited when I saw a few kite surfs riding on the turquoise blue lagoon. In the afternoon I decided to rent a kite for an hour (more would ha e been too expensive) and go for a spin. It was super enjoyable.

Me kiting in Cabo

At night we had a very interesting discussion with Andres the owner of the kite shop who had previously been working for the government gathering information to fight the guerilla and the armed groups. He described a striking picture of what Colombia has been only a few years ago and what he thought would be the evolution. Along his story he was adding many anecdotes that could have been just out of a James Bond movie.
The next morning I woke up at 5 a.m. to go for a walk around the peninsula before getting baked by the sun. I was with Clement a French guy that I met the previous day.

Walking at sunrise in the desert was absolutely fantastic. We headed to a group of hills from which wee could see on one side the rugged coast line and on the other side the lunar desert.

The geologic formation were really interesting and impressive. In some places the sea water was coming out of holes in the rocks like a geiser every time a wave was crashing. After 4 hours hiking we stopped for a few beers at Pilon de Azucar, one of the mountains.

View from Pilon de Azucar

In the evening we got the chance to observe the locals guys kitesurfing at sunset. They were absolutely astonishing. The interesting thing was that they were all Wayuu people, the indigenous people of the Guajira. These guys did not had anything in this place at the end of the world but because of the development of kitesurfing they all got into it and are now kite teacher at 10 years old. So we sat and watched them as there was no point even trying to compete.

I decided to leave the next morning at 5 a.m. to get back to Palomino to collect some of my belongings that I had left.The ride back to Uribia was pretty epic as I was for half of the journey standing out of the 4x4 and the other half seating on the roof. The plan was then to head to Tayrona national park.

Taganga and Palomino

After Bogotá, I flew to Santa Marta on the Tuesday afternoon with the goal of reaching the little village of Palomino on the Caribbean cost where Luis's mum had offered to host me on the Wednesday night. Before that I had to find a place to spend my first night in the Caribbean and Santa Marta didn't seem like the best place as it is really hot and has an extensively built coast line. So just off the plane I found a taxi to take me to the little fishing village of Taganga which is set in a bay at about 10km of Santa Marta. The taxi was driving crazily through the mad traffic of motos, pedestrians and bussetas all to the rythm of reggaeton which was blasting at full power through the streets. The ride was lovely with the sun setting over the mountains of the Sierra Nevada. Arriving around Taganga I started to have an idea of what the Caribbean coast could offer.

Taganga

 At first sight Taganga looked like a really nice place with a lot of life and a beautiful beach. With the help of a local guy, I quickly found a nice hostel with a pool and a sound system. There there was a lot of young folks chilling by the pool. I engaged into a Frisbee game with two of them, but after 15 minutes I still couldn't make out what language they were speaking. Finally we ended up sitting down and they explained to me that they were all Israeli who had just finished military service. All this crowd was just there to take it easy around the pool and consume the local products, mainly weed and cocaine. Walking around the beach at night all I could see was bars night clubs and foreigners. It turned out that the little fishing village had transformed into a sort of Ibiza of the Caribbean. This was not was I was looking for for my trip in Colombia.

Fishing Boats in Taganga

The next day I headed fairly early to Palomino where I had to meet with Luis's mother Zoraida. The journey there was amazing passing through the hurt of Tayrona national park and seeing some of its pristine palm tree planted beaches. The bus dropped me in Palomino which is a kind of "on the road town" where truckers would stop to get food and refill their vehicles. There I met with a German guy called Yannick and we started walking toward the beach. After half an hour on foot we reached the beach. I instantly understood that it would be hard to leave this place. The beach was amazing and not crowded, little shacks were selling cold fruit juices and cocktails. After a limonade and refreshing swim in the sea (that is fairly crazy over there with waves and strong currents) we decided to go for a walk to the mouth of the river Palomino.

Palomino river going into the sea

This place was amazing. Being able to swim in the river with the sound of crashing waves and a view on the jungle was breathtaking. Finally around five Zoraida and Anna, a friend of hers arrived. Zoraida greeted me with a massive smile and started the discussion straight away making me feeling nearly at ease with my bad Spanish. We kept on talking there between the river and the sea till the sun started to set and had a beautiful walk back to the village stopping every ten meters to take a photo.

Waslking back at sunset

Back to the main beach we met with some of Zoraida's family that were playing percussion.
Then we got back to the house and Zoraida presented me to the rest of the family and showed me my "cuarto" which was my room.

Home!

From them on I was sort of part of the family, being able to do my own thing during the day and passing by for a game of card or dominoes.

Mouth of the river San Salvador

During my time in Palomino I really felt at home. Boris one of Luis's cousin advised me on good walks in the jungle and introduced me to the indigenous culture. I witnessed a recording of vallenato, the local music, to the sound of falling mangoes on the metal roof. And enjoyed chilling out in the warm water of the river for hours. I also met a bunch of cool travellers with whom I had nice time on the beach.

The river Palomino

For two days over there I have been a bit ill, due to a combination of bad food and dehydration (the ttap water is not drinkable and I didn´t had the reflex to buy water). So I just took it easy in order to get ready for the next adventures.

I am really greatful to Zoraida and the rest of the family who made my stay at Palomino a real vacation and helped me a lot with my spanish.
After the Saturday night party I headed to wild wild east: the Guajira desert.

Beginning of the journey: Bogotá

Hi, here I am, starting my journey through South America.
I arrived on the 19th of June in the city of Bogotá where I had a room booked in the historical centre which is also the touristic hub of the city. There I met with many travellers and had a few beers then went to bed really early as I was still jet-lagged.
The next day when I woke I had a message from a French friend who has lived in Bogotá for a year, saying: "call Barbara a friend she should have a couch and beers in her fridge" I had no idea of who was Barbara, but I gave it a try. Barbara answered and happened to be French. She told me, yes you can come crash at mine there is a hamoc or a couch. So after hiking to the top of Monserrate, the church that overlooks the city of Bogotá I went to find her flat.

Hiking to Monserrate

Bogota from the track to Monserrate

As I was struggling to find her flat some Colombians who saw me sweating with my two big bags invited me to join them for a very refreshing Margarita in their flat. It was nice to meet all these really friendly colombians who all gave me tips for my travels.
After my drink I finally went to meet Barbara and her boyfriend Luis. They stayed in a lovely flat and welcomed me very warmthly. As we were having a discussion about Colombia, Luis was pouring me drinks of different really good alcools from latin americ including Pisco and a delicious Guatemalan Rum. 10 minutes later I was facing 6 glasses of different delicious beverages. Then we joined a flat party and ended up in a club dancing funk salsa and rock. It was a lot of fun. The Colombian girls even said I could dance salsa, I think they were polite, but still took the compliment with pleasure.
The next day Barbara and Luis showed me around Bogota. We went througfh all the big avenues that are closed to circulation on the Sunday and amongst other things bet on a Guinea Pig race in the street.

During the next few days I explored Bogota on my own and tried to find a way to go paragliding. The weather was not the best so I went for a grafiti tour. The tour was great and was taking us through many of the really impressive murals of the Candelaria area; giving background on the artists and the street art movement in Bogota and Colombia. Basically all the buildings in this neighbourhood are painted and you tend to forget it when you are just walking through the street. Here we took time to enjoy each painting and sculpture.

Seeing the weather and the days passing I decided to take a plane ticket to Santa Marta to spend the next month discovering the Caribean coast. When I mentionned that to Luis he told me that his mother had a place in Palomino, a really nice village on the coast and that she could host me over there for one or maybe more days. What a chance!

On my last day in Bogota, I treated myself with some nice market food near the Nacional Museum that had been recommended to me by Barbara. Going out of the market, I took one of the back streets and almost instantly saw a strange guy following me. I thought "oww" this one is for me and it was the case. The guy ran to me and grabbed me by the chest pretending to pull a gun from his trousers. I have not been able to retain an "OHH FUCK" and started to run in the opposite direction. After a few hundred meters I was back in the safe zone, on the main street. The story ended well but was a good reminder that in the big cities you always have to be careful.
After that it was time to get some sun and chilled out time. So I took my plane to the sun soaked beaches of the north.
I want to thank Barabara Luis and their flatmate Lina for hosting me for these 3 nights and make the start of my journey super nice.

Bonus: