To the Tatacoa Desert - 6/8/13 & 7/8/13

Once again it´s a cold night in Bogotá and so I wake up shortly after 4 am- almost 2 ½ hours earlier than  planned as I had set the alarm clock to 6:20. My shivering makes going back to sleep impossible.  I keep myself busy reading the newspaper and updating my blog. After that I treat myself to mildly hot drops of water under the shower and get ready for the taxi to the bus terminal. The taxi driver does his very best to treat the mad rush hour traffic – and he succeeds despite the many hold-ups. I reach the gate more than just on time and thus have enough time to stock up on provisions.

I get on board the comfortable bus (especially as there is no-one next to me) and we leave almost on time – but don´t get very far. The bus stops just outside the terminal for whatever reason, and we don´t move for another 30 minutes or so. When the first passengers start complaining (for the record: and the only German on board is NOT among those…). The journey itself is quite quick. After little more than one hour we have already reached the outskirts of Bogotá and are slowly leaving the capital´s sometimes terrifyingly chaotic traffic behind.

Why is it that on so (ie. too) many buses the a/c is on full blast when there is no apparent reason for it but to keep the passengers fresh?!? While outside it´s getting warmer by the minute the further we descend into the lowlands of the Río Magdalena, inside it´s a constant and drafty 16°C. Outside I see people in shorts and flip-flops while I even wear my fleece on top of two sweaters and a T-Shirt. And even then I feel cold. The landscape changes from highland plain to mountains and finally after long drive down we reach the hot and relatively Río Magdalena valley. Along the road there are cotton and rice fields for miles on end.

  

After little more than 5 ½ hours we reach Neiva, the ever-so-hot capital of Huila department. I look for the colectivo service to Villavieja and find it without problems. There I am asked act as interpreter for a Belgian and an English couple who are in negotiations with the colectivo driver about tours of the desert of Tatacoa. Finally the driver decides to leave and so we hop on the pick-up truck. It´s hot and humid and even the air on the moving vehicle feels warm and sticky. Well, not quite as sticky as I feel myself, but anyhow…  The ride takes round about 45 minutes and although it´s very cramped, I still enjoy it, thanks to conversations with the English couple Katie and John and two men, one woman and a girl from around Villavieja. 

In Villavieja the driver stops right outside my hotel and John and Katie decide to get off as well and use the power socket in my room to charge the camera battery, find out about options to visit the desert and grab a bite to eat while in town. Juan, a guide highly recommended by the family who runs the hotel, makes his offer and makes quite a good impression, even though he wouldn´t give a discount. $40.000 Pesos per person is not a bargain (€16), but no rip-off either and so we decide to try him and agree to meet in the morning at 7:00 to go before the heat of the day. We also negotiate transport to the observatory in the desert for the evening and then walk the three blocks to the plaza. It´s very hot so buying water and maybe a cold drink is high on the priority list. Katie and John are planning on spending the night camping in the desert and stock up on food and drink, in case there is nothing to be had around the observatory. 

My Hotel, the "Villa Paraíso"

 

A tuk-tuk awaits us when we get back to the hotel shortly before 6 pm. Another cosy (=cramped) ride takes us the ca. 10 KM to the observatory, where we have the first glance at the red desert-like badlands opposite the observatory. The landscape is fascinating but soon it´s too dark to see anything. Unfortunately clouds have covered the sky, hence we don´t see too much of the famous night sky when the astronomer´s talk begins and nothing 20 minutes later. We lie on our backs on the rooftop terrace but instead of stars we only see clouds and the astronomer´s laser pointer that at least shows us the direction of the hidden star constellations. In the meantime Katie and John decided not to stay at the observatory but rather to return to Villavieja and stay at “my” hotel. Two calls settle everything and a tuk-tuk is sent to take us back to the town. And not a minute too soon – for precisely then the gates of heaven open and unleash a heavy tropical downpour. Single-sidedly soaked we reach the hotel after 15 minutes and soon go our separate ways for the remains of the evening. I work on my blog and take a shower before I go to bed.

Observatory

 

The next morning I am up before Katie and John and so Juan takes me to his brother´s bakery on his motorbike, where I buy fresh pan de queso for breakfast. When I come back Katie and John are ready for take-off. The tuk-tuk has also arrived. So the three of us squeeze in the backseat while Juan takes off on his motorbike. The first stop is the cactus forest at El Cardón, which is quite nice to look at. The highlight however is the red desert at El Cusco. We climb down into the maze of pinnacles, pillars and walls of red clay. The colour is due to the high content of zinc. This landscape of red clay in many shapes and shades of red, green cacti and thornbushes feels like moving in a surreal painting. It´s simply wonderful. 

Our guide Juan

The baby bottle

At the other end of the labyrinth we reach the little food stall of a local family. John and I have two glasses of wonderful cool sugarcane juice with a twist of lemon. Very refreshing - and very filling. And we all have fun with the family´s baby Andrés, the parrot and a cute little puppy.

sucar cane press

view towards the observatory

We drive on to the view point of La Ventana. Before us is the grey desert which owes its colour to the dissolved phosphor. There are rocks that with a little bit of imagination resemble a dog´s head, a turtle and a crocodile.

Can you see the dog´s head?

Juan and our tuk-tuk

The next and last stop is Los Hoyos. We walk past a beautiful swimming pool but don´t stop for a swim as it is not unbearably hot thanks to the overcast sky and there are even nicer things to discover in the desert. We enjoy a nice little walk down into the bed of dried out river and soon reach the "congregation of ghosts", a nice formation that is also known by the name "the monks" and these grey formations really resemble hooded figures. Definitely more worth visiting than a swimming pool.

One extra ghost... or is it monk?!?

Back in the village Katie, John and I have a very early and dead-cheap lunch (chicken breast and some kind of cold wheat lemonade, interesting). We pay less than €3,- per person for a delicious "brunch". 

The sculpture of a prehistoric giant sloth, a milodon, remains of which were found in the desert

 While Katie and John head for the plaza to take a pick-up back to Neiva, I go straight back to the hotel and get acquainted with Julián, the hotel´s green parrot. For some reason he seems to like me and climbs right onto my shoulder, only to playfully nibble on my ears and glasses while talking up a storm. I think I´ll have to take him with me. The owners wouldn´t mind, Julián never showed them too much affection...

Julián

After siesta Juan offers to take me to the red desert again on his motorbike and I readily agree. We get there just in time for yet another tropical downpour. So let´s first have a cool beer under a tin roof and then after the rain get down into the maze of El Cusco. This time alone and with loads of time at hand. I can´t get enough of the colours and shapes, feel like on a different planet. At last the sun finds some gaps between the clouds and makes the desert glow. What a grand sight!

Some statistics

After sunset I go to the observatory to wait for Juan. But before going there I bump into a group of Jehova´s Witnesses on a field trip (that´s a lot more fun than it sounds). While waiting for Juan I have a lot of fun with the 2 sons of the observatory keepers. Finally Juan shows up and takes me home in no time. Exploring a desert is a lot of hard work, so I go to bed and whatsapp with some friends back home, switch the a/c on and the light off.