La Guajira - 31/8/2013 to 3/9/2013

The sun shining through the many windows wakes me around 7 - what a way to wake up. I don´t get up right away, the bed is just too comfy and I´m in mo particular hurry. Which is nice and something I quite enjoy, to be honest. I only get up when I begin to feel hungry. I have pineapple juice and scrambled eggs with toast. Then I go to the nearest shop to top up my mobile phone because I really want to have internet again. And while in the shop I feel like having a second breakfast - an ice cream. It´s already very hot. Then I lounge at the pool to relax before travelling on. I stay in there for quite a while, part of the time chatting with a Colombian family. Around 11 am it´s time to go back to the cabin, take a shower and get myself and my bag ready to leave. It´s noon when I pay and cross the street to flag down a bus going east. And I don´t have to wait a minute. I get on-board this ice box on wheels and about 2 1/2 chilled hours later I reach Riohacha, capital of the departamento of La Guajira. The view from the bus had changed dramatically over the last 40 to 50 kilometers. The lush tropical vegetation made room for dusty, thorny savanna shrublands. The villages look positively poor and there´s litter everywhere, which is so not Colombian. Riohacha isn´t too impressive, either. My "Hotel Castillo del Mar" fits in well - it´s pleasant enough but certainly has seen better days. Still, the room is huge and clean and the price is OK, too, so no need to complain at all.

As it´s hot both outside and inside my room I switch on the A/C and then I hit the town. It´s really hot, but it looks like there´s going to be a thunderstorm any minute. There is a nice oceanfront pedestrian walk. There are many cars with Venezuelan licence plates. According to the taxi driver most of them were stolen and smuggled into Colombia, but the police isn´t bothered. Hmm. The walk is nice but the opaque brown sea doesn´t look too inviting. All along the paseo there are women of the Wayuu tribe selling their handicrafts - bags and the like. I prefer drinking a chilled coconut.

An old, somewhat rickety pier juts out into the sea. On the pier I have a little chat with a local who tells me about the history of the city and his version of the history of Europe. When I move on I look for a supermarket and get some money. I wanted to only have an empanada for dinner, but then I walk past the fish and seafood restaurants and say to myself "What the heck" - let´s have fresh fish as it´s difficult to get and to pay for in Germany!!! Plus the thunderstorm is about to start. I choose a nice-looking little open restaurant and order sea bass and two fresh maracuya juices, then, as it´s still tipping with rain, I take a cab home to the hotel.

The room back in the hotel is warmer than when I left more than two hours ago. The a/c apparently doesn´t work. So I´m moved to another room. At least there the fan of the aircon is stronger, but it doesn´t cool down notably. And it´s really warm in here! Time to work on my blog, then I have a shower, pack my things for the three-day trip to Alta Guajira, the northernmost tip of the South American mainland.

I slept well and after quite a while I could actually feel the a/c. The tour is supposed to leave at 8 am and when I want to pay we realize I got the price for another tour, which I could also get on, but it wouldn´t get me all the way to the northernmost tip and so I finally decide to pay the extra € 50 (and I´m so glad I did!). So I neet a cashpoint again. Arnoldo, our driver for the tour takes me to downtown. In the meatime the other tour guests have arrived and we leave right away. The others are Anna from Warsaw, Carlos from Madrid (who was in the cabin next to mine in Tayrona National Park) and Andrea from Munich. The first 40 minutes we follow the main highway to the Venezuelan border. It gets drier and hotter with every mile we travel. In Cuatro Vias we turn north and leave the main road. The savannah looks almost African.

There´s a lot of garbage in many places and the houses made of adobe look poorer than anything I have seen in Colombia so far. It feels like another country. There are goats everywhere between the cacti and the thorn bushes. We reach Uribia, the Indigenous capital of Colombia. It´s little more than a small and dusty forgotten town. It´s incredibly hot and there´s no shade anywhere. The women of the Wayuu tribe that lives in the Guajira (virtually every person here is Wayuu) wear beautiful colourful airy dresses with nice patterns. We buy water for the next three days. Almost everything sold on the market is from Venezuela - cigarettes, booze, beer, soft drinks, rice, you name it. And the petrol, of course, that is sold in water bottles along the road. We travel on to the salinas of Manaure. There isn´t much to see, though, the salinas are empty and there is only one pile of salt next to the track. A Wayuu lady gives us a tour of the salt processing installations and openly admits that the Wayuu-owned salina is not doing too well because of mismanagement, lack of know-how and last but not least lack of funds to maintain or even modernise the plant. Still, the colours of the landscape are amazing.

We drive on, now the road has been downgraded to little more than a track that is difficult to see and more difficult to drive on. Arnoldo drives a bit too fast at times and only just so manages to regain control over the car. It looks drier and drier. The only settlements are the so-called "Rancherías", where a Wayuu-Clan lives. It´s a polygamous society and all the women have their own house. There are many children around. Here Spanish is a foreign language, the Wayuu speek their own language. The houses are made of clay and wood, sometimes tin. Water needs to be carried from far away. There are hardly any cars, no motorbikes. People ride their old bikes instead. The temperature is way above 40°C and there is no shade. A street sign show the way to the Cabo de la Vela. The track gets worse, is unrecognizable to the unitiated. Like a fata morgana the houses of the ranchería Cabo Playa appear. That´s where we are going to spend the night - and are fed lunch and dinner. A jumble of humble but nice houses are scattered along a seemingly endless beach, the turquoise waters of the Caribbean and a blue sky expand right behind it. I looks like a painting!

Our cabins

mini gecko on the toilet door

goats everywhere

While we wait for our lunch we lie down in the chinchorros, beautifully crafted hammocks typical for the Wayuu. Lunch is delicious fresh fish. I pre-order lobster for dinner - it´s only €8 extra and I haven´t had lobster since a trip to New England almost 20 years ago. We meet another group of the same tour operator - Néstor from Cali and his friend Juan from Medellín. They come prepared: they proudly own a styrofoam cooler with ice, Whiskey and loads of Venezualan Polar beer. Alexis is originally from Paris but lives in London and Andrew from England who has been working as EFL teacher in Colombia for some time. Juan and Néstor share their treasures with us - in fact we have to stop them after a while. Whiskey shots and beers in this heat is a dangerous concoction.

For dessert I have a dip in the luke-warm ocean. It´s refreshing nevertheless. The wind is gusty and strong - and very warm. It´s like a giant blow drier. In the afternoon Arnoldo takes us to the Cabo de la Vela. The colours of the surrounding landscape are amazing: ocre, reddish brown, yellow, green and turquoise. There is a whole group of pelicans in the water of a nice bay. Some shoot into the waters like arrows to catch fish and cannot feel disturbed by the few people bathing. We walk to a rocky outcrop and take in the view. The wind is gusty and threatens to blow us away. The whole scenery reminds me of the Cabo de Gata in Almería. There are quite a few tourists around - at least 50.

Ranchería

 Arnoldo takes us to the little lighthouse of the Cabo de Vela for the sunset. And all the others follow us, of course. The sunset is picture-perfect and the view mesmerizing. 

Before it goes completely dark we stumble down the steep and rocky trail to the jeep and drive back to Cabo Playa. In Cabo de Vela "city" kite surfers ply the waters right next to the car, showing off a bit.

Back in the ranchería we´re given our rooms. They are simple but nice and clean. I´m looking forward to a shower - a big barrel of water. Unfortunately sea water instead of the promised fresh water. I wish they had told us before the shower that the truck that delivers the fresh water couldn´t get through. 

We chill a bit in the chinchorros and then it´s lobster time. Yummy! After dinner Juan and Néstor return to their jeep and turn on the music while we stay in the dining room and talk until 9 pm, which is when they switch off the power generator. We take some plastic chairs to the beach and talk some more under a gorgeous night sky with billions of stars. I don´t sleep too well, the goats keep me awake and then, when the breeze stops, the warmth and many mosquitoes. Thanks to those blighters I am wide awake way before 4:30. We leave shortly after 5. It´s a bumpy "road" to Puerto Bolívar and Arnoldo mistakes the Landcruiser for a formula 1 race car. It´s best to just close the eyes and hope for the best. The two guys from Colombia have a terrible hang-over. Juan throws up first thing he gets out of the car. Alexis is with us, too.

Our little boat arrives a few minutes later. The fishermen lare curious and shy at the same time. Whenever they think we don´t notice, they stare at us. As always here in the Guajira there are boys asking for money and candy. The boat ride takes 2 1/2 hours in the already strong sun. Néstor doesn´t feel too well and feeds the fish.

Finally we reach our destination, hidden behind mangroves. We have to climb some steep steps and then we are fed - breakfast at last. The cabins are nice, too, very breezy (if there is a breeze, of course).

The bungalows

Toilets

Suddenly something big and red flies by. What on earth? No time to find out just yet. A man who introduces himself as Poncho tells us to climb up the loading area of a Landcruiser truck. Poncho takes us to Punta Gallina, the northernmost tip of South America. The drive is incredibly scenic, the crumbling lighthouse is too, in its very own way.

Jehova´s witnesses´ prayer hall

Yes, it was windy!

Alexis and Poncho

From there we are taken to a view point. And the view is awesome! These colours are truly unforgettable! For lack of words spectacular! Cabo de Vela was nice, but this, this is out of this world! 

After the view Poncho takes us to the dunes of Playa Taroa. The drive is very scenic but the beach is What a fantastic beach. Poncho tells us that the huge red insects are called langostas voladoras, flying lobsters. They are some kind of giant locusts. We climb up the dune and slide down to the turquoise sea. We have 1 hour to enjoy this beach - and we share it with no-one!

It´s a hard climb in the hot sun that burns the soles of our feet. Then Poncho takes us back to the ranchería. Huge clouds appear and provide a little bit of shade as we reach the ranchería. Back there we´re given our rooms and then lunch - delicious fresh red snapper. And I get to have a closer look at one of the flying lobsters. Then it´s chinchorro time until 4 pm.

There has been no thunderstorm and Fidel takes us to a Flamingo beach nearby. We get to see them, but once we´re there they all fly away. Anyway, it was nice while it lasted... 

Then Fidel takes us to sweeping beach for the sunset. But there are many clouds - what are we supposed to do here the next 90 minutes?!? We walk along the beach to the other end. Then, 15 minutes before the sunset the clouds open and make room for a really gorgeous flaming sunset. What a show!!!

Fidel comes back to pick us up and we go back for dinner. Eating all the time. But before dinner it´s time for a real shower with fresh water . Then fish filet, as always really tasty. We sit together talking until late. The electricity stays on until midnight. And the cold beer is just what we need after a day in the sun. Polar beer is nice - maybe I should go to Venezuela after all.

The night is over at 4:30 and I didn´t sleep too well - at last there was the thunderstorm and lots of rain. The boat ride is a lot faster back as we go with the flow, so to speak. 

Arnoldo is already waiting for us. He takes us back to the Cabo Playa for breakfast and some chinchorro time. Then he takes us to the Pilón de Azúcar, a 100m high hill. The climb is sweat inducing in the merciless heat, but the view is worth the effort. And there is a nice beach right next to it. That´s where Carlos and I go to freshen up. We couldn´t get any wetter and saltier anyway...

coal train with 127 carriages

Pilón de Azúcar  - Cerro Kamachi

Back in the ranchería we have lunch - more fish - and then we drive back to Riohacha - though it feels like flying...

Wayuu making the typical bags

Back in Riohacha we re-arrange our bags and Anna, Andrea, Carlos and I head for the bus terminal - Anna, Andrea, Carlos and myself. Anna takes another bus but the rest stays together for another cold bus ride. At the bus terminal in Santa Marta our ways part. I take a cab to El Rodadero, a resort suborb near the airport for the last 2 days. The hostel is really nice but all I´m interested in now is going to the supermarket, a shower, my photos and the bed.