It sort of started with a photo, the second half of Colombia. the photo was in the lonely planet ( arg we’re so conventional) and was of this desert with red sand formations. It looked Incredible and we were intrigued by the idea of a desert in the middle of all these green mountains so we thought we’d head down there. When we mentioned it to Colombians though, only a few vaguely knew where it was and almost no one seemed to have been there. As Colombians seem travel in their own country a lot, it was strange.
When we arrived, we realised why… it was every bit as beautiful as the photo showed but… somewhat disappointingly, small. The photos make it look huge but really, it doesn’t extend beyond the bounds of the photo so with the right angle, the photos for once do it justice (and then some). While small and quite possibly “the world’s quaintest desert”, Tatacoa is beautiful and would have been a real highlight if it were not for a few things: 1) it is a fantastic place for star gazing but we arrived on a full moon (our fault); 2) it would normally be quiet and peaceful but and we arrived on a long weekend (our fault) so everyone had their music blaring delightful Latin American pop music and 3) some kids throwing rocks at something nearby managed to miss their target and smash our back window (not our fault). It was an accident but it was a bit scary at the time (it was night, we thought for a moment that it might be malicious) so that was a bit unfortunate. Despite these things, the spot is beautiful and the photos show it.
Pepe overlooking Tatacoa desert
The next morning, having had our fill of Latino music, we headed to the quaint statues of San Agustin. Colombia, we had learned so far is a land of micro-climates. On one side of a mountain you’re in hot and humid tropics, a few hours up the coast and its desert, up in the mountains and its forest again, into the valley and its tropical, up again and its mountain dessert plateau – you get the picture. There are three huge mountain ranges running through the country and all of this makes for spectacular scenery and crazy weather (we pretty sure we saw a thunder storm in the distance every single night)So from the sandy stretch of Tatacoa, we headed to the lush green hills of San Agustin only a few hours away. San Agustin is famous for its huge stone faces which were found all over the area and thought to be elaborate burial stones of an ancient culture but no one seems to know all that much (they know more than that but I can’t remember what they know). The majority of them have been collected and displayed in a national park area which you can walk around and enjoy the beautiful scenery and strange stone faces. A few that have not been put in the park, can be seen in situ if you walk around the surrounding hills. So we did and, continuing our lucky streak of weather, we had bright sunshine all day (despite it being rainy season, we still hadn’t had any rain on us).
It was about here that we also started to notice all the birds. Now, we wouldn’t exactly consider ourselves twitchers but Colombia has a lot of birds- 1920 recorded species apparently which is a quarter of the worlds total and even for us, it really was incredible. Even just the regular garden varieties (no idea of their names) are reds, blues and yellows and they sing beautifully all day. Our next destination, Salento, would take us to see the tiniest of them all- the hummingbird but, truth be told, our motives for heading their were not entirely ornithological, the bigger draw was cofffeeeeeeee.
So we drove back north again (every Colombia route no matter how well-planned, seems to involve backtracking) from San Agustin up through Popoyan all the way to the coffee region (night in a glamorous 24hr petrol station on the way). The road was terrible but beautiful – the whole way up, we just waited for the point where we would have to turn back but Luckily that point never came and we made it down the other side to the tar road just as the rain began to bucket down.
Unsurprisingly, this area was one of our highlights of Colombia – green rolling hills, beautiful clouds, birds of every colour, LOTS of coffee and some crazy wax palms (yes, strangely enough, the tallest palms in the world grow, not on a sunny beach but at high altitude in the forests of Colombia). There are 2 main places that people visit in the coffee region- the town of Salento for coffee and the Valle de Cocora for tall wax palms and hummingbirds. They are only 30min apart so most people stay in Salento and take a day trip to the wax palms but, having the freedom of our on transport meant we could stay and camp in the breathtaking valley. Besides being absolutely beautiful, there was the surprising benefit that the ‘town’ is only a town in the daytime, at night,everyone heads back to their real towns, leaving the whole valley to us, the stars and a dog (we were naughty and put the blanket out for it at night). It was truly incredible.
We spent 2 nights in the peaceful Valle de Cocora and hiked up the mountains in what turned out to be one of our favourite hikes of the trip so far. A bit of a trek up to a humming bird reserve (6 different types of hummingbirds, we took about 100 photos), a bit more up to a breathtaking view and then down down down through the mysterious clouds and wax palms. The hike was just mind-blowingly beautiful and the bit through the wax palms just as ‘other-worldly’ as every guidebook (and therefore every tourist) described it. It was made even better by the fact that we made friends with 2 brothers from California who provided endless entertainment, chats and laughter along the way and were just as blown away by the scenery as we were. Sometimes it takes the appreciation of others to confirm just how magical a place is and Kevin and Graham definitely did this as we all oohed an ahed our way down the mountain. The lucky weather followed us once more again – sun all the way to the top and then incredible clouds rolling in and out as we hiked down.
Having enjoyed the company of Kevin and Graham so much, we headed to Salento the next night to join them at La Serrana hostel where they serve an awesome family style dinner. The food was delish and the company seemed to get even better as the bottles of red wine piled up. I really do wish we could remember some of the chitter chatter that went on but it was probably funnier after a few bottles of wine. Kevin and Graham were off the next day and we had very sore heads. We tried valiantly to explore Salento and taste some of the coffee and speciality dishes (trout) of the region but all we could muster was to walk to a coffee plantation, skip the tour and go straight to the buying part and then get a lift to town (wayyy to much uphill for a walk) past the trout (fish isn’t a tried and tested hangover cure) to the best burgers in town (which were epic). Salento is a really cute and colourful town so pepped up by our burger, we did manage to explore a little and get to a great coffee shop (Jesus Martin, if you’re in the area) before getting another burger and then heading back to the hostel. From there, we could look right out across the beautiful rolling hills and enjoy the songs of countless birds which turned out to be, just about as good a hangover cure as any.
Our plan was to go to Cali next for some salsa dancing and fun before heading towards Ecuador but… The best laid plans of mice and men (etc.). We diligently booked a place to stay in Cali ( we almost never do that), tried to drive there and found… nothing. it had disappeared. Plus the directions we had, had put us squarely in the dodgey end of town where we drove around in the sticky heat up some stressfully step hills, wondering what to do if we had to stop on said steep hills and whether we would we be able start again. It was all a bit much, so we left.
We were sad to miss Cali (Bridget more so than Brendan as some grand salsa dancing plans were no more) but Pepe is much more of a country bumpkin than a city slicker, which we already knew, so for him this was one city too much. We left towards Popoyan (more steep winding passes), and pretty soon our plan B (Popoyan) was out of the window too. An ominous screeching sound and suspicious burning smell meant a trip to the nearest mechanic who confirmed that our alternator was dead. Dead dead. To his credit (and the boundless helpfulness and friendliness of Colombians), we rolled in at 5:30pm on a Saturday evening and he happily fiddled away with the car until 8pm whereafter he sheepishly pronounced that he couldn’t fix the problem (sigh)… tonight. But tomorrow (Sunday), he promised to get up early and get us on the road. Stunned, and unsure if we were in a dream, we happily thanked him and popped the top of Pepe to sleep outside his house, his mum offered us some water and his friend assured us that he would be up all night watching over us.
We awoke to find ourselves still in a dream- our trusty mechanic had found us a new alternator and while it wasn’t quite the right one, was finding a way to make it fit into the car. He did and an hour or so later, we were off to Popoyan.
our trusty mechanics
We’re not sure Popoyan was quite the ‘next big thing’ as the guide book suggested but it was a nice enough to relax for a day while we had the car serviced and a few more checks done. 2 days later it was time to leave beautiful Colombia so we headed down to the south for a night at a rainy lake – our first rain – with a lovely fire, hot chocolate and some trout. Our last stop before we crossed the border was the Las Lajas Basilica built across a bridge inside the canyon of the Guáitara River, it really is the most incredible setting and a perfect note to end our time in Colombia.
And that was it, we loved our time in Colombia but it there were so many things we missed out on so it left us wanting more… We didn’t see Medellin or El Cocuy national park or Tierra Adentro or Punto Gallinas and we didn’t have any salsa lessons! But we loved the things we did do and we were generally struck by how fantastic the people are and how engaging they are. We had become a little disillusioned during our time in central America that so many of our interactions with people centred around cost, ‘how much did your car cost’, ‘how much will the trip cost’, every question seeming to underline that we are just rich gringos (although, no one seemed to believe that we don’t own a house, a car or anything really). While people were genuinely warm and friendly, it was difficult to explain/justify our trip and it made us feel sometimes awkward and always removed. So Colombia was a breath of fresh air, people were always coming up for a chat, we had so many conversations with all different people about the trip and about just regular life and we were rarely asked about money. We had photos with random people and Pepe all around the country and people were so welcoming, we always felt at home. We won’t miss the drivers, but we will miss the people, until next time … Hasta luego Colombia, we know we’ll be back.
Just some friendly Colombians coming up for a chat
A patched up back window after an unfortunate stone-throwing accident
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