The End of 2016 in Colombia
Volunteering, beaches, desert, Christmas, New Year’s Eve and a hint of crime…
Summary
- Days: 21–65 (it’s been a while!)
- Geography: insanely hot on the coast (30 something in the day and not much cooler at night.)
- Sloth watch: huge success!
- Things lost: phone, ipad, purse, towel, battery pack, shorts, tshirt…
- Things gained: friends from home and an amazing Hawaiian shirt!
Working hard for a simple life
It’s easy to become lazy with Spanish practice when you’re in hostels where everyone speaks English, so I decided to challenge myself and volunteer on a farm near Medellin where they only spoke Spanish.
The owners lived almost exclusively off their land — growing all the vegetables they need and keeping chickens and goats for eggs and milk, with only a few purchases from nearby farms. Pretty cool, especially as they were both younger than me!
I spent a week with 3 other volunteers looking after all of the animals (5 dogs, 3 cats, 4 goats, loads of rabbits, chickens and ducks) and tending to the vegetable patch — where I developed the most comical “gardener’s tan” at the bottom of my back… 1 month on there’s still a scar! We also took it in turns to cook 1 meal a day for the 6 of us, which really tested my cooking ability!
A particular highlight for me was finding out that a best friend from school is pregnant whilst I was walking a goat… oh how our lives now differ!(Congrats Mr and Mrs McDougall!)
It was great to see how they lived so simply up in the mountains away from modern technology, but they had to work so hard every day. After 6 nights of ‘sleeping’ in a shed full of spiders and getting all of my clothes wet and muddy, I was done.
Hotting up
In late November I took a short flight up to Colombia coast (Santa Marta) where I was greeted by hungry mosquitoes and beautiful sunshine! I caught up with an old friend from Bogota and met some new ones to take a bus few hours up the coast to Tayrona National Park.
The walk in was sweaty but beautiful. We spent a night sleeping on hammocks near the beach, which was made comfortable with the help of a sleeping pill! We would have stayed longer but I forgot to bring any cash or a towel — both fairly important on beach in the middle of nowhere! I like to think I’ve become more organised since then…
When Chepstow came to Colombia
From here I headed slightly further north up the coast to a smaller, more rustic beach town — Palomino — where I caught up with Rhys and Kate from home earlier than expected. Win! They started their travels in September and had been sunning in Central America for months — the contrast in our skin colour is still comical!
We hired some giant rubber rings and went tubing down the river, which involved our first of many motorbike rides. The views from the river were great — surprisingly reminiscent of kayaking down the river Wye back home — but somewhat restricted as I spent most of my time stuck in the foliage on the banks! After a couple of hours we popped out in the sea, where my serious lack of tube control landed me in a spot of bother with the currents!
The most northern point in South America
I was at risk of staying in Palomino forever and reading books on the beach, so I booked a last minute trip north into La Guajira desert — the closest I was going to get to Venezuela given it’s current political situation.
On day one the 6 of us set off early on a very bumpy ride from Riohacha to Cabo de le Vela, with a longer than planned stop in the middle as our 4x4 broke down. Not ideal at midday in the desert, but we still made it in time for the sunset!
The whole peninsula is pretty arid and inhabited by the Wayuu people, who seem to make their money from either working the salt industry or selling illegal petrol that’s been imported from Venezuela. Others have started to capitalise on tourists passing through by setting up road blocks along the route and asking for payment — a little tedious after the 20th stop!
The real highlight was day two in Punta Gallinas — the most northern point in South America — with its incredible landscapes. Worth the dangerous 2h boat ride at 5am!
Respite in the sky
We then headed just 15km inland to the Sierra Nevada — Bonda and Minca — to relax and cool off for a few days. Waterfalls, giant hammocks, no internet, sunsets and cacao farms more than made up for the lethal 40 minute motorbike ride!
Christmas in Cartagena
I have mixed feelings about this place…
It’s a beautiful colonial walled city on the coast which gave us great nights out; sloths, iguanas and monkeys in the park; world-class Christmas decorations and access to the Rosario Islands where we swam with fluorescent plankton at night …
…However,
Rhys had his phone (and nearly his identity) stolen, Kate had her bank card used and I was mugged of pretty much all my valuables at midday on Christmas Eve! Oh and I found out that our poor family cat, Floyd, died. Baileys and a new Hawaiian shirt helped to ease the pain though.
Medellin for NYE
Almost back to where I started 2 months ago! Absolutely no photos to share — as we didn’t want to take out the only phone in the group — but, rest assured, we saw in 2017 pretty well!
HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!
