Once again, half the fun was getting there - but in a different kinda way. There are not a lot of places left in the world like this - beautiful to see but difficult to get to! I had picked up a Canadian couple in Palomino who were spending their last couple of weeks beach-hopping. I warned them the journey wouldn't be pretty but they wanted to join me anyway...they did not have a good time.
Destination Cabo de la Vela, the Northern most town in South America. I say town, it is a one-road place with about 100 people. The journey started at 5:30am in Palomino, a 30 minute walk in the morning sun with all our bags on. After sitting on the main road for an hour, we finally found a bus on its way to Riohuasha. From there it was a 20 minute walk (in 40 degree sun) to catch a collectivo to Uribia. Collectivos are a cross between a taxi and a bus - a car which drives a set route but only leaves when full. Not many people go to Uribia so we had to wait an hour for a fourth person before leaving. We were puzzled by the collectivo driver's habit of driving on both sides of the road. Until he pulled out a can of beer and drained it in one slug...it was 9am...
The road ends in Uribia - a small town that exists almost exclusively for it's huge market which feeds all the tiny villages in the area. It is the perfect place to find someone driving to Cabo de la Vela. The dirt road is terrible so 4x4s are the only way to get around this region. Every morning, 4x4 drivers pull up at the market with 20 shopping lists and spend hours collecting supplies for the people and business who live in the surrounding villages. We found one that was going to Cabo and negotiated a price to jump on. The 4x4 was full so we thought we'd be leaving soon but it turns out our definition of full was different to that of the driver. After another two hours the driver and his son had created a pyramid of random stuff on the top of the vehicle. There were gas canisters, bags of fresh water, cooking oil and beer. Lots of beer. There were also a couple of live goats - they went on last. When the roof was creaking under the weight of the supplies, twelve people climbed in and more shopping was piled on top of us! I got this picture when I thought we were going to leave - this was only about halfway through the loading up process...
Next up was the boneshaking two hour ride to Cabo. It turned out that the 4x4 was from 1978. My buttocks were not surprised by this fact...
Along the way we stopped at a few tiny villages to drop off people's shopping. By this time we were dying of thirst so asked if we could buy a drink from one of the locals. We were directed to the village 'shop'. They sold one thing - Venezuelan beer. This was the story in all the villages - we could not find one place that had water, only beer! This made the Canadians even more miserable. It made me very happy indeed...
After 18 hours of traveling, we arrived! The beaches of this region are not the palm-lined, postcard perfect beaches of the central North coast. This is where desert hits the Caribbean sea, with stunning results. Rustic, orange-sand beaches are surrounded by dramatic jagged sandstone cliffs, carved over the years by sea soaked winds and sandstorms.
The best part was the lack of people. Everyone can find their own beach and the wildlife is crazy. I'd bumped into an Israeli guy I'd met in Santa Marta and met an English guy from London and we set out the next day to explore. We hiked to the beautiful playa Faro, about 3km in the blistering sun, and chilled there with a cold beer.
When the sun got a bit weaker, myself and Callum (the English guy) hiked along the ridge to the lighthouse on the tip of the spit of land that juts out into the sea. Along the way we saw two small owls in a sand cave, a desert fox, mountain goats and lots of hawks. The strangest spot was a cricket that looks like a small lobster! I can't remember what these are called but apparently they have a nasty bite - so I hope you appreciate how close I got to take this picture!
We got to the lighthouse and joined the small congregation of people who had driven up to watch the sun go down. The lighthouse is rubbish - it looks like I made it. In fact, I would back myself to make a better lighthouse. Out of driftwood. The sunset was nice though! Of course it was accompanied by a cold beer, the only thing people drink out there.
There are only two things you can eat in Cabo, fresh fish and...lobster! I'm not exactly a lobster connoisseur but it is the best I've ever had, and cost ten times less than you'd pay in London. The dish below cost me £8 with a beer (of course!). This is flashpacking at its finest.
It wasn't all glamor. It was so hot that sleeping was impossible and showers were provided by the trusty 'bucket of water' method - it was better to use the sea. After three days I looked like one of the sand people from Star Wars and smelt like a cross between an old sock and squid. It was time to go.
This involved waking up at 3am and hitching back on a 4x4 going to pick up supplies from the market in Uribia. I did the same journey in reverse and then headed on to Santa Marta. Next up was a night bus to the adventure sports town of San Gil. By the time I got there I looked even worse. This was emphasised by the fact that I checked in, had a shower, had a shave, had another shower, got changed and went to ask the receptionist something - she didn't recognise me at all. I'm now in San Gil and it will be at least three weeks before I can laze around on the beach again...at least there is caving here to keep me occupied...
The view from the accommodation, not bad for £5 a night.
Desert meets sea.
This is a real life mirage! Looks like a lake right? That's what we thought. It was a perfectly flat, dried up salt bed - see the next picture.
The reality behind the mirage - no water.
Beautiful secluded beaches were not hard to find. This was number 18.
This mound of sand really reminded me of a small Ayres rock. Maybe I should start running tours to here!
Nice place for a cold beer.
This is what you look like after a week of showering in the sea.
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