Also, on our way back, we'd bumped into the Kristen and Noam, the americans, who we also convinced to come along on the journey. Hats off to them, I don't know if i'd have been up for the journey if I'd just finished the trek. Which, by the way, if you didn't get it from the last post, was REALLY hard.
Anyway, after a big meal of burgers and milkshakes (there's only so much meat/fish with rice and plantain that one can take) we went to bed to rest before our early start.
Aside: It was also goodbye to the two uber cool american developers I'd met in our hostel - they let me pitch my many start up ideas to them over coffee - which I'm sure was really enjoyable for them.....
The place we were heading for is called Punta Gallinas (which literally translates as Cape Chicken!!!) and to get there we had to (deep breath):
Catch a bus from Santa Marta to Riohacha at 0600 from Santa Marta.
Take another bus from Riohacha to a place called cuatro vias (or four roads for those who don't speak Spanish or other latin languages).
Get off there and find a random bloke to give us a lift in his car to Puerto Bolivar (I think!!)
Get off there (it really is the end of the road, check a map) and find a random bloke to give us a lift in a 4x4 to Cabo de la Vela.
Then stay the night at Cabo de la Vela and hope you can get a boat the next day to Punta Gallinas.
The above didn't actually take toooooo long (circa 5 hours in total) and was pretty fun as we were excited about recreating the body form advert in the 4x4 - I do love sitting in the back of a 4x4 singing "waaaaaooowww boddddy fooooorrrmmm body form for youuuuuuuuu".
Anyway, here's some illustrations of the journey thus far:
Early morning start to get the bus - rucksacked up - not a particularly strong look:
More illustration of a Colombian petrol station - filling up inside the bus whilst it was moving. Is that health and safety conscious:
Cuadro Vias - just four roads really:
Strong looks going on before we hopped into this bad boy - that guy spent the whole 2 hours riding on the roof - I was jealous......
The "road" to get to Cabo de la Vela - it got a lot worse than this:
And then Cabo de la Vela:
One of the most amazing beaches I have ever, ever seen. There were hardly any people there and it was pretty untouched. JUST LOOK AT THAT SAND AND THAT BEACH!!!
Luckily for the six of us, there were four other people staying in the same shack (yep, another shack with hammocks situation) who also wanted to go to Punta Gallinas. And you needed 10 for a boat. And one of them, lovely Joanna was Colombian so was able to bargain us a great price.
Result - we were a mere 2 hour jeep ride and 2 hour boat ride from our destination - somewhere that the Lonely Planet said only the most adventurous travellers would go. Yeah, i'm like totes adverntersome maximo.
Before bed time - I was really getting into my grandma bedtimes of 830pm - and another early start - 5am this time, oh joy, what a relaxing holiday - we decided to walk up to the lighthouse on the hill and watch the sun set. Before our lobster supper. Yes, all you can eat is really cheap lobster that is freshly caught. YUM.
On the way there:
Still on the way there. From what I remember, Dan and I continued our really exciting conversations from the jungle on conjugation of verbs in latin and Spanish - yeah, we're crazy - and also a continuation of people - in this case Noam - saying "So Dan, I've had this weird health issue that's been worrying me for a while..." It's very useful to have a friend who is a Doctor and can answer these things. I particularly love the idyllic setting of this picture as a backdrop for these sorts of conversations. I remember conjugating the imperfect past tense of the verb to sit in Latin. hmmmmm....:
STILL on the way there:
Strong look number 4 - dress with elegant hiking shoes - after Vic has hiked in them for half a day and they stink:
Lobster supper!!!!
Then dozing off after reading a bit in our personal lamplights - I should mention at this point in time that I finally had a head torch!! My mum had given me one for Christmas. However I had not checked that said head torch worked until 5 minutes before leaving for the holiday. It didn't. So picture me, if you will, drifting off in my hammock as the sun set, looking over the bay reading Phillip Pullman's "the good man Jesus" with a bike light strapped to my sunglasses which were balanced on my head. Strong.
Aside 2 - This reminded me of holiday reading. I bought 4 books. One of which was Tampa - a story about a female paedo teacher. Good reviews in the Times and the Guardian promising a modern day lolita had prompted me to get it. Don't. It's pretty trashy.
Next time - did we make it to Punta Gallinas?!?!!? The suspense will kill you!!?!?!! Probably.
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