Desierto de la Tatacoa

To get from San Augustin to Villavieja I had to take a bus to Neiva and transfer. I was immediately assaulted by countless people trying to sell me a ticket to Bogota on theirparticular busline. One fellow followed me persistently, chattering away, even after I informed him I didn't speak Spanish. I finally told him loudly and firmly, "No hable!" which made all the other drivers laugh but turned him off once and for all. I finally found a little rattletrap minivan to Villavieja with a slightly sleazy driver and a group of teenage boys, one of who tried to offer me his manly services as if I wasn't old enough to be his grandmother. No, I was not impressed with Neiva.

Villavieja is a dusty little desert town of one story buildings, many with bands of color painted on the lower portion and sometimes around doors and windows. I think the little church on the square is the tallest building around. In that square is the strangest statue I've ever seen grace a square anywhere. Yet, this was a very friendly little town and it comes to life in the evening. A woman selling the best empanadas for only 500 pesos from a little stand in her doorway broke into a huge smile when she saw coming for more.



This statue could be a cross between a bear and a dinosaur.

I found a little eating establishment, four stools big with a couple small tables out front and a sign that advertised 'jugos naturales' in several flavors. In my very basic Spanish, we discussed which ones might be good mixed with milk and I opted for one with a fruit I didn't know. She proceeded to scrape the slimy insides out of a fruit with yellow, withered-looking skin, added it to the milk, then took a long form of ice out of the freezer, picked up a rounded rock and bashed pieces off it to go in the blender. I laughed aloud which led to an attempted discussion about the cleanliness of the rock, then a more successful one about our lives and children.

The people where I rented a room called a friend to be my driver and guide to Desierto de la Tatacoa, my objective. His name is Gustavo and he drove an old Renault that had a passenger door needing to be opened from the outside which he did in a very gentlemanly manner every time I wanted to get out for a photo. It also failed to restart a time or two until he would get out under the hood and pound the battery terminal with a rock. After that, it didn't want to go into first gear several times...and a good time was had by all.

Desierto d la Tatacoa is an unusual landscape for Columbia, a very green country. I understand that the mountains surrounding it take all the rain, leaving it a dry but sculpted landscape, as if a little piece of Utah was dropped into it settled in. The formations come in red and white, sandy, and graced with several different kinds of cactus. There are an a couple campgrounds, an observatory and a pool fed by a one of the few springs where people go for a dip. I think it is to have some sort of good luck cleansing quality but can't be positive due to the language barrier. A stairway of rubber auto tires leads down to it. Cattle also roam this desert, skinny ones with big, floppy ears, a hump and a long wattle under their necks.

It is hot, hot, hot in Villaviejo. I developed a serious headache and hopped a bus to cooler climates early the next morning.