Journey to South America (31/March - 5/July /2016)
* * * Part 4 Colombia Caribbean sea * * *
13, June Santa Marta to Minca.
Infinate climbing to Casa Elemento, we were sometimes worried that we were in the wrong path.
The third day morning, departing day from Santa Marta.
The staffs of Hostel Dreamer recomended to visit Casa Elemento in Minca.
He made a call and asked me to wait. A minivan car came by to pick up me and other two backpackers with whom I got friendly soon in the car. They conveniently spoke English and Spanish fluently.
The mini van made an another stop to cram in to full, 11 or 12.
The car stoped short 200m to the center of Minca town because of the asphalt paving work. We walked the rest.
There was no bus terminal, people simply park cars on the road side. There was motorbike service to Casa Elemento. We thought that it was expensive considering the prices in Colombia and a good excize to walk without knowing how long time consuming to climb up to Casa Elemento which was situated on the top of the mountain.
We walked eventually four hours or so.
The hostel was full, I had not bothered to book. My companions translated between me and the receptionist.
I asked her if they could let me sleep on the hummock. No, Those were also occupied full.
There was a tent hostel nearby. She called it to check the price and availability. It was expensive but I OKed with a discount price. One guy had booked the dorm all right while he was staying at Santa Marta. The other guy walked down to return to Santa Marta. I felt the tent room was more close to the nature good. I put down my backpack inside the tent and returned to Elemento, since I was the only person who stayed at the tent hostel. There was no one to talk with.
It rainned hard while I was enjoying dinner and chats with other travelers in Elemento.
When I returned to the tent hostel, the staffs gestured that I had to move to another tent.
I saw the inside of my original tent, the earth floor was nothing but mud, the bed was wet, my backpack got wet. The rain had invaded in from the entrance and narrow slips.
I moved my backpack to another tent which had dry bed but the earth floor was muddy as well.
When I checked out next noon, I put out money to pay the price which I was told in Elemento reception. The owner said, "No, no." He obviously demanded more money by showing his own money. I did not understand since I did not consume anything while staying. It dawned on me that he was demanding the price of the normal double bed tent room. Probably the receptionist of Elemento talked with the wife of him on the line.
The wife offered the discount to lure me on the reason that only me stayed in the double bed tent room.
He did not know it. I was pissed off, though it was the matter of small money.
I dropped in the reception of Elemento to tell that I was charged more than the price she had told me.
I walked down the mountain to the centro. I thought that it would be a shame to leave this nice place after staying only one and half day. I started to walk to the opposit direction to Santa Marta,
There was a small restaurant from which a guy came out. I said, "I'm looking for a hostel."
"There, my hostel and camping sights. Take a look." He spoke English, not fluent but O.K.
He took me to the second storey of a cabin which had a thatched roof, no walls to surround room.
There were two rooms, separeted only by straw blind. There was a bag and some clothes hanging.
I asked, "Is someone staying here?" "Yes, a beautiful belgian girl." What a wonderful fate!
When I was having a early dinner and talking with a couple of the campers there. One young guy passed by but stopped to hear our talks. He was intrested in what I was talking. He told me so later.
After those young guys left. That guy from South Africa asked various things one after another, mostly concerned with Japanese and my traveling experiences for a quite a long time.
Later on, the belgian girl showed up in the restaurant. She was indeed a beautiful girl.
I introduced myself, and we had a very plesant conversation.
She was traveling the world to encounter deferent cultures.
She was not only beautiful but charming, inteligent and friendly.
I was hilarious on the prospect that she and me would live in the room separated by only thin straw blinds.
However, She left the hostel in that night. So sad. I could cry.
On the next early morning, I walked up into the mountain road. It was a car road but there were few cars all right. I aimed toward the cascades and coffee plantation. it was just a small walk to find a sign board on off road narrow path. It was a long way, approximately 1.5km, walking along the valles and through a tyny villege.
I found a series of small cascades. There was a precarious hand made rope way to get across the other side where there was a delapidated cafe looked forsaken for a long time.
Returnning to the mainroad, from which I walked up several hundred meters to try to find a coffee plantation.
However nothing like that was seen. I returnned. Then there walking up a guy somehow familiar with the face and figure. That was the South African guy I met previous day at the restaurant. "I expected to see you having breakfast at the restaurant." so he said. It was very nice to know that someone was looking forward to meet me.
We agreed to walk up till a coffee pantation. It didn't come to sight. I said, "Let's walk till next bent to see if it comes into view." At the bent, I repeated the same phrase. It turned out to be a futile effort. We returned.
On the way back, He pointed saying, "This is the hostel I am staying, nice place with a good command of view and good garden". It was indeed a nice hostel with spacious garden with Mango trees whose fruits scattered everywhere in the garden were free to eat. The hostel owned the whole small mountain in the back drop. So, I moved to that hostel since the beautiful Belgian girl had left I had no reason to stay on.
The three beds dorm were very old with two holes on the attic. The South African closed shut two holes with blankets. According to him, A bat came out of it, and was flying over his head last night.
At an Italian restraunt, we had a good dinner with good view.
We talked lots into the middle of the night. After that we had a peaceful sleep without being annoyed by bats flying over. He knew well of Colombia. He made my Caribbean travel plan for me. I shoud move on to a good beach town Palomino where I should stay at Bella Flor hostel near the bus stop. I should eat pizza and arepa at the restaurant run by a beatiful madam who used to be a model in Colombia. I should float down in the river on a big rubber tire tube. After Palomino, I should move on to the northern most tip namely Punta Gallinas close to Venezuela. Those were exactly what I did. Manny thanks goes to my South African friend.
16, June Minca to Palomino
Palomino beach, 4 min. walk from the hostel Floating down from the mountain to the beach (The guy is not me)
It was a short bus ride to Palomino, still bright and very hot. Fortunately there was a sign board, "Bella Flor →". on the corner to the side street. I followed the sign. The two storey hostel had traditional thatched roof.
There were no other houses around just sand, weeds and trees. The dorm room was clean.
While I stayed, there were no one to share the room. That served me good and bad, the room was always quiet but no one to talk with. So I spent majority of time in their dining cabin. The family, their friends and neighbors gathered to see TV, especialy the American continent soccur final match was on air.
The family baked pizzas, offered me the peace on the house. I appreciated it since the Colobian were small eater. I always felt that my stomac needed more after meal.
The beach was beautiful with palm trees on rich white sand, the waves were rough for swimming though.
On the second day, I walked along the river to the beach. Local people and the military men who were playing or washing clothes in the water showed intrest in me, but because of comunication hazzard, we just exchanged greetings, "Buenos dias! Japones".
On the third day, I took a bike taxi to the foot of small mountain with big rubber tire on my shoulders.
From there, We had to walk up and down for half anhour the hill to reach the river.
Once you hit the river, you sit on the belly and face up, floating along with the river flow to see the both side of the deep forest. That was a fantastic experience as my South African friend told me at Minca.
I had asked the hostel stuffs time to time how to reach the northern most and close to Venezuela, Punta Gallinas.
In the dinner time, the hostel owner told me that I should go to Punta Gallinas together with the Denish guy Medellin girl couple, since they also would visit there.
They were young nice couple, They were working in the hostel. The girl was apparently relative to the hostel family. Since the Both of them spoke English and Spanish, For me, it was a god sent offer.
I agreed with the couple to leave in the next morning.
We went as far as regular bus goes, perhaps reached Riohacha, then we got on a taxi to Urivia,
thence we got on a mini bus to Caba de la Vela.
This is the place where our hummock lodge was. You see hill behind me, there was a nicer beach.
18, June There were Caribbean sea on the left and desert on the right side. We desided to take a lodge in a hummock cabin. It was open to the sea, there was thatch walls to the road,
the roofs were thatched barely enogh to give shade for the scorching sunshine. I asked if it rains.
Very simple answerer came from the owner, "It never rains here."
For a small laxualy, we all took wider hummocks to be able to cover all our bodies while sleeping.
We deposited our backpacks to his restaurant for the sake of security.
There was no water, so for shower and toiletts we all use sea water stored in big vats.
There were several restaurants, so there were no problem for eating and drinking. You can have a roast or cebiche lobster from $7 to $10 depends on it's size. You also can have a glass of cool mango juice at any time.
All beautiful beach, the water and the sand were clear and waves were calm. I swam lots.
The main atraction there was kite surfing. Many travelers were enjoying and learning it.
On the second late afternoon, the companion couple urged me to go over the hill where there was a beautiful beach and it was a good spot to see the sun set. After coming back, we talked of the plan to go to the nothern most in Colombia, Punta Gallinas. The danish guy seemed to reserch well. There were no public transportations.
Joinning the group tour was only the option. Starting 5am by mini van, taking a look at some good spots and stay in a lodge and leave there in the morning and reach Ulvia around noon to return. We all felt it sounded good except the starting time was too early.
The restaurant owner gave us a tip that there was another tour starting at 10:30am. The problem of that was it would be very late in the night to reach Ulvia to return. At the end, we agreed to take the 10:30am tour.
19, June We were ready at 10:30am at the restaurant next morning. The mini van did,t come.
We thoght, "Year, this is Colombia, transportations are not punctual, let's wait." The time ticked off. One hour, then another one hour.
The owner and his wife consoled us, "It will come" but didn't. Around noon, We consulted, I said that if the car come right awyay I would go with it but no more than another hour. At aoound 2:30, an old, very very old mini van
stopped in front of the restaurant puffing out lots lots of black smoke. A young couple who were enjoying meal at an open table facing the road began to complain. The car tried to move but the engine stopped. they openned the bonnet to fix, then more black poisonous smoke puffing toward the complainning young couples as if the delapidated car retorted to them. After the effort, at last it moved past the restaurqnt. We had heared that the car had been delaying because of the bad road conditions. I got known that they were hiding the real reason of the delay. We talked of what we should do. The two days tour had to be rearranged. The driver and his assistant said that we were going to Punta Gallius but only to sleep on the day, and we would start off early in the tommorow morning to visit seanic places and back to Ulvia late in the night. That was exactly what I anticipated when the car arrived very much behind the schedule. I said that my desire to visit the magnificient Punta Gallius had dwindled, I would not join the tour. The medellin girl said that she did not want to go anymore. The Denish guy was undecided but his girl friend expressed not to want go any more, he yield. We canceled out the tour, and return to where we had come from. We found that there was only one mini bus to Ulvia.
The problem was the departure time, it was 5am. We had no other choise.
20, June Caba de la Vela to Ulvia to
Riohacha
We arrived at Riohacha from Ulvia by shared taxi well before noon.
Remember? we started off Caba de la Vela at 5am.
Riohacha was Caribbean beach town, white sand, palm trees and bikini girls. To some degree touristic town,
that means there were elgant cafes, fresh juice stands and restrants. We found an europian style restaurant for late breakfast, took a seat in an open air table and had some bread, scrumbled egg and Colombian coffee.
We spent a long time at the restaurant because, I think, we were aware that this was the last moment, I was together with them. They were coming back to the hostel in Palomino, thence to the girl's home town Medellin.
I said that I was staying at Roohacha since I liked the environment and Caribbean atmospher. There were hotels facing the beach. They were expensive. I knew where I had to look for. I walked toward the area where there were local residents, markets and a little bit dirty. I soon found a cheap hostel between the beach and a hotch-potch markets place where there was no big mercado, just a bunch of small shops and stands.
I spent times at the beach for swimming. Let me tell you, I am a good swimmer I swam out to offshore.
I also enjoyed wandering the local markets area and bought foods, drinks and pineaples since the hostel guests could use the kitchen and the refrigiater freely. I spent the night time watching TV with the family and their friends who came to watch the football game. One business man spoke English fluent and was eager to speak to me, that was fine since I was a sole guest in the hostel, consequently had a free time all through the night.
I stayed at Riohacha 3 days. I asked the hostel ownner if there were bus going to Capurgana.
Yes, there was only one bus in a day departing at 5am to Monteria, thence to Turbo, Capurgana. He came to my room to wake me up at 4:30am in the next morning.
22, June Riohacha to Monteria by 14 hours bus ride
Monteria to Necocli by mini van before the dawn
Music festival sponsored by John who ownned this beach and the restaurant. Practicing before stage
When the bus arrived at Monteria, it was already dark around 7pm. I walked toward the lighted area for accomodation. There were none. I returned to the bus terminal to sleep. The ticket windows were closed then.
A security staff asked me if I need some help. "Bus to Capurgana or Necocli." He made a couple of calls.
"There was a bus to Necocli departing at 3am. Wait here, and tell a security staff that you want to get on the bus for Necocli, He will take you to the bus."
It took a couple of hours to Neccocli. It was still pitch dark. I walked toward the sea for the boat to Capurgana.
I found a makeshift stage with roof, thought,"Ummm, perfect for sleeping." I set up my sleeping bag on the stage and dozed off. The dawn came and began to rain but mostly it was all right since the stage was covered by plastic roof, some rain coming from the side though.
When I was walking around after the dawn, a guy threw a glance to me and said in Japanese,
"Hello, are you a Japanese?" His name was John who had worked in Japan for 8 years. He liked Japan and thought that he owed Japanese. He even named his restaurant Yokohama which is Japanese big port city down Tokyo.
"You can use freely the shower, toilet, water, and anything else. Drinks are on the house." He offerd me a cup of coffee and breakfast. "Put your laggage inside, it could be stolen outside."
The small centro area was 7 minutes walk toward the inland where there were ATMs, small supermarkets, shops, bakaries, fried checken stands and fresh fruits juice stands, convenient enough for modern life.
Believe me that I spent $1 to $3 daily. I had my hair cut in a barber which cost me 5000peso($1.7)
I slept at the beach another 3 nights. During that time, I paid only once for the fried tuna dinner. That was a little bit expensive dish. I did not want to make good use of his hospitality too much.
The Colombian people enjoy playing or swiming in the shallow water on the shorefront.
I swam out to the seashore in the morning and in the afternoon every day. That unexpectedly gave some impact on local people. After swiming back to the beach, people pointed the seashore and said, "Mucho,".
Another time, One family offered me to drink whatever I wanted to drink for the long swimming.
24, June The music festival began in late afternoon.
All Colombian style music. One with accodion, one with purcussion, one with Guacharaca, plus vocalist but most often than not accodion player sang in high tone as if telling story, sort of rap music or blue grass.
I thought that I would sleep on the stage after it finished. But it continued on. At 11pm, Nobody seemed to leave. At 12pm, the same. At 1am, People were still enjoying the music and beer. At 2am, some people were leaving but people were still hirarious with music and beer. I had enogh. I went to the neighbouring beach and slept in the sleeping bag on the fine sand under the straw sunshade. The music and yelling drifted by.
The next day, it was almost the same that the music festival started in the afternoon. local people came to see it. John introduced lots of his friends to me that they are mostly some sort of presidents. I could not remember their names at all, too many people in one time. You see, thre are no industries in that small town, they must be running small business or simply owns shops.
I told John that I wanted to get on a boat to Capurgana.
He said that his friend going to Capurgana daily by his boat. I could get on the boat by friend price.
"Come here 3pm tommorow". The festival finished in the the night, not extended to the next morning.
I slept in my sleeping bag on the fine sand nearby.
On the next afternoon, I went to see John to his restaurant. I asked him, "Is your friend going to Capurgana today?" His reply was to my desapointment, "No, not today. tomorrow"
Then the tomorrow came. "No, not today. tommorow."
Then the tommorow came. "My friend will not go there today. I will take you to the harbour where the boats go around Capurgana everyday." We went the port and dropped in the ticket office. My dear friend John told me that I could get the discount ticket to Capurgana because of his friend connection. I thankfully bought the discount ticket departing 8am next morning. I later found that the price was a just regular price everyone could get 60,000Peso($20) Aha.
28, June Necoccli to Capurgana by boat
Arriving at Capugana by boat. I stayed with them and several others living in small tents.
At arriving at the port of Capugana, I stated to walk. This time it was not to find accomodation,
but a good beach to sleep. I had a lot of time since it was around 10:30 in the morning. I walked along with the shore line. Then, a midle aged guy threw some Japanese words, "Are you a Japanese?". "Yes, I am a Japanese. I'm looking for a good place to sleep tonight. I will go farther to try to find."
He said, "You can sleep here. There is a toilet and running water outside of the restaurant there. The owner is my friend." I proceded further and returned. There was a good beach with fine sand, but I thought that having companions and access to free toilet and water sounded good for the first night sleep.
His Japanese was confined to few words, but spoke English a little bit. He constructed a sand castle on the beach.
Tourists who appreciated it pay some tips. That was his proffesion and getting stable income from it.
He had several companions to live in small personal tents there. He also had many friends including his lover with whom he was traveling. Everybody else had part time job in shops, restaurants or hostels.
When the time of sleep came, I wandered out from the small community to restaurants area on the beach to find a good bed. There were open air tables left alone. I placed my sleeping bag on it and put my body in it with a wrench in my right hand just in case. About half and hours later, threesome patroling police men came saying,
"Hotel, hotel". I replied reluctantly, "O.K, O,K". I foulded up my sleeping bag, and returnned to the small community. The sand artist guy said, "You sleep in my tent." I declined the hospitality since I had a sleeping bag, that is enough." I would have a good sleep on the fine sand as a matless, though there were a few mosqitos annoyed me. So I thought, Wrong!
When all of us were in asleep at 3AM or 4AM, there came thunders, bolts and hevy rain and strong gust.
I folded up my sleeping bag and took some my clothes which I had hang to dry up, and rushed to under the overhang roof of the restaurant. Everybody else did the same. They collected their tents which were blown off or collapsed. The wind was so strong that we all were drenched from the rain coming in from the side.
When the dawn came, the storm subsided. They started to repaire their tents. The sand castle was destroyed totally. The sand artist started to construct deferent castle from scratch which was the source of his income after all.
In day time, I rambled around the small town surounded by mountains and the sea. Capugana was a well known beach resort town. There were many hostels, restaurants, cafes, suvenir shops. diving gear shops. But bear in mind, there were no ATMs in whole town. One hour was enough to visit every part of the centro. You can reach the diving spots or Panama border in a matter of minutes.
The tropical beach may not defy your image of the Caribbean beach. Abundant clean white sand, clear water, palm trees and bikini girls.
I spent lots of time on the beautiful beach for relaxing and swiming in day time.
I'll tell you what. When you swim out far from the shore, you might be involved in a fast current, how fast you swim, you can not get out it. What I did was that I drifted by with the current, fortunately it moved to pallarel to the coastline and weakened. I was not carried out too far, easy to return to the shore.
We had a peceful sleep in the second night.
In the next morning, A young guy and a lady in the comunity asked me to go along together to the most beautiful beach in Capugana. We walked along the narrow path between the sea and the mountain. Some places were almost cliff. The scenary were magnificient.
We came up to a wild cafe which had a hot spa surrounded by rocks and a wild natural swiming pool in which overwhelming waves came in overhead every seconds.
You can have a roast lobster without being worried of the price, about $12.
I had it for the dinner in the restaurant, because I thought I owe the restaurant since I used it's toilet, running water and hangout roof outside for refuge in case of storm. Oh, I should spend some money for the restaurant to payback for those hospitalities.
When the mid night came, it looked that there was a storm on the other side of the sea. I heared the thunder and saw the bolts time to time. There were custmers still enjoying drinks at the outside table well after the restaurant was closed. I shouted in my heart, "Go back, go back home, a big storm is coming. Can't you hear and see those thunders and bolts!". It started the downpour and gust at around 0:00.
It was so hard, everybody including those custmers took refuge under the restaurant's hangout roof. But the wind and rain were so hard, We were all drenched up, we set up the piled tables as sheilds to prevent the rain coming in from the side. After a couple of hours, the storm lessened a little bit, those custmers returned to their homes. We had no place to go but endure. Then I heard shouts from the sea, the fisher men were fighting with their boats onto the shore and secured with ropes in the midst of the rampant waves.
Everybody tried to make space to sleep avoiding the aslant rain as much as possible. The sand artist guy tried to give me a good space so as I could scratch up some sleep. I found in the next morning that his sand castle was eroded by the hard rain but the shape mostly remained this time. he perhaps could patch it up.
I left the community at 6:30 in the morning to get on the boat to Turbo. I had bought the ticket in the previous day. From Turbo to Medellin by bus. thence to Bogota
The boat on the way stopped by two small ports which looked a secluded area by palm trees and hills, the place looked ideal for relaxsation and snorkeling.
Turbo was a busy big port city. The bus terminal was 10min. walking from the port.
I found that there were buses to Medellin every hour. I got on a next bus.
A young guy took a sheat beside me at the next stop.
He was a policeman and going to his home town Bogota. We comununicated with limited English and sometimes with the help of trancelation software of his smartphone. He was a good companion all the way to Medellin where
He kindly kept staying by my side to get ticket to Bogota. That was a great help since the lady of the ticket counter did not understand Engish. we were separeted at the seat in the bus, but he managed to take seat beside me. We enjoyed comunication till we slept. The bus arrived at Bogota early in the morning. He took me to the Taxi booth where local people had mada a long line. He said, "You take a taxi to the hostel. I go to my house. It was nice meeting to you. Adios!". I stayed at the line for a short while, but moved out to get a bus to the centro.
I got off before the centro and walked about 3km to Bogota univercity area.
I tried to find CX hostel. I was sure that I was standing on the adress of CX hostel which was nowhere to be seen.
I asked europian travelers sitting in front of the ordinary house. they said, "This is it". and pressed the buzzer.
The door opened. I asked,"Is the dorm available tonight?" It was fully booked. You see, there are no cheap hostels in Bogota. Even the CX was $17 for the dorm. I desided that I go to the airport in the night to sleep and fly back to Japan next day.
You see, airport is not bad place for sleeping and reading. There are water, toilet, foods, chairs and security.
At first, I slept in my sleeping bag on the row of 3 chairs. But I found later that sleeping on the floor was more comfortable.
* * * Part 4 Colombia Caribbean sea * * *
13, June Santa Marta to Minca.
Infinate climbing to Casa Elemento, we were sometimes worried that we were in the wrong path.
The third day morning, departing day from Santa Marta.
The staffs of Hostel Dreamer recomended to visit Casa Elemento in Minca.
He made a call and asked me to wait. A minivan car came by to pick up me and other two backpackers with whom I got friendly soon in the car. They conveniently spoke English and Spanish fluently.
The mini van made an another stop to cram in to full, 11 or 12.
The car stoped short 200m to the center of Minca town because of the asphalt paving work. We walked the rest.
There was no bus terminal, people simply park cars on the road side. There was motorbike service to Casa Elemento. We thought that it was expensive considering the prices in Colombia and a good excize to walk without knowing how long time consuming to climb up to Casa Elemento which was situated on the top of the mountain.
We walked eventually four hours or so.
The hostel was full, I had not bothered to book. My companions translated between me and the receptionist.
I asked her if they could let me sleep on the hummock. No, Those were also occupied full.
There was a tent hostel nearby. She called it to check the price and availability. It was expensive but I OKed with a discount price. One guy had booked the dorm all right while he was staying at Santa Marta. The other guy walked down to return to Santa Marta. I felt the tent room was more close to the nature good. I put down my backpack inside the tent and returned to Elemento, since I was the only person who stayed at the tent hostel. There was no one to talk with.
It rainned hard while I was enjoying dinner and chats with other travelers in Elemento.
When I returned to the tent hostel, the staffs gestured that I had to move to another tent.
I saw the inside of my original tent, the earth floor was nothing but mud, the bed was wet, my backpack got wet. The rain had invaded in from the entrance and narrow slips.
I moved my backpack to another tent which had dry bed but the earth floor was muddy as well.
When I checked out next noon, I put out money to pay the price which I was told in Elemento reception. The owner said, "No, no." He obviously demanded more money by showing his own money. I did not understand since I did not consume anything while staying. It dawned on me that he was demanding the price of the normal double bed tent room. Probably the receptionist of Elemento talked with the wife of him on the line.
The wife offered the discount to lure me on the reason that only me stayed in the double bed tent room.
He did not know it. I was pissed off, though it was the matter of small money.
I dropped in the reception of Elemento to tell that I was charged more than the price she had told me.
I walked down the mountain to the centro. I thought that it would be a shame to leave this nice place after staying only one and half day. I started to walk to the opposit direction to Santa Marta,
There was a small restaurant from which a guy came out. I said, "I'm looking for a hostel."
"There, my hostel and camping sights. Take a look." He spoke English, not fluent but O.K.
He took me to the second storey of a cabin which had a thatched roof, no walls to surround room.
There were two rooms, separeted only by straw blind. There was a bag and some clothes hanging.
I asked, "Is someone staying here?" "Yes, a beautiful belgian girl." What a wonderful fate!
When I was having a early dinner and talking with a couple of the campers there. One young guy passed by but stopped to hear our talks. He was intrested in what I was talking. He told me so later.
After those young guys left. That guy from South Africa asked various things one after another, mostly concerned with Japanese and my traveling experiences for a quite a long time.
Later on, the belgian girl showed up in the restaurant. She was indeed a beautiful girl.
I introduced myself, and we had a very plesant conversation.
She was traveling the world to encounter deferent cultures.
She was not only beautiful but charming, inteligent and friendly.
I was hilarious on the prospect that she and me would live in the room separated by only thin straw blinds.
However, She left the hostel in that night. So sad. I could cry.
On the next early morning, I walked up into the mountain road. It was a car road but there were few cars all right. I aimed toward the cascades and coffee plantation. it was just a small walk to find a sign board on off road narrow path. It was a long way, approximately 1.5km, walking along the valles and through a tyny villege.
I found a series of small cascades. There was a precarious hand made rope way to get across the other side where there was a delapidated cafe looked forsaken for a long time.
Returnning to the mainroad, from which I walked up several hundred meters to try to find a coffee plantation.
However nothing like that was seen. I returnned. Then there walking up a guy somehow familiar with the face and figure. That was the South African guy I met previous day at the restaurant. "I expected to see you having breakfast at the restaurant." so he said. It was very nice to know that someone was looking forward to meet me.
We agreed to walk up till a coffee pantation. It didn't come to sight. I said, "Let's walk till next bent to see if it comes into view." At the bent, I repeated the same phrase. It turned out to be a futile effort. We returned.
On the way back, He pointed saying, "This is the hostel I am staying, nice place with a good command of view and good garden". It was indeed a nice hostel with spacious garden with Mango trees whose fruits scattered everywhere in the garden were free to eat. The hostel owned the whole small mountain in the back drop. So, I moved to that hostel since the beautiful Belgian girl had left I had no reason to stay on.
The three beds dorm were very old with two holes on the attic. The South African closed shut two holes with blankets. According to him, A bat came out of it, and was flying over his head last night.
At an Italian restraunt, we had a good dinner with good view.
We talked lots into the middle of the night. After that we had a peaceful sleep without being annoyed by bats flying over. He knew well of Colombia. He made my Caribbean travel plan for me. I shoud move on to a good beach town Palomino where I should stay at Bella Flor hostel near the bus stop. I should eat pizza and arepa at the restaurant run by a beatiful madam who used to be a model in Colombia. I should float down in the river on a big rubber tire tube. After Palomino, I should move on to the northern most tip namely Punta Gallinas close to Venezuela. Those were exactly what I did. Manny thanks goes to my South African friend.
16, June Minca to Palomino
Palomino beach, 4 min. walk from the hostel Floating down from the mountain to the beach (The guy is not me)
It was a short bus ride to Palomino, still bright and very hot. Fortunately there was a sign board, "Bella Flor →". on the corner to the side street. I followed the sign. The two storey hostel had traditional thatched roof.
There were no other houses around just sand, weeds and trees. The dorm room was clean.
While I stayed, there were no one to share the room. That served me good and bad, the room was always quiet but no one to talk with. So I spent majority of time in their dining cabin. The family, their friends and neighbors gathered to see TV, especialy the American continent soccur final match was on air.
The family baked pizzas, offered me the peace on the house. I appreciated it since the Colobian were small eater. I always felt that my stomac needed more after meal.
The beach was beautiful with palm trees on rich white sand, the waves were rough for swimming though.
On the second day, I walked along the river to the beach. Local people and the military men who were playing or washing clothes in the water showed intrest in me, but because of comunication hazzard, we just exchanged greetings, "Buenos dias! Japones".
On the third day, I took a bike taxi to the foot of small mountain with big rubber tire on my shoulders.
From there, We had to walk up and down for half anhour the hill to reach the river.
Once you hit the river, you sit on the belly and face up, floating along with the river flow to see the both side of the deep forest. That was a fantastic experience as my South African friend told me at Minca.
I had asked the hostel stuffs time to time how to reach the northern most and close to Venezuela, Punta Gallinas.
In the dinner time, the hostel owner told me that I should go to Punta Gallinas together with the Denish guy Medellin girl couple, since they also would visit there.
They were young nice couple, They were working in the hostel. The girl was apparently relative to the hostel family. Since the Both of them spoke English and Spanish, For me, it was a god sent offer.
I agreed with the couple to leave in the next morning.
We went as far as regular bus goes, perhaps reached Riohacha, then we got on a taxi to Urivia,
thence we got on a mini bus to Caba de la Vela.
This is the place where our hummock lodge was. You see hill behind me, there was a nicer beach.
18, June There were Caribbean sea on the left and desert on the right side. We desided to take a lodge in a hummock cabin. It was open to the sea, there was thatch walls to the road,
the roofs were thatched barely enogh to give shade for the scorching sunshine. I asked if it rains.
Very simple answerer came from the owner, "It never rains here."
For a small laxualy, we all took wider hummocks to be able to cover all our bodies while sleeping.
We deposited our backpacks to his restaurant for the sake of security.
There was no water, so for shower and toiletts we all use sea water stored in big vats.
There were several restaurants, so there were no problem for eating and drinking. You can have a roast or cebiche lobster from $7 to $10 depends on it's size. You also can have a glass of cool mango juice at any time.
All beautiful beach, the water and the sand were clear and waves were calm. I swam lots.
The main atraction there was kite surfing. Many travelers were enjoying and learning it.
On the second late afternoon, the companion couple urged me to go over the hill where there was a beautiful beach and it was a good spot to see the sun set. After coming back, we talked of the plan to go to the nothern most in Colombia, Punta Gallinas. The danish guy seemed to reserch well. There were no public transportations.
Joinning the group tour was only the option. Starting 5am by mini van, taking a look at some good spots and stay in a lodge and leave there in the morning and reach Ulvia around noon to return. We all felt it sounded good except the starting time was too early.
The restaurant owner gave us a tip that there was another tour starting at 10:30am. The problem of that was it would be very late in the night to reach Ulvia to return. At the end, we agreed to take the 10:30am tour.
19, June We were ready at 10:30am at the restaurant next morning. The mini van did,t come.
We thoght, "Year, this is Colombia, transportations are not punctual, let's wait." The time ticked off. One hour, then another one hour.
The owner and his wife consoled us, "It will come" but didn't. Around noon, We consulted, I said that if the car come right awyay I would go with it but no more than another hour. At aoound 2:30, an old, very very old mini van
stopped in front of the restaurant puffing out lots lots of black smoke. A young couple who were enjoying meal at an open table facing the road began to complain. The car tried to move but the engine stopped. they openned the bonnet to fix, then more black poisonous smoke puffing toward the complainning young couples as if the delapidated car retorted to them. After the effort, at last it moved past the restaurqnt. We had heared that the car had been delaying because of the bad road conditions. I got known that they were hiding the real reason of the delay. We talked of what we should do. The two days tour had to be rearranged. The driver and his assistant said that we were going to Punta Gallius but only to sleep on the day, and we would start off early in the tommorow morning to visit seanic places and back to Ulvia late in the night. That was exactly what I anticipated when the car arrived very much behind the schedule. I said that my desire to visit the magnificient Punta Gallius had dwindled, I would not join the tour. The medellin girl said that she did not want to go anymore. The Denish guy was undecided but his girl friend expressed not to want go any more, he yield. We canceled out the tour, and return to where we had come from. We found that there was only one mini bus to Ulvia.
The problem was the departure time, it was 5am. We had no other choise.
20, June Caba de la Vela to Ulvia to
Riohacha
We arrived at Riohacha from Ulvia by shared taxi well before noon.
Remember? we started off Caba de la Vela at 5am.
Riohacha was Caribbean beach town, white sand, palm trees and bikini girls. To some degree touristic town,
that means there were elgant cafes, fresh juice stands and restrants. We found an europian style restaurant for late breakfast, took a seat in an open air table and had some bread, scrumbled egg and Colombian coffee.
We spent a long time at the restaurant because, I think, we were aware that this was the last moment, I was together with them. They were coming back to the hostel in Palomino, thence to the girl's home town Medellin.
I said that I was staying at Roohacha since I liked the environment and Caribbean atmospher. There were hotels facing the beach. They were expensive. I knew where I had to look for. I walked toward the area where there were local residents, markets and a little bit dirty. I soon found a cheap hostel between the beach and a hotch-potch markets place where there was no big mercado, just a bunch of small shops and stands.
I spent times at the beach for swimming. Let me tell you, I am a good swimmer I swam out to offshore.
I also enjoyed wandering the local markets area and bought foods, drinks and pineaples since the hostel guests could use the kitchen and the refrigiater freely. I spent the night time watching TV with the family and their friends who came to watch the football game. One business man spoke English fluent and was eager to speak to me, that was fine since I was a sole guest in the hostel, consequently had a free time all through the night.
I stayed at Riohacha 3 days. I asked the hostel ownner if there were bus going to Capurgana.
Yes, there was only one bus in a day departing at 5am to Monteria, thence to Turbo, Capurgana. He came to my room to wake me up at 4:30am in the next morning.
22, June Riohacha to Monteria by 14 hours bus ride
Monteria to Necocli by mini van before the dawn
Music festival sponsored by John who ownned this beach and the restaurant. Practicing before stage
When the bus arrived at Monteria, it was already dark around 7pm. I walked toward the lighted area for accomodation. There were none. I returned to the bus terminal to sleep. The ticket windows were closed then.
A security staff asked me if I need some help. "Bus to Capurgana or Necocli." He made a couple of calls.
"There was a bus to Necocli departing at 3am. Wait here, and tell a security staff that you want to get on the bus for Necocli, He will take you to the bus."
It took a couple of hours to Neccocli. It was still pitch dark. I walked toward the sea for the boat to Capurgana.
I found a makeshift stage with roof, thought,"Ummm, perfect for sleeping." I set up my sleeping bag on the stage and dozed off. The dawn came and began to rain but mostly it was all right since the stage was covered by plastic roof, some rain coming from the side though.
When I was walking around after the dawn, a guy threw a glance to me and said in Japanese,
"Hello, are you a Japanese?" His name was John who had worked in Japan for 8 years. He liked Japan and thought that he owed Japanese. He even named his restaurant Yokohama which is Japanese big port city down Tokyo.
"You can use freely the shower, toilet, water, and anything else. Drinks are on the house." He offerd me a cup of coffee and breakfast. "Put your laggage inside, it could be stolen outside."
The small centro area was 7 minutes walk toward the inland where there were ATMs, small supermarkets, shops, bakaries, fried checken stands and fresh fruits juice stands, convenient enough for modern life.
Believe me that I spent $1 to $3 daily. I had my hair cut in a barber which cost me 5000peso($1.7)
I slept at the beach another 3 nights. During that time, I paid only once for the fried tuna dinner. That was a little bit expensive dish. I did not want to make good use of his hospitality too much.
The Colombian people enjoy playing or swiming in the shallow water on the shorefront.
I swam out to the seashore in the morning and in the afternoon every day. That unexpectedly gave some impact on local people. After swiming back to the beach, people pointed the seashore and said, "Mucho,".
Another time, One family offered me to drink whatever I wanted to drink for the long swimming.
24, June The music festival began in late afternoon.
All Colombian style music. One with accodion, one with purcussion, one with Guacharaca, plus vocalist but most often than not accodion player sang in high tone as if telling story, sort of rap music or blue grass.
I thought that I would sleep on the stage after it finished. But it continued on. At 11pm, Nobody seemed to leave. At 12pm, the same. At 1am, People were still enjoying the music and beer. At 2am, some people were leaving but people were still hirarious with music and beer. I had enogh. I went to the neighbouring beach and slept in the sleeping bag on the fine sand under the straw sunshade. The music and yelling drifted by.
The next day, it was almost the same that the music festival started in the afternoon. local people came to see it. John introduced lots of his friends to me that they are mostly some sort of presidents. I could not remember their names at all, too many people in one time. You see, thre are no industries in that small town, they must be running small business or simply owns shops.
I told John that I wanted to get on a boat to Capurgana.
He said that his friend going to Capurgana daily by his boat. I could get on the boat by friend price.
"Come here 3pm tommorow". The festival finished in the the night, not extended to the next morning.
I slept in my sleeping bag on the fine sand nearby.
On the next afternoon, I went to see John to his restaurant. I asked him, "Is your friend going to Capurgana today?" His reply was to my desapointment, "No, not today. tomorrow"
Then the tomorrow came. "No, not today. tommorow."
Then the tommorow came. "My friend will not go there today. I will take you to the harbour where the boats go around Capurgana everyday." We went the port and dropped in the ticket office. My dear friend John told me that I could get the discount ticket to Capurgana because of his friend connection. I thankfully bought the discount ticket departing 8am next morning. I later found that the price was a just regular price everyone could get 60,000Peso($20) Aha.
28, June Necoccli to Capurgana by boat
Arriving at Capugana by boat. I stayed with them and several others living in small tents.
At arriving at the port of Capugana, I stated to walk. This time it was not to find accomodation,
but a good beach to sleep. I had a lot of time since it was around 10:30 in the morning. I walked along with the shore line. Then, a midle aged guy threw some Japanese words, "Are you a Japanese?". "Yes, I am a Japanese. I'm looking for a good place to sleep tonight. I will go farther to try to find."
He said, "You can sleep here. There is a toilet and running water outside of the restaurant there. The owner is my friend." I proceded further and returned. There was a good beach with fine sand, but I thought that having companions and access to free toilet and water sounded good for the first night sleep.
His Japanese was confined to few words, but spoke English a little bit. He constructed a sand castle on the beach.
Tourists who appreciated it pay some tips. That was his proffesion and getting stable income from it.
He had several companions to live in small personal tents there. He also had many friends including his lover with whom he was traveling. Everybody else had part time job in shops, restaurants or hostels.
When the time of sleep came, I wandered out from the small community to restaurants area on the beach to find a good bed. There were open air tables left alone. I placed my sleeping bag on it and put my body in it with a wrench in my right hand just in case. About half and hours later, threesome patroling police men came saying,
"Hotel, hotel". I replied reluctantly, "O.K, O,K". I foulded up my sleeping bag, and returnned to the small community. The sand artist guy said, "You sleep in my tent." I declined the hospitality since I had a sleeping bag, that is enough." I would have a good sleep on the fine sand as a matless, though there were a few mosqitos annoyed me. So I thought, Wrong!
When all of us were in asleep at 3AM or 4AM, there came thunders, bolts and hevy rain and strong gust.
I folded up my sleeping bag and took some my clothes which I had hang to dry up, and rushed to under the overhang roof of the restaurant. Everybody else did the same. They collected their tents which were blown off or collapsed. The wind was so strong that we all were drenched from the rain coming in from the side.
When the dawn came, the storm subsided. They started to repaire their tents. The sand castle was destroyed totally. The sand artist started to construct deferent castle from scratch which was the source of his income after all.
In day time, I rambled around the small town surounded by mountains and the sea. Capugana was a well known beach resort town. There were many hostels, restaurants, cafes, suvenir shops. diving gear shops. But bear in mind, there were no ATMs in whole town. One hour was enough to visit every part of the centro. You can reach the diving spots or Panama border in a matter of minutes.
The tropical beach may not defy your image of the Caribbean beach. Abundant clean white sand, clear water, palm trees and bikini girls.
I spent lots of time on the beautiful beach for relaxing and swiming in day time.
I'll tell you what. When you swim out far from the shore, you might be involved in a fast current, how fast you swim, you can not get out it. What I did was that I drifted by with the current, fortunately it moved to pallarel to the coastline and weakened. I was not carried out too far, easy to return to the shore.
We had a peceful sleep in the second night.
In the next morning, A young guy and a lady in the comunity asked me to go along together to the most beautiful beach in Capugana. We walked along the narrow path between the sea and the mountain. Some places were almost cliff. The scenary were magnificient.
We came up to a wild cafe which had a hot spa surrounded by rocks and a wild natural swiming pool in which overwhelming waves came in overhead every seconds.
You can have a roast lobster without being worried of the price, about $12.
I had it for the dinner in the restaurant, because I thought I owe the restaurant since I used it's toilet, running water and hangout roof outside for refuge in case of storm. Oh, I should spend some money for the restaurant to payback for those hospitalities.
When the mid night came, it looked that there was a storm on the other side of the sea. I heared the thunder and saw the bolts time to time. There were custmers still enjoying drinks at the outside table well after the restaurant was closed. I shouted in my heart, "Go back, go back home, a big storm is coming. Can't you hear and see those thunders and bolts!". It started the downpour and gust at around 0:00.
It was so hard, everybody including those custmers took refuge under the restaurant's hangout roof. But the wind and rain were so hard, We were all drenched up, we set up the piled tables as sheilds to prevent the rain coming in from the side. After a couple of hours, the storm lessened a little bit, those custmers returned to their homes. We had no place to go but endure. Then I heard shouts from the sea, the fisher men were fighting with their boats onto the shore and secured with ropes in the midst of the rampant waves.
Everybody tried to make space to sleep avoiding the aslant rain as much as possible. The sand artist guy tried to give me a good space so as I could scratch up some sleep. I found in the next morning that his sand castle was eroded by the hard rain but the shape mostly remained this time. he perhaps could patch it up.
I left the community at 6:30 in the morning to get on the boat to Turbo. I had bought the ticket in the previous day. From Turbo to Medellin by bus. thence to Bogota
The boat on the way stopped by two small ports which looked a secluded area by palm trees and hills, the place looked ideal for relaxsation and snorkeling.
Turbo was a busy big port city. The bus terminal was 10min. walking from the port.
I found that there were buses to Medellin every hour. I got on a next bus.
A young guy took a sheat beside me at the next stop.
He was a policeman and going to his home town Bogota. We comununicated with limited English and sometimes with the help of trancelation software of his smartphone. He was a good companion all the way to Medellin where
He kindly kept staying by my side to get ticket to Bogota. That was a great help since the lady of the ticket counter did not understand Engish. we were separeted at the seat in the bus, but he managed to take seat beside me. We enjoyed comunication till we slept. The bus arrived at Bogota early in the morning. He took me to the Taxi booth where local people had mada a long line. He said, "You take a taxi to the hostel. I go to my house. It was nice meeting to you. Adios!". I stayed at the line for a short while, but moved out to get a bus to the centro.
I got off before the centro and walked about 3km to Bogota univercity area.
I tried to find CX hostel. I was sure that I was standing on the adress of CX hostel which was nowhere to be seen.
I asked europian travelers sitting in front of the ordinary house. they said, "This is it". and pressed the buzzer.
The door opened. I asked,"Is the dorm available tonight?" It was fully booked. You see, there are no cheap hostels in Bogota. Even the CX was $17 for the dorm. I desided that I go to the airport in the night to sleep and fly back to Japan next day.
You see, airport is not bad place for sleeping and reading. There are water, toilet, foods, chairs and security.
At first, I slept in my sleeping bag on the row of 3 chairs. But I found later that sleeping on the floor was more comfortable.
