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Riohacha
Entry 15 of 332 | show all | print this entry |
February 27th 2007
On the recommendation of Sammy in Bogota we took a cab to 'Casa de la Mama' in Calle 9 Carrera 4. (2,500 cab, 30,000 for the night after haggling). There was a kitchen with use of the fridge, but someone pinched our milk, lesson to be learned. Always put your stuff in a plastic bag and tie it up. The room was OK and the people friendly. A tour guide, Miguel, staying there took us to the tourist bureau, where they could produce even less of use than they could in Santa Marta, only one highly coloured brochure they called a map. Miguel was hoping for an opportunity to take us somewhere, but he doesn't know us independent to the last. He did show us to a pizza place, where they sell these pizzas that are shaped like pasties. They were cheap enough, 2,500 pesos, and filled us up, if not exciting. Afterwards we went for a walk along the jetty, which a web site says is 1.2km long. If it ever was, it has lost 900 metres. It was quite pleasant out over the sea, with plenty of cooling wind. the evening finished with a session in the internet cafe where Barb noticed some glaring errors in Pete's entries on this Travel Pod.
February 28th 2007
Barb's birthday, for the next 3 months and 8 days she is a year older than Pete. Pete had found a wonderful card back in Adelaide which wolf whistled. We went back to the tourist office, which gave us several conflicting sets of directions for getting a car to Camarones, ready for a visit to Sanctuario Flora y Fauna Los Flamencos, one of Colombia's national parks. Their last instructions actually worked, Calle 15 by the roundabout. The cab took us all the way to Sanctuario (3,000 each), where a guide tried to sell us a tour. He said we would have to walk for 3 hours to the flamingos, and 3 hours back. Not very likely, in this already-scorching sun at 10am. So he sadly pointed us to the park HQ across the estuary. Once there 3 rangers were delighted to find 2 Australians to show around. Amazingly, it cost nothing, unlike some Colombian parks which cost 22,000 pesos each.
First we were shown holding vats where there were turtles of various sizes, from a few months from hatching up to 2.5 years. The turtles lay their eggs in holes dug on the beach, and as a conservation measure the eggs are dug up and raised in the park HQ. Turtles are released when their chances of being eaten are diminished. We asked how old, but people in this part of Colombia speak very quickly and run all their words together, so we never found out.
It was not permitted to walk into the park ourselves, because it is the home of the indigenous Wayuu people. These people live in very basic homes in the park, mostly made of bits of corrugated iron. We have no idea where their water for drinking, cooking and washing comes from, but they must have some because immaculate uniformed school children came back from Riohacha while we were there. One ranger, Yeiner, elected to be our guide. He was a very friendly chap, and took every opportunity to put his arm round Barb in order to point out a bird. Pete managed not to be jealous, as there was at least a generation age gap. Goats and pigs ambled around the community. We only walked for an hour or so altogether, but it would have been too hot to do much more. We saw about 17 different birds, new ones being a Venezuelan flycatcher, scaled dove and a female red cardinal (we think). It didn't really match the picture in the book, but with a red sticky up crest nothing else in the book remotely matched.
Back at park HQ one ranger entertained us with Wayuu musical instruments made from cane, wood, large seed capsules and other local plant material. they also had a metal instrument which Barb knew from her early childhood 60 years ago in the UK as a Jew's Harp (or Jaw's Harp), owned by her dad. We entertained the rangers in our feeble attempts to produce sounds from these instruments !
Yeiner took us to a beach 'restaurant' for lunch, but while the price dropped from a huge 20,000 pesos to 12,000 pesos for very dubious looking prawns, then dropped again as we were offered slices from rather horrid-looking fish for 7,000, our enthusiasm dwindled. We settled for a beer. yeiner offered to take us to his home for lunch, provided we paid 5,000 pesos so his wife could buy the food. Offer gratefully received. His home was a large solid building that housed 20 people, 4 families. His wife sent children scurrying to buy the ingredients while we were the objects of scrutiny by half a dozen children, till our novelty wore off. Barb gave her useless 20 peso coins to a small boy who skittled them across the floor till he got bored. She had a cuddle of Yeiner's naked 6-month-old daughter, who managed not to disgrace herself. Lunch was chicken, race and patacones, really nice, and a fruit juice drink.We bade the family farewell, with many thanks, and set off to walk back the hot 3km to Camarones. Wayuu women clad in long flowing dresses in bright colours were around.
From Camarones it was a short trip back to Riohacha, where we had to move to another room in the hostel as ours had been prebooked. It was the same price but not nice. The 'bathroom' was a joke, there were 3 beds filling the room and the ceiling fan over the gap between, and the lumpy mattress sloped to one edge. Throughout all this Barb's bull ant bite and other bites still itched mercilessly.
Tea was back at the pizza place, and this time Barb had a slice of Hawaiana rather than a pizza pasty. It was awesome in size and scrumptious. Altogether a pretty good birthday.
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