Garzon

  Garzon, Colombia
Thursday, December 4, 2008

Having spent a little too long enjoying the last night of legal shisha in a bar, we ran home to make the most of the 2 hours sleep we would have before getting up again to head to Garzon. The countryside and scenery  was spectacular enough to stop Ali from falling asleep at the wheel (though the 3 cups of very strong colombian coffee probably did its bit as well), at least til we arrived and be greeted by another collection of Caro's family. After a short 4 hour siesta we were served dinner with envuelto - maize wrapped in leaf. This would be the first of several new flavours from the area.

Batida and chorizo

We were soon introduced to the local social point - La Patillal, a smallish restaurant/bar just outside the town, infamous for its batidos (milky drink with ice) and obviously chorizos. This overlooks the Suaza river and a smaller town called La Jagua which is famed for its witches, but not the pointy hat ones apparently - real ones... So we got the stakes out for a look!

La Jagua

After having lived the travellers luxury for the past month - house, car, good food etc, we decided it was time to get back to basics by visiting the Luna family finca "La Luna".

Our 5 star suite...

Here we would stay in a 5 star suite - check the photos, and due to previous guerilla activity in the area were quickly trained in high security, being provided with a bow and arrow and of course machetes. Having never actually done archery before, Ali asked for some guidence, and learnt "if you just point it right, they'll probably just run off". Promising. Oh and by the way, your likely to meet the local black snake and don't forget to check all the mattresses for scorpions. Guess the bow and arrows won't help for these.

But we wouldn't need to worry about that til the night falls. First on the fear list was how to control the horses. That was apparently easy "Forward, left, right. You'll pick up the rest as you go along...". And so this is how we spent most of the days. Exploring the land, walking through rivers, finding the avocado trees, and generally concentrating on not falling off.

La Luna

Our only real problem in fact came when Caro's horse that apprarently never runs off without the rider, ran off without the rider, leaving Caro stranded, and Ali a little out of control as his horse chased the other. 

The night came and did not pass uneventfully. We had just given up fighting off the beetles attacking us while playing cards and had finally hit the sack. Caro: "Whats that noise??"
Ali: "Err... dunno, sure its outside though...."
10 mins later. Ali: "Yeh, thats actually not outside at all"
So having been built up on all the stories, Ali went off to get one of the people that help run the farm - thinking it was a rat or something, and brought them back, armed with shotguns and more machetes (Seemed a little over the top - especially given that we already had a bow and arrow!!). So as we unashamadly hid behind the mosquito net, they proceeded to go through the boxes, til eventually one yelled. "I see it!! Sapo!!"
Sapo is a frog. But a big one. So we didn't feel too stupid.....

So after this little episode Ali heads to the bathroom to find a long (at least 3inches) black slimy animal slithering over the floor. Not really wanting to go waking the whole farm again, he did his business with a watchful eye, and we just hoped it would be gone by the morning... Luckily it was, and later we found it was simply a salamander. But still a very scary one. Returned to Garzon a little matured, with a little less sleep, and grateful for normal, bug-free beds.

The very next day we drove through more beautiful scenery to one of the better known parts of touristy Colombia, San Agustín - renowned for its ancient tombs and statues. Caro had been a number of times before and apparently not much is known for sure about the stones -

Michael jackson Statue

 the guides simply make up stories to entertain. But at a cost, so we declined, reckoning we could make up our own fairly well. The only one I really remember is one that resembled Michael Jackson holding his kid out a window. Essentially we're pretty sure we didnt devise any groundbreaking theories on their existence. We still had time in the day to head to Estrecho De Magdalena, the narrowest point on one of the most important rivers in Colombia which you can apparently stand either side of. It's 2m wide, and since neither of us are actualy that good at the splits we made do with pretending. Really beautiful location though, done in the bottom of a valley, rocky cliffs all around you. 

Estrecho

Once we returned to the hotel, we dumped our bags and got a proper tour. The room had optional tv, and a spot for an open fire - at no extra charge. The next stage was the drug tour. They had a marihuana plant right outside our door with a large sign above saying how it was completely forbidden to smoke drugs etc in the rooms. Talk about temptation though! They also have cocaine plants lying around various places if we were feeling more hardcore! Anyways spent the evening drug free, drinking and teaching the owners sons card games, til it started to get chilly, and we asked to get the fire started. at which the youngest said "I'll give it a go". About half an hour later he came running back and said "Well... it is lit, but its a little smoky at the moment..."

Dont do drugs + marajuana!

On which we entered into a room so full of smoke we couldn't even see the tv had been given! At least it would be warm. While we waited for the room to clear a little, we managed to organise a horse tour for the next day around some other archaelogical sites. Early start then..

After various problems tryin to get a very calm horse for the 2nd time rider, and a fairly calm one for Caro, we headed off to the first station. Ali's horse was a little small for him, and each time we hit a puddle his feet got wet. Add to this that it insisted on galloping up the hills, which would knaker it out after a few paces of dragging his weight! The first station was El Tablon a display of four massive stones, it was interesting to see just how far off our stories were to the 'official' ones fo the guide! On the way back we were shown natural magic mushrooms and told that with them the stories become even more extravagent. We were taken on a trip to 3 more sites, one of which is on the edge of a cliff overlookng the river Magdalena, another is next to a mud hut. All really interesting and the horse riding in between made it all well worth it. Much cooler then the park yesterday!

La Shakira

When we got back to the hotel, we packed to leave and were offered a free guided tour of some more sites in return for dropping off one of the sons in a town on our way. So we accepted and he took us on a trip to Salto Mortillos, a huge waterfall, where you stand in a rickety wooden box overhanging the cliff for a good view. Another stones site where we chased lizards, and finally some off roading to try to get to the apparently spectaular Salto Bordones (second highest waterfall in south america). But the car was never going to get there and back in one piece so we were forced to give up and head back to Garzon.

Now back in Garzon, it was time to try the next famous product of El Huila - doble anis - an extra sweet form of aguardient (the drink of choice in Colombia). We went to a bar for a quiet drink and ended meeting all of Caros old friends. And from then neither of us remember much apart from feeling pretty ill. Somehow we had been invited to a birthday party the next day where we were offered more of the - by now - foul tasting drink! Neither of our stomachs could take more - and we went back to beer!

Once we had recovered from this (a few days later) we invited Caros mum to a very famous restaurant "La Floresta" beautiful colonial house with amazing gardens and surrounded by lakes full of fish. Where we ate tounge and mojarra a fish native to the region. All delicious! From here we headed to the farm " Castalia" of another big family in Garzon, friend of Caros, for more food where we ate Cocoa (the fruit that chocolate is made from)and madroños, and admired the nativity scene with cocaine plant growing in the middle of the nativity. Nice contrast of morals...

It finally came time to leave Garzon, but there was one more stop off to drag memories flooding back to Caro - an old resort called Betania, with promises of a massive lake for water skiing, swimming pools, and bars. Turned up to find most of the things dead and gone. Still we had a nice time. Stayed in house just in front of the massive lake with a swimming pool on the terrace. Very nice sunsets, with nature all over the place and of course a little bit of drink in the swimming pool.

La Floresta

Hope you are all good, hasta luego!