Living in the Desert!

So Cabo de la Vela is in the most northern Caribbean peninsula of Colombia and falls into the La Guajira region where the local indigenous people 'the Wayuu' live. They live a completely simple life but I got the impression that the locals were actually a little bored. The women just weaved bags all day while the kids rode around on bikes and the men drank what smelled and tasted like petrol from morning until night. Perhaps that is a sweeping statement or a massive stereo type, but it definitely seemed that way!

The 'town' (if you can even call it a town with 1 dust road and 3 tiendas!) looked out in 1 direction to the ocean and the other into the vast expanse of the desert which seemed to go on for miles and miles!

Again the Lonely Planet was pretty spot on with it's description of the area listed as.. 'the landscape is brutal and harsh, with blistering sun, dust and diesel fumes, and goats are your only friends.' And this actually sums it up perfectly!

Being in the desert, there was absolutely no running water at all and all that was available were buckets of yellow tinted water, for flushing the toilet an washing with - gross!

Electricity was at a bare minimum and our hostel had it from 6-10pm only - not ideal if you want to get up before sunrise or forgot your head torch!

Also to make the experience even more real and intense... there was only super basic food and the main dish available was plain and dry fried fish and rice (it sounds better than it actually was). Or you could have the local speciality of 'viche', which is goat cooked in its own fat served with its innards - which we did not even try and opted straight for the dry fried fish. It was a good job we were all prepared by now and we were carrying hot sauce and condiments to make the meal more exciting.

xxx