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Published: October 7th 2011
The past few days have been a whirlwind of events.
Our first stop: Purace Volcano. We thought it would be a quick day hike to the crater of a volcano. We forgot one minor detail though - it is in the Andes Mountains! And the top is at 4700m! Which is about 1000m less than Kilimanjaro. We camped at 3300m in a beautiful area, with a view of the volcano. A fellow ¨gringo¨ (what the locals here call foreigners), Benjamin, joined us. There are no shops nearby, so we had come well prepared food wise. After asking Benjamin whether he thought there were any wild animals about, he commented that there could prehaps be a dog or two but no wild animals to worry about.
That night Marco got up to go to the bathroom, aka long-drop, and found a dog eating the scraps of the rubbish bag, only to discover that the food bag that was left on the counter- with our breakfast and lunch and snacks for the next day's hike - had disappeared. We figured that this surely had to be the work of a human. (Marco dragged the remainder of our food stuffs that were
left in one rucksack on the counter into the tent). So, bummed at the fact that we were out of food for the hike, we went to sleep.
The next morning we arose to climb the volcano. With a modest plate of the remaining oats for breakfast and the sole remnant of our planned hike snacks - a brownie each for the summit - we set off toward the cloud-covered volcano.
It was a chilly climb toward the crater with the clouds clearing occasionally to show some blue skies. As we ascended the vegetation turned from small bush to tundra closer to the top it was purely charcoal grey rock and the wind driven rain turned to small frozen drops with even a brief spell of snow.
After about 3:30 hrs climb the summit was reached in the driving shower of fine hail. Due to the cloud visibility was limited so my hopes of taking some nice pics of the crater and the surrounding mountain range were dashed. The brownie however ended up being a very rewarding treat and afforded a spurt of energy for the descent.
On the way back we took a slight detour
Purace Volcano
At the summit!on the dirt road (the ones the wardens told us not to take) and we ended up walking through a sulphur mine at the base of the volcano after passing a huge sulphur vent - it was pretty freaky to try and look down this bottomless pit with the plumes billowing out. At the mine we saw a couple of guys shovelling the raw suplhur into wheelbarrows and emptying those onto the back of a truck. So our 3 hr descent took us about 6 hrs in the end - the reason the wardens told us not to take the dirt road back...
After the hike Marco also decided to investigate the claim by the local´s that the food was taken by ¨the dog¨. After a search around our campsite the plastic packet with the remainder of our french loaf and snack packets (it ate 36 Oreo cookies!!) was found in a narrow path in the thicket - indeed the work of the resident thief, the dog we later thought to have identified lurking around the canteen a the base camp.
So after our eventful stay at the base of Purace we made our way on to the
Purace Volcano
Huge sulphur vent Tatacoa desert. We left the morning after the hike and after a brief failed attempt at spotting condors at the special feeding point, we caught a passing truck to the thermal springs along the dirt road. Here we parted ways with Benjamin. We caught a bus down the winding dirt roads to El Plato and from there a minibus taxi to Nieva.
Arriving in Nieva on Sunday evening it turned out that we had missed the last bus that headed toward Villaveija. So we decided to get a taxi instead and after explaining for 5 min that we wanted to go to Villaveija and the Tatacoa desert, the taxi driver and two other drivers finally said ¨oh, Billabeicha¨. Villaveija to those non spanish speakers is actually pronounced Billabeicha by the way, the ¨ch¨ pronounced as when you clear your throught.
So we headed off into the night, and after the taxi driver asking for some more directions in Billabeicha for the Tatacoa desert found ourselves down a windy road being dropped off at a building in what seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. The only signs of life were what we figured to be sheep or
Purace Volcano
Mining sulphur - note the lack of safety equipment! goats bleating in the distance. This was pretty much an ¨off the gringo¨ trail one for us, it was a bit of a stretch, no lights in any of the scattered houses around or any sign of human habitation in the run down building.
With a few sips of water left in one of our bottles we pitched our tent and locked ourselves in to keep out the unknown :o) Early the next morning we got up to a desert landscape on our doorstep. Turned out the deserted building on the hill was part of the observatory and after enquiring there about where we could get some water, Phil came back saying ¨the lady said oh yes, she saw us last night...¨
We spent the morning walking around the landscape and met a Spanish university professor who was came to attend a seminar on City Marketing. He was busy taking a tour in the area to familiarise himself with what the area has to offer. Having visited South Africa, specifically the Kruger, we engaged in friendly conversation.
After the morning in the desert we headed back on foot to ¨Billabeicha¨ and after treating ourselves with an ice
Purace Volcano
Our campsite - note the volcano in the background a few hours after summitting - nice and sunny! cream got an airconditioned lift back to Nieva´s bus terminal by the same Spaniard we had met in the desert.
Our journey then continued on to San Agustin. After another winding bus ride and a taxi we found our hostel and got a massive room with ensuite to ourselves. It seemed like utter luxury after our very brief desert stint! Here we visited an Unesco World Heritage site - the stone statues in the archeological park just outside the town. These statues all seem to relate to an ancient civilisation´s burial sites (1 - 900AD), marking the front of the tomb entrance. There were a number of sites where these tombs were arranged. Not much is known about this civilisation.
So, after two nights in San Agustin, we were back on the road, again over the Andes to Popayan on what will be remembered as the bumpiest ride ever. It was also one of the shortest with the driver shaving off a few hours off the scheduled travel time. So all rattled out we arrived ¨safely¨ in Popayan, having completed our southern loop in Colombia.
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African Amy
non-member comment
Phil, you\'re wasting away! Drink more malts! Hope your tummy\'s hundreds now? x PS is that a coffee bean table?