It’s the final adventure of our five week trip around Colombia, and we’ve saved one of the most spectacular landscapes for last. We’re in the small town of Villavieja, the gateway to the alien scenery of the Tatacoa desert, and due to the remarkable clear and dark night skies, it’s the perfect place to study the celestial heavens.
Having spent the last couple of hours unexpectedly transferring from our planned lodgings to the slightly more amenable environs of the Cosmos Hotel out of town, we barely have time to get changed before a tuk tuk arrives carrying Carlos, our translator for the evening. We’re off to Observatory Astrosur for an open air class in astronomy presented by Professor Guillermo Andres Garcia Aguirre, and while we’ve been pretty decent in our Spanish skills throughout our trip, we definitely need Carlos’ English explanations of the subject matter, especially as Prof Garcia’s masterclass is conducted at lightning speed.
The sun is setting as we chug along the bumpy road to the observatory, bathing the landscapes in a lovely glow. The first section is a large green prairie that’s more reminiscent of the African savannah than a desert and Carlos explains that it should be arid and yellow at this time of year. However climate change means the rains are no longer predictable and the longed-for rain by coffee farmers in the southern parts of Huila has actually been falling here in the drier northern region, a few hundred miles away.
We stop briefly as we reach the fabled ‘red desert’ of Tatacoa to take a few photos of the setting sun, and then carry on until we arrive at the Observatory. Cars and tuk tuks are pulling up in the darkness and there’s over 100 people here for tonight’s talk, all finding a position on the ground to lie down and gaze at the crescent moon and rapidly emerging stars above us. Being so close to the equator we are able to see a vast swathe of astronomical bodies encompassing both the northern and southern hemispheres.
The professor is a commanding presence and points at the various lights in the night sky with a powerful laser pen, talking us through the planets of our solar system which are visible to the naked eye, as well as the huge array of constellations above us. He connects the brightly glowing dots, drawing Orion, Pisces, Taurus, Aries and many more, showing us where Alpha Centuri shines brightly alongside a head-spinning amount of other named stars and systems. We also get a potted history of astronomy through the millennia from ancient navigators to modern day scientific deep space telescopes, with satellites and the space station now part of the mix.
It’s absolutely fascinating and when he’s finished we all queue to look through the telescopes that are set up to view specific celestial objects. First up is the constellation of Plaedies which the Prof calls the kindergarten of the stars, as it’s the newest in the heavens and there are still astral dust clouds lingering as they form. And then we get to gaze at Saturn, its rings clearly visible due to the tilt of the earth and that of Saturn currently enabling us to see them. Soon we’ll be back out of alignment and this sight will be lost for another thirty years.
We chug back to the Cosmos Hotel and say goodbye to Carlos, having dinner at the nearby El Shadday restaurant and an early night as we have a desert excursion first thing in the morning before it gets too hot. Our guide for this is the very sweet and gentle Gregorio, who has just started a course in megatronic engineering at Neiva university and has taught himself English in just five months. His family has lived in this land for generations with his aunt becoming the first female guide in Tatacoa thirty years ago, and his mother following in her footsteps, so despite only just being out of his teens, Gregorio knows the terrain like the back of his hand.
It’s a fact we’re very grateful for as he confirms something I had read, which is that Tatacoa is the indigenous word for rattlesnake. Apparently the desert is full of them so we proceed with caution, Gregorio leading the way as we walk through the Martian landscapes of the red desert.
It transpires we’ve signed up for an extended hike exploring a large section of the desert, whereas most tourists just get taken to see the first few hundred metres, snap some selfies and then leave. So Gregorio is pleased to see that we’ve got plenty of water and are dressed in our full African safari outfits with built in sun protection, plus have slathered factor 50 on our face and hands, liberally sprayed insect repellent on exposed parts and have our big wide-brimmed hats on. He beats us though with factor 60 and a magnificent sombrero that suits him perfectly but would look utterly ridiculous on either of us.
As we walk Gregorio fills us in on various facts including that the desert is known by locals as the Cuzco, which means beautiful, and that the name of the department Huila means orange, and is so named due to the incredible sunsets this desert is famed for. This particular section of the desert - called the red desert - owes its particular hue to the rich deposits of iron in the earth and the whole area is not actually a desert at all but a tropical dry forest, meaning it gets a certain amount of rain each year and also has underground water reserves from various rivers including Rio Magdalena.
Thirteen million years ago this whole landscape was very different, akin to the rich biodiversity of the Amazon and home to a huge variety of now extinct animals whose fossils are found throughout the area, but the formation of the eastern Andes range completely changed the weather systems and dried it out. Now there are occasional trees, plenty of candelabra cactus and dragon fruit, birds such as the tropical mocking bird, hardy goats and of course the dreaded rattlesnakes. Temperatures regularly reach almost 50 degrees, but we’re lucky today as it’s in the low 40’s but we’re still utterly sweltering and in desperate need of shade when we finish our hike.
We take another tuk tuk ride further into the desert to reach the ‘grey desert’ which takes its name from the fact it has more clay and silica than iron in its earth. The landscape here has been carved by long extinct rivers but there is still water underground and when the rains do come, these channels temporarily fill up again and water surges through the paths. Along the rock walls is a tide line of sediment that Gregorio tells us was formed ten million years ago, when ancient rivers flowed.
It’s late morning when we finish exploring the desert so we ask the tuk tuk driver to drop us in town rather than at the hotel so we can have a coffee and explore lunch options. However we’re down to our final few pesos in cash and the town isn’t well equipped for card transactions. In fact, even the ATM has stopped dispensing cash to foreign bank-users over the weekend, reserving its supplies for Colombian nationals.
We chat to a couple who run a local coffee kiosk on the plaza and they agree to accept Euros as payment for a couple of bags of their local coffee, and to give us change in Colombian pesos, so we use our final reserves of cash to get a tuk tuk back to the hotel where we have some Euro notes left. By now our suitcases are groaning with bags of coffee but this particular, and very small-scale, batch of Tatacoa coffee is the finest we’ve tasted so far and we’re more than happy to add it to the mountain of caffeine we’re bringing home.
We spend the afternoon pottering around the little town of Villavieja, having lunch at Sol Si Puedes restaurant on the plaza and exploring the artisan beer emporium La Planta where we try a fragrant and very strong Cannabeer, brewed with cannabis. By mid afternoon the temperature is absolutely roasting so we make good use of the little pool at the Cosmos Hotel and then pack for our return to Bogotá, setting our alarms for 4am to be ready for our transfer to Neiva airport and the flight to the capital.
It’s a gorgeously bright and beautiful day in Bogotá as we come into land and the aerial views as we fly alongside the high Andes peaks and descend to the city are breathtaking. We’re staying in a different part of the city this time, in the Zona Rosa at Hotel Saint Simon. It’s the trendy, upmarket district of the city full of designer boutiques, funky bars and trendy restaurants and we spend our final 24 hours in Bogotá chilling out, eating and people watching.
It’s the perfect chance to reflect on the remarkable time we’ve had in this incredible country, and all the adventures we’ve had in the 37 days since we left the UK. We’ve seen so much and met so many wonderful people and if the opportunity arises to return again we’ll leap at the chance.
Colombia - you have been magnificent!
