A day in the Guachaca Region

Am sitting on the balcony of our hostel up amongst the trees. We have had a nice morning. The group disappeared off on one of the "optional" activities Intrepid offers - e.g. to do a visit to a waterfall and then some snorkelling.

My Friend and I opted instead to hop on a local bus and travelled along the coast about 40 kms to a town called Palomino. Palomino is a dirty, dusty place with stalls and shops straddling the main road. We went for a walk along the road to find the place that rents bikes and then returned after walking a couple of kms, only to find it was right opposite the bus stop (something "lost in translation"!).

It is not easy being a tourist here. English is hardly spoken in many places outside the main towns (not that I would expect it to be). In fact, my Spanish is better than many people's English and I would have described my Spanish as very rudimentary.

The bikes were crap - and we rode with the seats down low as if we were short like the Colombians (because we couldn't adjust the seat height) - but we hadn't expected anything much different (well, not much)! And we "toured" or tootled around "town" on these for a couple of hours (4000 pesos an hour = $US2). It was fun.

Town consisted of the main road and a criss-cross of dirt "roads" between it and the beach (la playa).

We saw life up close. Because this is the gateway to the popular Tayrona National Park, there are plenty of gringos here (white tourists like us - but also not like us as they were mostly young and hippy: and that's "hippy", not "happy", although they probably are! Tatts, piercings, dreadlocks: this is real backpacker country!)

The locals live as locals do: going about their daily lives - shopping, hanging out the washing, sweeping, working, going to school, etc.

Colombia is very relaxed in general. The people are friendly and seem unafraid of us gringos (although an indigenous fellow on the bus gave My Friend more than one good look over; mind you, we gave him the once-over also: they are very short, very dark-skinned and in these parts wear a cream-coloured poncho - with cream pants for the men - and they all seem to be wearing gumboots; most appear to be agricultural labourers, some carrying large machetes in sheaths hanging off their hip).

We got chased by dogs; we exchanged smiles with kids and adults alike, the occasional "hola" as well; we passed lots of hostels and a smattering of "hotels"; and enjoyed a beer on the beach at midday. The beach had signs saying "peligroso" meaning dangerous (because of the strong currents) but some gringos were swimming anyway.

We'd said we'd be back at our posada about 2:00 p.m. for lunch, so we decided to try and catch a bus about 1:00 p.m. to allow plenty of time and were pleased that we did because, even though the trip there had taken about 40 minutes, it took us an hour on our return due to its being an older, slower bus with more stops to pick up passengers plus a delay at some road works.

The buses seem to often leave the door open for fresh air and in this case of the return trip, the guy that collects the fares "rode shotgun" on the stairs half hanging out to stay cool. (I think he thought he was cool too!). But the job of the fare collector seems to be to also get off at every stop and help people on and off: women with children and in one case a woman with a very large and heavy sack of what could have been potatoes.

We passed over several wide rivers which seemed not to have a lot of water; also passed by villages with stalls lining the road - the fruits and vegetable one were very colourful as were the one selling the local woven bags which are sometimes a variety of brown and cream patterns and sometimes the colours of the rainbow.

There were also armed policia in many places - a reminder of the presence of guerrilla groups. There are lots of plantations alongside the roads interspersed with large swathes of dense jungle. Anything could be grown in there - perhaps cocaine; who knows?

[POSTSCRIPT: I asked our guide Ana about this over dinner and she seemed reluctant at first to "concede" (?) that the paramilitary we saw might be there because of guerrillas. Initially she said it was to do with the contraband that comes across from Venezuela - we are close to the border here - but then she warmed to the theme and said that 15 years ago this indeed was a Red Zone and that it had been very, very dangerous here: an awful time for local people, who dared not go out after dark. She also said there are still areas of Colombia (mainly the south east) where there is no government presence and these areas are run by the guerrillas. There is this constant reminder here of the awfulness of the cocaine trade. It is painful for the Colombians too: they don't want their country always thought about in the context of the drug wars, but the reality is, there is no escaping it; their history is intertwined with it].

By the time we got off at our stop Los Cocos, there were no more seats and some passengers were standing. The roads up north here have been pretty good, but there are many places where there are speed humps so it makes for a bumpy ride.

Despite the door being open, it was still quite warm and I'm glad we were up the front of the bus. We got back at 2:00 p.m. and lunch was waiting - fish in broth of tomatoes and onions with rice and avocado. Power is off (it came on later) and after telling them this morning that the shower had barely a trickle of water, this had been rectified (no hot water though).

The place here is lovely - very attractive set amongst the trees with views and only a short walk to the beach, but thing are definitely "rustic". The food is great: home-cooked.

Today really brought home to me how much on the cusp Colombia is. I feel that the tourism thing is really just beginning. I am not confident that the country will manage things in the way it should; afterall, look at its political history and the experience with the big American oil companies. Tourism is potentially an opportunity for people here but, like everything else that has occurred here in the past, it is likely that the already well-off are the most likely to benefit, including overseas multinationals like hotel chains. As tourism takes off, there will be much-needed improvements but it will probably be at a cost. The poor old Colombian has always come off second-best - some would argue since the Spanish came ashore - and I don't see this changing.