The next week was spent on the coast, passing through Tayrona national park, Palomino and right up to Cabo de la Vela on the Goajirra peninsula in the far north east.
Tayrona national park has some lovely classically Caribbean beaches (white sand, palm trees etc) and 2 camps you can stay at in the beach. It's one of Colombias top tourist destinations now, so the camps cater for large numbers of people and as you might expect, lack a degree of charm. The standard hammock area was full so had to plumb for the "premium" hammocks on a beautiful outcrop of rock. Great view but somewhat exposed to the relentless wind. After failing to sleep for a number of hours I found some respite from the wind by sneaking into an empty room on the upper level of our beach shack. Such a relief! Getting up for sunrise still wasn't a problem.
Cabo de la Vela is a remote single street village in the desert, a 2 hour ride away from the nearest town across cactus fields and sand - a cool place if you like that sort of thing. A surprising number of people live there given there is no fresh water and everything (bar fish and lobster) has to be brought in.
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| The luxury beach pad |
Other than day trips to the most northern point of South America there isn't much to do, but as it also happens to be really windy and with a shallow bay it makes a pretty good kitesurfing spot. So hired a kite for a day and a half and took to the water. The strong offshore wind of 30 odd knots took a bit of getting used to, but I had a lot of fun once I'd nailed down my upwind riding technique and could afford to play around a bit.
Also spotted in the distance what is most probably Colombia's only wind farm. A respectable 14 turbines. Using all my technical nous I would say they choose a good spot.
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| Spot the turbines... |
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