Leaving Cali behind with mixed feelings we were looking forward to some new experiences. Our next stop should be a popular and unique attraction for travellers in Colombia who come for the surreal desert landscapes and incredible stargazing.
Desert of Tatacoa
Tatacoa is usually called the Desert of Tatacoa, even though it’s not a real desert and more of a dry tropical forest. Another bus ride took us to Neiva where we caught a collectivo to the small town of Villavieja. It’s known as the Gateway to the Tatacoa Desert. 🏜
Stargazing
When we arrived quite early in the morning, the first thing we did was get some lost sleep back. 😴 It was already quite warm, so we were looking forward to our trip to the desert the next day… ☀️ But for the first night we decided to participate in one of the other key attractions of the desert: stargazing.
We read that the incredible stargazing you can enjoy here is the best in Colombia and some of the best in South America… Our guide and tuk-tuk driver took us to one of the observatories outside Villavieja. The “observatory” was an open-air area on a field with two telescopes.
One of the resident astronomers told us about the stars, the constellations, how to measure, etc. The only problem was, that everything he told was in Spanish. So after a while it got a little exhausting listening to him. 😅 Unfortunately it was also full moon, so you couldn’t see the stars that good. But with the two telescopes we were able to watch the Venus, which was just a bright point, and also the Moon. So all in a whole our stargazing experience was not the best… We will definitely try that again some time soon in the Atacama Desert in Chile. 😉
The red desert
The next day started quite early as we wanted to take a day-trip around the desert. Our guide escorted us by tuk-tuk. Our first stop were the stunning landscapes of the red desert. Everything appeared to be dry and dusty and reminded us of the big canyons in the U.S., like the Grand Canyon.
But there are some plants that survive in this rough terrain: cacti. 🌵 We made our way through the small canyon. The stunning landscape really impressed us. Our guide told us about the evolution of the area and the plants. We even tasted the weird pink chilli pepper like fruit of one of the cacti.
The grey desert
The next stop on our tour looked even more surreal. It was the moon-like terrain of the grey desert. We walked across the flat grey grasslands. As it was already getting pretty hot, we ended the tour at a little swimming pool in the middle of the desert.
At the end of our tour we stopped at a place for lunch. Christian tried the local delicacy, goat. 🐐 It tasted quite good. As always in Colombia, the portion was almost too much. A soup as starter, followed by a huge plate of meat and side dishes… So back at our hostel, we took a shower and immediately fell asleep again.
Colombia once again proved to be a beautiful country full of diversity. Since our trip slowly came to an end, it was time for one last big thing…
