La Guajira - the wild wild west

Got to Uribia which is the indigenous capital of the province La Guajira and of Colombia. It's a nice town where every weekend they have cultural events in the main square. Lucky for us it was friday, and the whole town square was filled with people, music and performances. We all danced on the street, showing the town folks our salsa moves :) Me and Eva went to the bar to get a beer, and before we even got to the stand, there were already 2 beers waiting for us :) These men !!! There is such a huge difference with these indigenous people. Men act like men, and they're crazy, they cater to all women's needs, just like regular macho men. So we drank the beers, talked to some men, midway they asked if we want another beer, we said no, but they ordered it anyways. And I don't drink beer. Midway the second beer there was an attempt to order a 3rd one, but I had enough. I don't like beer, I don't like these men, I don't want to talk to them. One guy almost started a fight, when some other guy went to the bar stand to order something, and by accident stood between us. So we said our friend is waiting, and we gotta go.

It is so hot in there, I was sweating and sweating, even to the point that I didn't wipe my face anymore. There is no point, the next second it will be wet again. Everybody is so lazy, the heat is driving everybody insane. While I was sitting in the hotel lobby, there were like 5 flies sitting on me, and both me and the flies were too lazy to move, so I just let them be :) The next day we wanted to go to the desert, but heard that it costs a lot of money (again, nobody knows anything), we had some, but according to some people not enough at all. It turned out that the only atm in the town is not working, and the closest atm is an hour away in Maicao (where we just arrived from) grrrrrr !!! So Geoff went to Maicao, and when he returned we missed all the rides to the desert and had to stay another day in Uribia. We didn't mind it though because we met up with the driver who drove us to the town, and since they love tourists, and love talking to them, they're always staying in touch for a long long time. We already lose track of who's who, "hi, it's me Lous, remember I helped you find a bus in Iza 2 month ago !!!! :)) Soooooo .... the driver and his friend Wilington came to join us for lunch, meanwhile bought us 5 beers each and trust us, we didn't ask, and said "no" every time, they just don't listen !!! They told us some interesting stories about their culture. For example:
- The wives don't work, they're house wives. The husband is the provider, he works, but gives all the money to his wife, who then decided how to spend it, and how much money she's gonna give to the husband to go out friday night!
- Lets say there is a conflict within families. So somebody kills somebody else. That family has the right to kill anybody (women coming last in the list) in the other family. And the cycle continues and continues. It happened with the family of the Wilington, but somehow they stopped the cycle, and now they're friends and even drinking together! The police is not involved in these traditional violences. One guy waited in some town, and killed another. The police arrested him, but he said that it's ok, I'm the cousin of a guy who the other family killed, so they did a blood analysis to prove that they're a family, and let him go!
- There is this traditional alcoholic drink which is made out of corn. And the way they make it is that all the virgins of the family chew the corn and spit it out, and then within a week it ferments, and the whole family drinks it ! :) and the reason why virgins do it, is because if a girl kissed another guy then it will be transferred in saliva, and it's like a guy kissing another guy if they drink that drink :)
- If there are lets say 2 guys who like a girl. They're gonna fight for her until death. And the reason for it is because the new husband doesn't want to worry that the other guy might do something with his wife for ex, while he's at work.
- The husband can have a wife and multiple lovers, while a girl can't ... (divorce !! ) , but the condition is that the husband has and must satisfy the wife first, and only then go to his lover :)

In the evening they took us to the nearby town which has a salt mine. It was pretty neat because we got all the way on top of a huge mountain of pure salt, which also had an amazing view of the city. They told us though that we quickly will need to get into the car if the police comes because we're invading a private territory :) Then we drove to the beach, listened and danced to the traditional vayonate music.The dropped us off at the hotel, we got really tired, but just as we got a chance to lay down and relax, the phone rings ... "hey we're here in the hotel, we have a party in our house and came to pick you up ! " aaahhhhhh ... Well I guess we can't miss the traditional Wayuu party. Of course it wasn't really a surprise to find out that a traditional party involves blasting the music so loud that you can't hear yourself talk, drinking and more drinking. The neighborhood is very basic, we thought that it was built many many years ago, because it's kinda dirty, and looks like everything is gonna fall down if you touch it the wrong way ... well nope ! it was built just 5 years ago, so it's brand new ! All the kids on the street don't have shoes. Some father gives his 1 year old baby a beer instead of milk. All beer caps are thrown right in front of the main door, which serve as toys for the local kids. While we were there, there was some fight which started nearby. Apparently, a lover of somebody else's husband got drunk, and went to his house to ask for some :) The whole neighborhood got involved. It was pretty funny, cause Wilington was just talking to us about the culture, and here we see it to the fullest. Then me and Geoff got up, and some kids approached us, and I don't like kids, so I turn around to walk away, and there are kids behind me, and on each side, and I look around, and we're surrounded by like 12 kids, which are battling for a turn to ask us some questions. For a second there I started panicking, these kids are everywhere ! :) We were driving in the car on our way back to the hotel, and some guy on the front seat was holding a baby. Suddenly this baby was transferred to Geoff who was sitting in the middle of the back seat, "there, you hold him" ... me and Eva were laughing so hard, while Geoff was looking and thinking what the hell is he gonna do with this baby :)
Next day went to Cabo de la Vela which is a city in the desert. We went on a jeep filled with packages for everybody who lives on the way. There is no road that leads to the desert, so it's a dirt road that changes every time it rains. So a few times we went forward, then back, then in another direction, then back. A few times I have no idea how the jeep didn't flip. 2.5 hours later we're in the middle of nowhere surrounded by sand, cactuses, and houses made out of mud. We went to sleep in the "hotel" of our drivers sister who gave us a discount on the hummocks. I slept pretty well, but Geoff and Eva had a hard time adjusting. It was funny because I didn't really want to sleep on the hummocks and Geoff and Eva did, and it turned out to be the other way around :) 1st night there was a drunk couple who sang until 3 am, and Eva woke up because she wanted to sleep on the sand only to find out that she's surrounded by 6 dogs, tens of crabs and a bunch of bugs ... "what am I doing in here??? take me home !!! " :))) The next day we went on a hike which started on the beach, and I was the only one who brought the shoes, cause Eva and Geoff thought that we could walk 2 hours to a light house only on a beach. An hour later, we're in the middle of the way with no beach, and no shoes :) I went to look for some shoes, and found a store that sold traditional Wayuu shoes which Geoff and Eva bought. In the night in the hotel we needed to shower, but with no electricity and no water it was a very interesting experience. In a complete dark in a closed space with a bucket of water, and some cup thingi to take the water out of the bucket and pour on yourself. I enjoyed it ! :)) At 3:30 am we were woken up to drive back into the city, now accompanied with some goats in the jeep which were taken into the city to be served as breakfast :(
There is another place is the desert called Punta Gaina which is even more remote than Cabo de la Vela. It's almost impossible to get there. Again, nobody knows anything. You ask 10 people and all 10 will give you different answers. There is a bus that goes there; no there is no bus; there are no roads that go there; it's been raining, and it's now inaccessible! There are some tour agencies that arrange 2 day trips at a ridiculous price. One of our "friends" in Uribia gave us a phone number of a guy who lives there and could take us with him. We called him, but he was leaving only the next day. So we gave up on the idea. Eva said that she wants nothing to do with desert anymore, and that she goes to Santa Marta. Me and Geoff waited for a bit, and went to a nearby town of Rioacha. In the hotel I fell asleep right away, and woke up to a dinner reservation for my birthday :)) It was really nice, since I missed nice restaurants that cost more than $3/plate. I got ready, put some make up on (again, not a common practice anymore :) ), and went to the restaurant. It was alright, the setting wasn't that nice, but the food was really good. I ordered fish in a seafood sauce. During the dinner Geoff informed me that we can't leave just yet, being so close to the desert, we can't miss the opportunity, so he called the guy again and arranged a pick up for the next day at 12 pm. Ok, I guess we're going back ... Next day we came back to Uribia, we just love that place ! Waited for 2 more hours until Cobo (the guys name) made some purchases, and got on the truck for our long long journey to nowhere. I sat in the front with his daughter, while Geoff sat on the top of the truck. For 8 long, tough, hot, miserable hours later with no food, almost no water and breaks we were going on the road on which they have monster truck competitions. It's a dirt road, on which you can't go over 30 km/hr. With holes and hills so deep and high that I have no idea how the truck didn't flip (and sometimes they do), or how did it make it up a 45 degree inclined hill. On the way we were passing little communities mostly consisting of 1 or 2 mud houses in the middle of nowhere. The kids got smart and installed what are called peajes. They just put a string across the road, and all the cars have to stop and pay them, either with money or candy. We passed like 20 of them on our way. FINALLY !! we got to the house ! That place is so remote it has nothing ! The closest house is at least 3 km away. Cabo told us that he just wanted to get away from everything and everybody. The whole village of Punta Gaina (translated to "point of the chickens") which is so spread apart it's crazy, doesn't have any electricity, almost no running water, no cell phone signal, no roads, just 3 cars, but a lot a lot of goats ! They put on 2 hammocks for us, which were so comfortable, and incomparable to the ones in Cabo de la Vela. They were hand made by the Wayuu people, and it takes them 3 months to make one. They were so pretty, and huge. You can even sleep on them diagonally. During the night, we left our food on the table, and at 3 in the morning I was woken up by Geoff running after the goat which apparently jumped on the table and ate 5 of our bananas. At 5 am, the goat learned to jump on the table quietly, and this time finished most of our food :( :) This place is surrounded by animals. We had breakfast in the company of 3 donkeys and their babies, a parrot, cat, 2 dogs, some chickens, roosters who were constantly fighting and running around the property. During our stay there, they made us the best home cooked food ever ! It took them 2 hours to get it ready, since they only had one flashlight, and a place for only 1 pot which was burning on firewood. They made us fresh caught fish, and lobsters which were the best ones that I tried in my life. We soon learned to order our food early because we were just sitting there and starving for 2 hours. The next few days, a wind picked up, and our food was filled with half rice, half sand :S
The goats are the local currency of that place. If somebody gets into the fight, and breaks somebody's nose, it will cost him like 25 goats, when a guy wants to get married to a girl, he gives the girls family goats. The mother of the 2 daughters in the house where we stayed at, can't wait for them to get married to have some addition to her family :) I found out that I'm worth 100 goats :)) which is not too bad :)) The guy can have as many women as he wishes, but the girl can't cheat, and if she does, then the family has to give all the goats back. The men of that culture also have sex with donkeys ... but I'm not sure what the reason for that is. And it's very popular in there. At first we thought that somebody just heard of someone doing it, but no ... most of them do ! There is not really anything to do in there, but we went to some beach which is the most northern point of the continent, passing through the extremely poor isolated houses. Kids playing soccer on rocks with no shoes. The next day we wanted to go to sand dunes, but 4 hours later with nothing but cactuses around us and hot sun, we turned back without reaching them, just to get to our house before sunset. We were supposed to leave the next day at 8 am, but Cobo told us that some guy needs to bring him goats for sale in the city, and so we'll leave at midnight, but not to worry, cause he'll take us to the dunes in the car, so we'll have something to do during the day. We went with his daughter, the dunes were amazing, these ocean of pure sand, I finally got the desert feeling I was waiting for. We were supposed to wait for him to pick us up at some house. We got there, and he's still not there, we waited and waited, experiencing the true Wayuu culture or just sitting in the dark and doing nothing. 3.5 hours later he came. But with no cell phones, all of us got pretty worried. He didn't say anything except "get into the car". Not sorry, not a reason for him being late, nothing ! Not surprisingly we didn't leave at midnight either, but next day for sure at 8 am. During the dinner, we got a real sense of who Cobo is... a lunatic ! He's a very interesting guy who's been to the moon. He also visited the gates of heaven, but wasn't allowed to go in ! The dunes are formed by the volcanoes that are below them that burst out sand. Geoff also told him that he's been to the most southern point of the continent of south america, which was followed by a question of how big the hole is at the end of the earth that the ships fall into ! Geoff had a very interesting and careful talk with him, that pretty much the earth is not flat, there is no hole, and that he could see some islands even more to the south which are not inhibited ... ahhh ... so it's not the end of the earth ! The true thing about him is that he has 70 kids !!! We just thought that he stops in the car, and gives some kids rides, apparently these are his kids. The next day we didn't leave till 4 pm ! We also got charged for the extra night, dinner, breakfast, so Geoff had a huge fight with the guy saying that we're not paying, and that if he's gonna charge us that we'll go to the police station in the city. Meanwhile I'm so scared and telling Geoff to stop arguing because this guy is crazy, there is no way of getting back unless he drives us, and fight later when we're in the city. But we did get a pretty big discount at the end, not only we didn't pay for extra stuff, we also got a general discount. Nice ! 8 hours later we're back in Uribia, thank god !! It was funny to see that the central square which was pumping with people and music just a few day ago, was overtaken by a herd of cows just casually going on about their business :)
From that trip we kinda got a sense out a meaning of "ahorrita" which is translated to something like "about now". This ahorrita lasts somewhere between 5 minutes and 35 hours ! :) In the square when the concert was starting, I went to the guard to ask him when it starts, "oh, ahorrita". And learning it the hard way, I told him that we are hungry and want to eat before the concert, and I wonder if we have time ... "yes of course, it's gonna start in around an hour" ! :)) Or when it took us 35 hours to get out of Punta Gaina, it was also ahorrita.
Back to Rioacha. In there we made a day trip to see flamingos. It was really really nice. One of the best things for me that we've done. There was this very shallow lake with a lot of fish and wildlife. A lot of birds were feeding on the fish. And me and Geoff enjoyed a very relaxing private canoe tour around that lake. We got out and walked bare foot on mud to see the flamingos, but we only saw 3 :( The guide said that there are a lot early in the morning, before the fishermen arrive, and also during the dry months when there is not much water, there is just a tiny place for them to feed, so there are hundreds of them concentrated in a little area. On the way back to the land, he put up some home made sail with some stick. It was interesting how these Colombian men will do anything out of anything :)

pix at http://picasaweb.google.com/ed4330/LaGuajira#