After enjoying the ocean breeze of the most northern point of Colombia, we headed about 15 minutes to the rancheria Luzmila – our accommodation in Punta Gallinas for the last night. The surroundings were beautiful and just perfect to spend some relaxing hours. We enjoyed a delicious lunch – fresh fish just caught from the ocean!
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Actually we planned to relax and just enjoy the beautiful countryside in the afternoon but a little experience awaited us. First we visited a community project where 34 Wayúu women get together and work part time on handicrafts – mainly the mochila bags and chinchorros (hammocks). Next to it there is also a school where they teach the Wayúu children. We learned that if they work about 2 hours a day on the mochilla, they will need 4-6 weeks to finish it. A chinchorro will be finished in about 2 weeks but only if they work full time on it. To be honest I was pretty surprised how much work and time they need to invest in these handicrafts. So the next time I will surely respect this while bargaining the price!
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Another project in the community is the rescueing of turtles. Here they are taking care of turtles who got stranded to give them their freedom again afterwards. Furthermore they are protecting the turtles during the incubation period which means that many volunteers walk along the beach at night to put a protection around the eggs that they do not get damaged by anyone. Once the turtles are born, they get the Wayúu kids involved to give freedom to the turtles. That way they learn to respect these animals and not kill or eat them as they used to. We were lucky enough to take part in the event of giving the freedom to a turtle which they had been taking care of the last couple of weeks. So we went to the ocean and watched the little turtle crawling slowly into the sea until it was finally caught by a big wave to be brought back to its family. It actually was a wonderful and very touching experience. The rest of the afternoon we enjoyed relaxing on the beach and swimming in the ocean before we went back to our rancheria where we spend the night in small cabins.
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The next day it was time to say goodbye to la Guajira. In the morning we took a boat ride through Bahia Hondita for about 40 minutes. Once again we enjoyed the beautiful landscapes and observed flamingos. With this boat ride we were saving us a 2 hours drive by car. Our driver had left early today in order to meet us after our boat ride and take us to Riohacha. On our way back we passed again Uribia and Manaure and took a short cut driving along the beach entering Riohacha. Of course, we also needed to refill the tank of the car after this long journey which is a very cheap “treat” in La Guajira as gasoline is brought from Venezuela. Actually gas stations do not exist here because people get tanks over the border from Venezuela and sell it like that very cheap along the streets.
On the local market in Riohacha we bought the last souvenirs and gifts for a very good price before we enjoyed our last lunch of the typical delicious goat meat!
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Get more insights into La Guajira by reading my other blogs (Cabo de la Vela & Punta Gallinas).