Day 139
When I got ready to leave Riohacha at about nine o’clock in the morning it was a little bit cloudy which I was glad of as it was not as hot as it had been the previous morning. I quickly refuelled the bike and then I rode out of the town for a few miles on the main road North before turning on to the road that would eventually take me to the coastal town of Manaure.
This road was being upgraded so every so often there were stretches of new carriageway being laid with the associated gravel road diversions and contraflows, stretches of old pothole filled road masquerading as the surface of the moon, and stretches of newish road with the occassional large pothole in it.
Very quickly I found myself in a landscape filled with small trees, scrub vegitation, and lots of cacti. The main roads through this area are made of tarmac or concrete but all of the smaller roads are just sand so I pulled off the main road and on to a sand road in order to get a decent photograph of the landscape.
The area appears to be very well populated as in amongst the scrub there were lots of shacks in which the local people obviously lived. I didn’t ride in to the scrub on any of the sand roads as they only seemed to lead to where people were living and for me it felt that it would be rude and or intrusive to do so.
The road that I was on eventually got near to the coast and as it did so it was raised above sea level as it ran through large sections of wetlands close to the sea. Again I stopped for a few photos.
As I approached the town of Manaure I saw some salt flats that lay on the outskirts of the town. I saw that there was a coach load of tourists parked up, standing under the shade of a bamboo canopy looking at the pink coloured water in shallow square pools. Obviously the tour guide was explaining to these people where sea salt came from because I can’t imagine what else the tour guide would have to tell them about what they were looking at. I decided against stopping to take a photograph.
However when I got in to the town I did not stop as there was nothing to see or to photograph leaving me to ponder whether or not I should have stopped at the salt flats after all. So, I then just followed the road out of Manaure until it joined the main road North at a very hectic crossroads junction where I had the option to go North, East, or South.
The road North would take me to the industrial port of Bolivar La Guajira, the furthest point North that is accessible by a tarmac road on the entire South American continent. However that was about sixty miles further North and since there is nothing there except the port and further North from there it is just less inhabited desert accessed by only sand roads, and since I destest riding in deep sand then that was out.
The road East was just a local road that eventually rejoined the main road going to the South so there was no point in taking that road.
Therefore I headed South in the direction of my destination for that evening, the city of Santa Marta. I rode on the main road South but it was pretty boring as it was very straight and there was not much to see or do along the way apart from dodging lots of goats that regularly wandered on to the road. The road also ran alongside a railway that led from the port of Bolivar La Guajira to an oil refiniery just outside of a town by the name of Albania.
After about half an hour of riding South I came to another main crossroads junction where I could do West, East, or South. Go West back to Riohacha, no thanks so that was out. Go East to the border with Venezuela which was only about ten miles away but since I did not want to go to Venezuela that was also out. So again I continued South in the direction of the town of Albania. Again the road was pretty boring and again I was trying not to play tag with the goats.
Eventually about at around noon stopped in the town of Cuestecitas, near to the town of Albania, for a coffee and to refuel the bike. I got a coffee at the side of the road opposite a petrol station for 2,000 Pesos and the petrol here was the cheapest that I had seen anywhere in Colombia at 13,000 Pesos for a US Gallon, which is about 70 US Cents a litre. The petrol station even had the old fashioned mechanical petrol pumps which I have not seen in use anywhere for years.
I then set off again but this time West in order to rejoin the main road from Riohacha to Santa Marta. The road from Cuestecitas to the main road was a pleasure to ride on as it was quiet yet quite twisty, however due to the number of trees lining the road there was nothing much to be seen that was worth taking a photo of.
I then joined the main road South from Riohacha to Santa Marta and I have already described this road in a previous post, however at one point on my way to Santa Marta the road gave me a rare and unobstructed view of the hills that lie along this coastal road further South in the direction of Santa Marta.
Hot and tired I arrived at my accomodation in Santa Marta at around three o’clock in the afternoon. The place that I had chosen to stay at was an upmarket hostel which offered a single room with a shared batheroom for 7,500 Pesos per night which is about 17 USD. The hostel was very nice and it even had a small swimming pool but the main selling point for me was that I could park my bike behind a locked gate for the duration of my stay there.
As I intend to spend a few weeks in Santa Marta before heading South to start my journey to Ushuaia I shall make a seperate post about my impressions of this city.