The Importance of Soaking
Let’s face it:: This weather is not. made for working. This weather is made for soaking!
Soaking in the sea, soaking in rivers, soaking under waterfalls.
Too much heat is not a good thing for us wilting Northeners. I recently read a very interesting, thought-provoking and quite scary article on climate change. (Highly recommended reading - apparently the most read article ever on New York Magazine:
Among other things it cited research on how extremely high temperatures are related to increases in violent behaviour. Therefore since the desert and before I punch someone in the face, I have mostly been soaking.
After a short pit stop in Riohacha to stock up on a few more essentials (bags), I returned to Palomino. For some strange reason, possibly connected with the nearby Sierra Nevada mountain range, Palomino enjoys its own microclimate, which is a blessed five or more degrees below that of nearby steaming hot Santa Marta. So every day in Palomino is the ideal Finninsh summer day, not a boiling hot inferno from hell.
Also in Palomino I was living in paradise. The rooms I frequent (10-27 euros per night so far - usually around 15 euros) are of the budget variety. Clean, decent, even charming, but they seldomn have much character, let alone the trimmings of luxyry. My Palomino paradise, Chez Oliv, was a little walled garden world for about 8 guests.
Amenities included a large garden, hammocks,
outdoor kitchen and dining area and a large variety of impressive birds and lizards in the garden (my favourite was a biiiig lizard of around 1 metre in length, with a long, black and white stripy tail. He fell out of a tree, when a dry branch cracked under his weight. He was a real sight to behold, but when I rushed for my camera he rushed for the neighbouring garden and beat me to it).
To add to Palomina’s charm, there is not just the stormy sea, but a river of clean mountain water to swim in. And - last but not least - it is one of the nicest tubing rivers I could imagine! Tubing, as you will all know (except maybe mum and dad - hi mum, hi dad!) is floating down a river on the inner tube of a tractor tyre. There you are, feet and bum in the pleasantly cool river water, occasionally paddlng with your hands to steer yourself out of the shallowest part of the river (where feet and bum will stick to pebbles and sand), and the river gently floats you along _amazingly_ beautiful jungle and river scenery. The thing about jungles is that they are hot and sticky to treck in, and often there aren’t many places with good views, because there’s foliage in the way of the perfect shot. So being able to glide in comfort (relative comfort, slightly cold feet and bum) along beautiful and breathtaking jungle scenery is a rare and wonderful thing! For obvious reasons I have no photo of the tubing - but below is a photo of the jungle hills in Tayrona national park - just 20 or so kilometres away and identical to the jungle the river runs though.
After I soaked in Palomino, I headed for the hills and another pleasantly cool place, Minca.
Minca is a weird mixture of hippie, hipster and regular mountan village. Beautiful nature all around and lots of rivers with water so clear that you can hardly see it. Seriously!
Nothing like a leisurely stroll on mud roads in the jungle mountainside
Admiring the trees in bloom
And the bamboo woods
Then arriving at a nice, cool waterfall, or two, for a dip!
And as in Palomino, so in Minca: Where there’s a river, there will be locals bathing
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