On the morning of the second day of our tour to La Guajira, Pedro woke us up at 5am to start the journey to Punta Gallinas. We were taken from Cabo de la Vela to nearby Puerto Bolívar, an industrial area used for shipping. There really isn’t any reason to be there other than for the boats to Punta Gallinas.
Midway through the first day of our trip to the peninsula of La Guajira, we were taken down a very bumpy road through the desert. The path would lead us to the small village of Cabo de la Vela. This village made up of mostly simple huts is famous for kitesurfing and can be quite difficult to get to.
Our tour of La Guajira began when our guide, Pedro, picked us up in our hotel in Santa Marta at 4:45AM. We were driven a few hours away to Riohacha, the gateway to and capital of La Guajira. We had breakfast and changed vehicles to a large pickup truck with our Wayúu driver.
In my one day in Barranquilla, I found almost nothing worthy of a detour to this industrial city. For example, Barranquilla has been called “the Cleveland of Colombia“. That’s an insult to Cleveland.
Outside of Colombia, Barranquilla is perhaps best known as the hometown of superstars Shakira and Sofía Vergara. With names like that coming from what is Colombia’s 4th largest city, one would expect there to be some sort of draw for tourists.
I didn’t know much about bachata music until I met Marisol. When her favorite artist, Romeo Santos, announced a concert in Pereira, she asked me to come with her and her group of friends. In the weeks leading up to the concert, Marisol taught me how to dance bachata. She told me I can’t go to the concert unless I can dance.
My last week of school in Belén de Umbría was actually just three days long. The first day of the week at Nuestra Señora del Rosario started on a Tuesday because of a holiday on Monday.
All of the students from my high school in Taparcal walked nearly 5km to nearby Belén de Umbría to honor a student who was murdered in 2011. 16 year old Andrés Felipe Espinosa and another man, Wilder de Jesús López Valencia, 31, were killed for a cell phone and COP$10,000 pesos when their jeep was attacked by two armed men one Sunday evening.
The schools in Belén de Umbría had one of the biggest weeks of the school year with their annual parade and science fair. Students in 1st through 10th grade participated in the parade while 11th graders worked very hard on the science fair, which was actually a business fair.
I’m now two months into my teaching post in Belén de Umbría and it’s been very interesting so far. I work at Colegio Nuestra Señora del Rosario every day except Thursday. It’s got over 800 students in grades 6 through 11. The school is just one block uphill from the plaza in Belén. It’s got an amazing view of the green mountains from the second floor.