Joropo. A brief account of our Easter vacation in the Colombian Eastern Plains

[Tucan viajero]

As it often happens, we decided where to go next in a discussion properly accompanied with food and drinks. No one said that trip planning couldn’t be as fun as the trip itself. In the end, we decided our Easter destination would be Colombia, where we would try to visit the Parque Nacional Natural El Tuparro in el Departamento de Vichada.


Along the way, we get interesting Land Cruiser examples to see. Usually, when we leave the larger cities, we find that these vehicles aren’t used for fun, but as tools for hard work.


Despite having the cheapest gasoline in the world, or maybe because of it, fuel is very hard to get as you approach our borders, where price also increases. Here we are refueling our vehicles as a cautionary measure. This proved to be a wise decision, as gasoline in Puerto Paéz was too scarce to meet the demand of a 10 vehicle group.


Every one left Caracas early in the morning and agreed to meet in Puerto Páez, the small town where we would try to cross the mighty Orinoco River to Puerto Carreño in neighboring Colombia.


Still on the Venezuelan side of the border, we were surprised to find this Mine Field sign. Whether mines can be found there or not, we didn’t bother to find out.


We had to move about 80 Kms north, just to be able to camp in a clean place next to a nice river.






We had many difficulties to obtain the paper work needed to get our cars across the border. This meant that we had to spend a couple nights in the Puerto Páez area. Here some members of our group were looking for a place to camp in a location closer to the border, while others had to drive 90 Km. (56 mi) and take a barge a cross the Orinoco River to the city of Puerto Ayacucho, in order to handle the customs paper work there.


Last minute shopping in Puerto Páez.


Finally, after two days of wrestling with bureaucracy we managed to get across the river to Colombia. As there is no regular service for vehicles at this point, we had to find and hire a barge. Fortunately we could find one large enough for our 9 Land Cruisers. We paid Bs. 23.000 for the round trip. As we earn our salaries in Bolívares, we can honestly state that we paid $ 3650 for the barge. If you are an overlander with any other currency in your pockets, you’d get across with just $657, if you exchange your money at black market rates.

 

[Tucan viajero]

Finally, here we are, away from paved roads on the Colombian plains. It’s interesting to note how scarcely populated this area is.


Los llanos, as a whole, are centered on the Orinoco River Basin. It’s a region characterized by savannas and grasslands that are flooded during the rainy season. It brims with wildlife that includes over 100 mammal and 700 bird species. We owe the division between the Venezuelan and Colombian plains to the human habit of establishing capricious divisions between countries, and not to the natural differences between the two.


On our way to cross the Dagua River. The good part is still several meters away.


Always walk the river to determine its depth, check for submerged obstacles and to assess how firm the bottom is, before attempting to cross it. Here our friend Caleto volunteered to show how it’s done.








This 70 series stalled early in the crossing and had to be pulled out of the river. Later we found that the ignition coil wire had a charred end that presumably shorted when it got wet. We had to cut the damaged tip and seal with silicone in order to temporarily solve the problem.




This car, thing, contraption or whatever you want to call it, which we found in the town of Casuarito, was actually very nice and in great condition. It was evident that it was based on a Land Cruiser platform. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find its owner to get more information about it.


The guy on the bike you can see in this photograph, was kind enough to leave his work in Casuarito to guide us to this great place to camp right next to Río Mesetas. Having someone, even the police, stop doing whatever they were doing to kindly guide us somewhere, happened several times in Colombia during this trip.

 

[Tucan viajero]

Our second camping site in Colombia at night.






This is the beautiful place in Río Mesetas, where we spent the night. We took the opportunity for a group photo as the oldest members of our group are celebrating 40 years of travelling together.






Crossing Río Mesetas.








A sad story. This large facilities in the middle of nowhere are part of Instituto Ecológico Tambora. We were really surprised to find them abandoned but in fairly good condition. The furniture and equipment for its classrooms, dining rooms, workshop areas, etc., all seemed to be of good quality, well preserved and complete.

When we arrived we were welcomed by some people who were in charge of taking care of this place. They told us that this used to be an educational institution run by Salesian Priests to help rehabilitate stray kids, known in Colombia as gamines, who frequently are also affected by drug addiction.

Actually, we found two of these large facilities quite close to each other and in identical conditions. We were also puzzled by a group of abandoned houses that we found. These houses were arranged in a circle like wagons attacked by Sioux in an old cowboy movie.

We were told by the caretakers that the priests decided to abandon this evidently very expensive and well equipped facilities because guerrilla members started recruiting gamines here for their illegal and despicable activities. They also told us that the houses in the circle that we had discovered earlier, were where the gamines could receive visits from their parents or other relatives. Therefore, they were also part of this educational and rehabilitation compound. You can see them in the next picture stolen from Google Earth.

I regret not knowing the right swear words in English to express exactly how I feel about this.

 

[Tucan viajero]

After discovering Tambora, we decided that we needed to start thinking about our return. Shortly after, we were caught in the second strongest rain storm I can remember. Only once, while driving on Brazil’s BR-174 on our way to Cáceres, back in 2001, have I seen a worse one.

Visibility, as can be seen in this picture taken with the wipers running at maximum speed, was very poor to say the least. It didn’t take long for the huge amount of water falling from the sky to flood the savanna. Water got so deep that our Land Cruisers started to find some resistance to move. So much in fact, that drivers of the five 7# series in our group told us later that they had to go down to second gear at times just to keep moving.


The storm left us these beautiful waterlogged plains.




No trip is complete until winches are exercised.


At this point, the floods caused by the storm covered the small bridge that allowed crossing this creek. After discussing the situation, we decided to jump into the water to check that the bridge logs were still in place. After some small repairs, we sent the first car in, relying only on directions from the spotters standing on the submerged and thus invisible bridge.


In this photo you can’t see the bridge as it’s crossed by this red FZJ80. But there is a ravine here that makes its use indispensable to get to the other side.




One last crossing of the Dagua River on our way home.


Boarding our barge. It will soon take us back across the Orinoco.


Already in Venezuela, we found this nice and quiet place to camp for the last night on this trip. All in all we drove 1850 kilometers, or 1150 mi, on this trip to Colombia.

There is a catch phrase in a campaign to draw tourism to Colombia that states “Colombia… el riesgo es que te quieras quedar” which could be translated as Colombia… the risk is wanting to stay.

We couldn’t agree more, having been so overwhelmed by the warmth and kindness of everyone we met or had to deal with while we were there.

 

[roverrocks]

Very cool adventure. Great pictures especially of fording the rivers. Thanks.