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We left Salento after our free breakfast and got the 8am bus out of town to the Armenia bus station. Katy was uncharacteristically decisive and chose to take an earlier but non direct bus towards Neiva. A few hours later this bus unceremoniously dropped us in the dust out of the town we were meant to change at but the bus driver paid for a taxi to take us into town (we're not sure if this was part of the service or he was just kind). Anyway we made it to Neiva and then sat in the back of a pickup truck to get to the small town of Villavieja on the edge of the Tatacoa Desert. The pickup truck driver asked if we would like to look at his family's guesthouse which we took and then he asked if we would like to talk to his friend about a guided tour of the desert which after some haggling, signed up to, so within 15 minutes of arriving we had everything sorted.
We woke up early the next morning to beat the heat and were picked up by our guide at 7am in a little motortaxi (basically a motor bike pulling a two wheeled cart with roof). Before we left, the lady of the guest house brought us a free coffee and when we got back she brought us free coke (the cola variety), she even did our washing for us for free. The desert was beautiful with organic shapes making up the valleys, which were also layered in different shades of red. We stopped in four different locations and had two short walks through the alien landscape - one finished next to a swimming pool which is apparently popular with Colombian tourists at the weekend.
We were back in town by lunch time and didn't do much for the rest of the day as it was far too hot, until our guide picked us up again at 6:30pm to take us back into the desert to visit the observatory for some star gazing. We were so lucky that the clouds had cleared in the afternoon and we got to see countless stars and the Milky Way. Through the telescopes we got to see various bright stars and nebulas as well as Saturn and its rings. My camera was rubbish at it but the Professor managed to take a picture of Saturn with it although the image came out blurry. The Professor was very happy to have some English visitors and he kept taking about the BBC's 'The Sky at Night' programme with Sir Patrick Moore. This was pretty much the only thing I could understand, apart from the very similar-sounding names of the zodiac signs, in his 30 minute talk while pointing at the sky with an incredibly powerful laser pen. By the end, all the Colombians were bored but I told him that I had loved it - I had. Our evening meal consisted of crisps and cake as this was all we could buy when we returned to town at 9pm.
Simon
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Diane Malone Hi, Keep your wonderful stories and photos coming. You last one had me drooling over your food descriptions. They all sound so yummy. Love your taxi trip that is what I call adventure traveling and you two get it. Diane M.