we had to walk down far enough that
the temperature wasn’t too hot, plus
we were the only ones there. Not an-
other soul in sight. Bliss.
We also stopped in a small Colom-
bian town of Murillo just on the edge
of the park. It was a vibrant village,
unspoilt, and with only a single hos-
tel for the infrequent tourists that
passed through, and this is where
we were introduced to Brandy-con-
leche, comprising of steamed milk
with a shot of Brandy in perfect pro-
portions. It was tasty, warming and
much needed after a hard day of
walking to the nearby waterfall, or
maybe I’m over exaggerating?! The
town itself was small but pretty, and
very back-country, with locals going
to the shops on their horses or tying
up their huge, prize pig outside the
little local shop while they went in to
get their provisions. We loved it.
Travelling south, we passed
through the Tatacoa desert, the sec-
ond largest arid zone in Colombia af-
ter the Guajira desert. It didn’t seem
like a typical desert that you see in
the movies as it was filled with shrub-
bery, however it was a great adven-
ture, and our first taste of wild-camp-
ing. The sand was compacted, so
the tyres gripped easily … a pleasant
finding as a novice sand rider. Cac-
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tus’ lined the road side and the land-
scape turned from red to grey as Tata-
coa is said to have two distinct areas.
The wild-camping part wasn’t the
most pleasant due to the heat from
the ground, and unlike many deserts,
the temperature did not drop that
much overnight so sleeping was not
really happening.
We also headed to Tierradentro,
which was further west and home to
many Archaeological sites. We did
plan to go to San Agustin later how-
ever, this place was far less touristy
and set in a beautiful location, with
lots of dirt road to get there. On route
we came across a road block howev-