Playa de Belen

When we were in the Guajira most of the other tourists were foreigners (unlike in Mompox, where SR and I were the only non-Colombians on our river boat outing), but one of the few Colombian tourists we met there was really interested in where we were all traveling during our visits, and ended up (to his own obvious amusement) deciding that on our advice he was going to check out Minca on his way home to Bogota. This guy looked pretty confused at my listing of places we had and were planning to hit, though. It's kind of a strange and eclectic list, I admit. The other day I saw a travel column article about the top 10 things to do in Colombia, and only two of the ten were things on my itinerary. And this next stop kind of fits into that theme...

Playa de Belen is a mountain town in the Norte de Santander district that apparently comes alive during Colombian holidays. But on our Tuesday-Thursday visit, the place was rather...quiet. (Read: we were nervous about finding a place to eat the first night.) It's a tiny town--we walked every street within the first couple hours out and about--and the guidebook says it's a "planned" community...Not sure what that means exactly, but in practice it appears to involve every building in town being the exact same height, style, and color (white). We were the only foreigners around for sure. And SR couldn't shake the feeling that we were trapped in the Twilight Zone. But it was worth the stop for two reasons:

1) For the first time since starting the trip, SR and I were not sweating buckets morning, noon, and night. Cool mountain air: what a relief!!!

2) Colombia's smallest national park abuts the town, and I was suckered in by the descriptions of the cool rock formations in the guidebook.

So here's the photos from the adventure, starting with a shot from one of the buses we took to get to Playa; I've been really excited about seeing mangoes ripen on trees everywhere, and finally had the opportunity to buy some from a roadside stand. I handed over the smallest bill I had, which was the equivalent of about US$0.75, and hoped I'd get 3 or 4 mangoes in exchange. I was a little shocked when I got back this bag full..