Colombia Part 7 - Riding Motor Bike and Chilling in the Pools of the Tatacoa Desert (Fotos & Videos)

The Tatacoa Desert is the second dryest zone in Colombia after the Guajira desert. It counts with 330 square kilometers and is devided in the grey and red desert. The grey part is located in the area of Los Hoyos and the red part in Cuzco.

Scientists assume, that the Tatacoa desert was once a garden with thousands of flowers and trees, which dryed out within the time and changed into a desert.

Most of the tourists go there not only to enjoy the amazing landscape, but also to find fossils from other times or observe the sky at night with it´s amazing view of the stars.

The desert is part of the state Huila and the easiest way to get there is coming from Neiva, which is 38km away.

After our stay at the Macarena National park, we decided to fly back to Villavicencio and take the bus to Tatacoa desert. It wasn´t really close, so we where on our way all day long.

From Macarena we flew to Villavicencio (this time on a normal plane), took the bus to Bogotá (ca. 3hrs), went with a Minivan from Bogotá to Neiva (6hrs) and took a Taxi from there to a Ranch in the middle of the desert.

We arrived in the middle of the night and went straight to sleep in a cozy room. The heat woke us up the next day (till 45 degrees) and we had some breakfast getting the first real impression of the desert, which looked like a set of a western movie.

Most of the places to stay are Ranches, converted into Hostels with really basic rooms and no internet or electricity. A little restaurant and a kiosk is included and almost everywhere you can choose to sleep in a room, tent or hammock.

You find goats and Cactus all over the desert and most of the people move around with motor bikes.

The first day we rented one of this bikes to explore the desert ourselves and search some of the pools at the grey part of the desert (Los Hoyos). Maxi had a bit of circulation problems because of the heat, so I had to drive :D

That was officialy my first time driving this kind of a bike manually and I loved it!! Soo much fun!

Getting to the first pool Maxi got a lot better freshing up in the cold water! The entrance is really cheap (around 4 USD/pool) and you can stay as long as you want.

As Maxi had gotten his strenght back, we went a bit further to the bigger pool, where we would watch the sunset with an awesome view towards the grey part of the Tatacoa desert!

The landscape is amazing! - It was a very special place to watch the sun coming down.

After that, we went home with the bike and got straight to the observatory.

Here you have the posibility to stay the whole night lying in your hammock and watching the stars. One of the locals offered us to stay with us and show us all the stellar constellations.

The Tatacoa desert is a geographically privileged place due to its location at 3º13 'of North Latitude and 75º10' of West Longitude, next to the Ecuador Terrestre. From there, you can observe the 88 constellations, take tours of the various objects and enjoy phenomenas like meteor showers.

In addition to the geographic and atmospheric conditions, perfect for observing the celestial bodies, the Tatacoa does not have light or auditory pollution.

We spent the night there enjoying the silence, the landscape and the tranquility of the place before we fell asleep.

The next day we woke up very early to get to do the trek through the red desert (Cuzco).

Maxi didn´t feel strong enough, so he just joined for the first part.

It takes about 1,5 hours to do the whole path following little wooden sticks, that mark the way. I did the trek very spontaniously so I behaved very stupid, walking without any sunscreen on, no water and no clue how long it would take :D

Anyways I made it without meeting one person haha. - The landscape is just surreal there!! I felt like walking on another planet.

The cactuses are super big and it´s easy to get lost if you don´t follow the path.

My favorit spot of the red desert was the view point on the end of the trip! The way up is already special.

...But from the top the view is just spectacular!

For me it was the 4th desert I´ve seen in my life after the Sahara in Tunesia, Durango in Mexico and San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. I have to say, that this one was really special and beautiful and I can just recommend all of you to go there once in your life!

As always I hope you liked my post and I am very grateful for every Upvote, Resteem and Comment, because you are supporting my trips with it!!

Cheers,
Liz

Colombia Part 1: Bogota D.C. - A city full of history and culture!

Colombia Part 2: Guatavita Lagoon, The Muisca Civilisation and The Legend of "El Dorado"

Colombia Part 3: The Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá

Colombia Part 4 - Adventure time at the Natural Pools of Guejar River in the Jungle (Photos + Videos)

Colombia Part 5 - Flying to Macarena National Park being a Copilot ✈ (Fotos + Videos)

Colombia Part 6 - The Rainbow River at Macarena National Park (Fotos & Videos)