On New Year’s Eve, after exploring a few lesser-known towns and sights, Mark, Maya, and I arrived at campground Guiamaro to spend the New Year period with our friends Sheri and Jeff from Canada. But first, we had to navigate the narrow streets of historic Barichara, another one of Colombia’s 17 pueblos partrimonios, which stand out for their cultural heritage.
Driving into Barichara
While small for the US, Thirsty Bella is gigantic for Colombia’s town centers!
The area around Barichara, in the department of Santander, offers different places to camp in a peaceful environment, but we picked this official camping for its location – away from any settlement and along hiking trails to the center of town and another village called Guane – and its facilities; hot outdoor showers, a communal kitchen, and a washing machine. Of course, our ulterior motive was to escape any NYE fireworks for our stressed-out dog.
(As always, hover over or click on photos in galleries to read their captions.)
Our friends decided to head into town for the festivities on the last day of 2022, so Mark and I had a mellow dinner and evening at home. Crowded places are not our thing and we didn’t want to leave Maya alone on a potentially explosive night. We planned to make a campfire later and were delighted our friends returned early to join us. What followed were chats and drinks with people from all over the world. And, yes, we managed to stay awake until 12am!
We became friends with Carolina and Andrés, who live in Bogota, speak English, and were on a multiple-week camping trip with their two children. At midnight, we witnessed their tradition of burning Old Viejo, a doll representing the old year, stuffed with messages of negative thoughts and notes of gratitude for 2022.
The next days were a mix of activities, chores, and social time. One late afternoon (to avoid exertion in the sun causing me headaches), our trio hiked up to Barichara with Sheri and Jeff and took a tuk tuk back.
We quickly explored the streets lined with white-washed buildings and the giant church as the sun set already, were surprised by the crowds (the New Year’s period is the busiest time in this country), and went out for a seafood dinner.
Another day, the five of us followed a historic cobblestone trail to the small town of Guane to check it out and have an affordable gourmet lunch at a restaurant owned by Belgians. Mark decided to hike back and the rest of us, after patiently waiting forever, managed to squeeze ourselves in a bus and then two tuk tuks for the return trip. Mark arrived home at the same time as me!
Throughout our short week there, I did laundry three days in a row (air drying takes a while) and we tried to protect our roof from the rains that decided to ignore the fact that dry season had started in Colombia.
The hardest thing was saying goodbye to our friends, whom we had met in Cartagena and spent a lot of quality time with. They were on a tighter schedule, having only three months to get to Peru, where they’d leave their truck camper for eight months, to rejoin it – and hopefully us – in November. If we keep traveling slow enough, we might meet up again in Peru, or soon after.
At $8 a night for camping, expenses add up fast for Mark and me, so we looked for a cheaper alternative. We made a two-night stop at La Pacha campground, which charges the same amount. Since we didn’t need any facilities and parked outside of the compound, I managed to get a little bit off the price. We had come to eat the owner’s Indian curry dinner, which was tasty and rare in Colombia. But since nothing else stood out in this area, we moved on to our third option.
We really enjoyed the mountains around Barichara, so decided to crash on Vivi’s quiet property in Villanueva, for $6 a night. All these camping places can be found in our trusty, free app (and website) iOverlander, to which we add our own experiences and discoveries. We kept struggling with leaks and the tarp and – to our surprise and annoyance – realized that our plastic sheet was not waterproof. That’s what happens when you use it as a ground cover as well, doing projects…
Mark, Maya, and I enjoyed the peace here – the fireworks were slowing down and could only be heard in the distance from the places we stayed at – and walked around the hills and into blah Villanueva. Then, it was time to move on towards a natural phenomenon in Colombia, Las Gachas.
There are two ways and trails to arrive at Las Gachas, sink holes within a river that are deep enough to soak yourself, jump in, or just cool off your feet. Some of these pools appear bottomless and are connected underneath via caves and channels. The water is refreshing, especially after a decent hike. Most visitors only stroll up- and downriver, in their socks for traction. It works!
After some trial and error (our first camping spot was close to homes shooting off fireworks all night), we managed to camp alongside the pretty and picturesque path to the river. From our spot, it was also possible to walk to the cute town of Guadalupe, which we could see from the top of our hill, or buy a beer or ice cream at the tienda nearby.
We needed some products to fix our roof issue, for which I ascended into town. There, I also shot some photos of the architecture and managed to find a guy on a motorcycle to bring me back for a fee.
We also hiked down to Las Gachas – and back up – twice, along the gorgeous trail, again meeting friendly and curious Colombians to chat with. We didn’t see any gringos on those two occasions.
The only way to know how deep the holes in the river are, is by sliding – or jumping – in!
After two nights in this fascinating area, we left by ways of Guadelupe, so Mark could experience the town as well. We didn’t want to overstay our welcome with the neighbors near the walking path and we looked forward to a new adventure: cutting through the mountains on dirt roads to find spectacular waterfalls and “undiscovered” villages. Stay tuned!
The mountains around Barichara and Guane
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March 23, 2023 at 15:13
Our dog doesn’t do well with fireworks either, so I can feel your pain with all this. You two are always quite resourceful and find a way to work out any problems you encounter. How many days do people shoot off fireworks?
Thanks for sharing your adventures with us, Liesbet.
March 23, 2023 at 17:27
Hi Pete,
Thanks for the compliment about our resourcefulness. I feel it is an important skill to have when living this way of life. We had to be like this on our sailboat, when situations could mean life or death if something broke.
Now, in the camper, it’s a matter of continuing our lifestyle without having to hire anyone or deal with the hassles of involving a third party. We have a lot of spare parts and tools with us as well and like to be self-sufficient. For financial reasons as well as limiting necessary aggregation and patience. 🙂
In Colombia, the locals shoot off fireworks from the middle of December until the middle of January, with some of the explosions starting the end of November in Cartagena already, before we had our truck back. It’s also a tradition during wedding and birthday parties, so luck of the draw about where we park…
March 23, 2023 at 15:44
Hi Liesbet! Your adventures have taken a twist to the more interesting and beautiful now that you are on the road. Some of your earlier FB posts would have had me booking passage on the first plane home! I can now see you are starting to enjoy yourselves and find your South American rhythm. So glad. Looking forward to seeing where your adventures take you. ~Kathy
March 23, 2023 at 17:30
Hi Kathy,
What a wonderful – and accurate – observation!
Yes, we have been enjoying Colombia a lot in general (apart from the bad roads and excessive rain) and I’m so happy we persevered, from the start until now. This lifestyle is challenging – we all know that – but we do have to aim for positive experiences, so the good outweighs the bad. 🙂
And, once you leave the comfortable and straightforward driving and camping in the US and Canada, no doubt more issues will arise.
March 23, 2023 at 16:35
Liesbet, I was thinking that you would make a little splash up to your ankles in that hole (much like a rain puddle) and then surprise, you disappeared! What? That was brave.
What an amazing place to be at the beginning of a new year, sharing with old friends and meeting new friends, taking beautiful hikes, and having delicioius meals (even Belgiun, how cool was that). Now, this looks exactly like what I was expecting from you guys. Enjoy!
March 23, 2023 at 17:33
Haha Suzanne! Yeah, if you expected a tiny jump into that “puddle,” the result must have been quite surprising. I’d seen other people jump in, who had arrived with a guide. Of course, after seeing this, I had to try it, despite us being ready to hike back to the camper. I had to dry off all over again. 🙂
Like this post, my future ones will have a more positive tone as we keep exploring this beautiful country and get out of our comfort zones more. 🙂
March 23, 2023 at 16:50
I’m guessing you wish you could cinch in Thirsty Bella’s belt when you travel narrow streets. You look happy with friends! 😀
March 23, 2023 at 17:38
Hi Marian,
It has been surprising how Thirsty Bella has a hard time driving through these tiny towns. Mostly, it’s due to cars being parked where they shouldn’t be, or trucks coming from the opposite direction, or vehicles parking just across from each other, while there is plenty of room to create a zigzag patter. 🙂 We have to be prepared for everything and often have to wait, or encourage drivers to move.
Believe it or not, but we have not met a lot of other travelers despite overlanding being quite popular in South America. That’s due to our remote destinations, aversion to paying for camping, and other campers staying to themselves. Having friends to meet up with once in a while was lovely as long as it lasted.
We do hope to visit Carolina and her family in Bogota soon and there’s another set of friends that will arrive in Colombia with their motorcycles in a week or so as well! We are looking forward to reunions and more fun with company, next month!
March 23, 2023 at 17:49
Interesting post, Liesbet! It seems like you are moving from place to place fairly quickly. Do you have a goal, or are you just following your bliss? Since you are planning to be in South America for so long, are you planning to stay longer in certain places?
March 23, 2023 at 18:11
Hi Janis,
I’m trying to crank some blog posts out that cover a few places and a couple of weeks at a time, or I’ll never catch up! 🙂
Compared to anyone else overlanding in Colombia, we are going really slow and traversing most of the country to not leave many stones unturned. For us to stay in one place for six days (the first campground in Barichara) is quite rare, but it was nice. Most people came and went after a night or two, which is what we did a lot as well later on. Until recently.
But to answer your question: we are taking our time. We are able to stay in Colombia for a total of six months (2×3 months) after getting an extension. We are now well over four months here and hope to stay the entire six months, which end the first week of May.
As for the other countries on this continent, it will depend on how much there is to see and experience and how long tourists can stay. We are not in a hurry, aiming to stay the allowed limit in each country, and hope to return to Colombia one day, as we enjoy it so much and it fits our budget. 🙂
March 23, 2023 at 17:58
Amazing peak at another world. I enjoyed the drive through the streets, not something I’d trust myself to do! I loved how everyone helped everyone else.
Can I buy you some grease or WD40?
March 23, 2023 at 18:14
Haha, Jacqui. I think we have enough grease and lubricants at the moment. The one thing we haven’t been able to find in Colombia is aceton! I think they don’t allow this product to be sold. So, cleaning off old grease, silicone, and glue has been challenging.
I’m glad you liked the video of our drive through town. When I reviewed it, I was baffled at how close those overhangs of the roofs came to our camper! And, yes, we have ran into things. Even today, I backed Mark up on a tiny parking lot and we hit the corrugated roof overhang of the restaurant! I forgot to look up and focused on the barrier on the ground. Ooops. That’s why we bought a cheap camper!
March 23, 2023 at 17:58
What a fascinating place Las Gachas is – the round sinkholes are very unusual! I wonder how they were formed – do you know if it’s volcanic rock?
I’m sorry to hear your roof is still leaking. What an annoyance! I hope you’re able to get it fixed up soon.
March 23, 2023 at 18:17
Hi Diane,
I love your question, but I don’t know if the rock in Las Gachas is volcanic. There certainly are no volcanos surrounding it right now.
I’m trying to catch up on blog posts. It’s going slowly. This one was about events from over three months ago and I’m happy to report that the roof has been fixed since then. Luckily, as the downpours we are experiencing daily now are nothing compared to the pussy rains of January. 🙂
March 23, 2023 at 18:09
Wow, those sink holes are amazing! I’m not sure I’d be brave enough to jump in though.
March 23, 2023 at 18:19
It’s possible to just stick your toes in, Anabel. Or have someone else “test the waters” (like Mark did). I enjoyed the challenge and unknown when trying many pools out to see what happened. The worst part was not being able to push myself back up on the slippery sides…
March 23, 2023 at 19:58
Liesbet, What fun adventures to start the year. I enjoy following along and seeing Colombia through your lens. Safe travels!
March 25, 2023 at 12:18
Hi Natalie,
I’m glad you enjoy following along. We’ve been exploring quite a bit of Colombia so far and are glad to do it with our own means and home. 🙂
March 24, 2023 at 07:28
The sink holes are rather wild.
You stayed in some beautiful spots.
March 25, 2023 at 12:19
Hi Alex,
Thanks for coming along virtually on our Colombia travels. The sink holes were quite an interesting phenomenon! 🙂
March 24, 2023 at 10:39
Thanks for sharing. What an interesting custom to burn Old Viejo with notes, both negative and positive. How cold was it jumping into Las Gachas? Keep these wonderafulupdates coming…. Jim
March 25, 2023 at 12:23
Hi Jim,
Every Colombian family has their own Old Viejo (Old Year) on the last day of the year, which they burn in order to “move on” and into the new year. Sometimes, these dolls are life size! As you can imagine, those ones produce quite the amount of flames. I think this particular Old Viejo was a travel-size one. 🙂
Jumping into the sinkholes of Las Gachas was refreshing as it was upper seventies/lower eighties outside, but not as cold as one might think. During a twenty-minute conversation with Colombian visitors, I forgot I was sitting in the little pools, until I came back out and realized I was getting a tad chilly.
March 24, 2023 at 12:34
Hi, Liesbet, Mark and Maya – I am greatly enjoying traveling vicariously with you, seeing new sights, meeting new people, and drooling over delicious looking food. But the ride through the narrow Barichara streets almost gave me a heart-attack. Good thing that I was not actually in the vehicle! 😀
March 25, 2023 at 12:28
Haha, Donna. As I was watching this video again, before posting it here, I realized that those overhanging roofs to the right came quite close! We’ve been in “hotter” situations since then and have probably hit at least three roofs!
Driving through these narrow towns is very stressful, especially for Mark. I always hop out and help where needed. Often, the issues arise when cars are parked in a haphazard way. Just this morning, I had to ask a truck driver to move his big vehicle, so we could leave a parking lot and turn onto the road and two days ago, I helped Mark back up and didn’t notice the corrugated roof overhang as I was focused on the obstacles at ground level. Luckily, no damage was done.
Driving in Colombia is not for the faint of heart!
March 24, 2023 at 19:32
Looks like you followed in our footsteps. We loved our travel through Santander and Boyaca!
March 25, 2023 at 12:29
Hi Susan,
We are trying to visit as many (reachable) places as possible. Some are well known within Colombia, others not so much. We did enjoy Boyaca a lot! More about that in the next two posts. 🙂
March 26, 2023 at 07:57
I loved the video of the drive into town. I was surprised by how none of the motorcyclist were wearing helmets, though. And boy, the street are narrow, Liesbet. I’m so pleased that some of the ride was down oneway streets.
I also love reading about the tradition of burning Old Viejo, stuffed with messages of negative thoughts and notes of gratitude for the new year. What a great tradition.
Those sink holes within the river are amazing. I bet they were refreshing to jump into. Well done for doing so.
BTW, I know we once spoke about a TV show called ‘Race Around The World.’ It’s back on in the UK where the contestants are travelling from Vancouver to Saint John in Canada. I watched the first episode and couldn’t help but think that Mark and you would make great contestants for such a show.
March 28, 2023 at 09:53
Hi Hugh,
Driving in Colombia is crazy madness! And not just in towns. For being some of the friendliest people in the world, Colombians are the worst – and most impatient – drivers…
I’m glad you liked the video. When I re-watched it, I was actually surprised at how close those overhangs from the buildings came to our camper. Still, the last couple of hours of our long, 10-hour day on the road yesterday, were more stressful, as it was dark and raining and we could barely see anything. We crept to our camping spot for the night. In the future, I’ll post more videos of the crazy road conditions.
The sink holes were a strange phenomenon and they were, indeed, refreshing. Mark and Maya stayed clear of them. They didn’t trust what was beneath the surface. 🙂
I wonder if “Race around the World” is similar to the US program “The Amazing Race,” which I once saw many years ago. I’ll look it up. I do remember from the US show that you had to be citizens of the country to be able to participate. Plus, if there is any physical fitness required, I might not be a good candidate!
Thank you for your unwavering support and interest, Hugh. Your involvement and friendship makes me very happy!
March 27, 2023 at 17:11
Love the video of you jumping in the pool. So jealous as I was looking forward to cenotes in Chiapas and the Yucatan! Once we get the van back (maybe this week – but we aren’t getting our hopes up) we will head back north.
I love the New Year’s tradition. It is a great tradition for looking ahead. I think we need to burn a Viejo every night.
Greg thinks that we need to ride in a tuk tuk just for the experience. It can’t be anymore terrifying than the colectivo taxis here, I would think.
Colombia looks beautiful.
March 28, 2023 at 09:57
Hi Duwan,
You two should definitely ride in a tuk tuk while you’re there – if they have them. Maybe do a pub hop one night. Or a beach hop during the day. 🙂 I keep my fingers and toes crossed you get your van back this week!!!!
And, yes, we should all do this New Year’s tradition. I was actually surprised that Carolina wanted us to add notes with something we were grateful for as well. I’m not sure if this is traditional, or she added the task for her children – to remember something positive about the previous year.
Colombia is a very interesting country on many levels. And, yes, it is quite beautiful!
March 28, 2023 at 20:16
Wow, what an amazing trip. I would be petrified driving there, lol. I also love the tradition of burning the doll and all negativity. <3
April 4, 2023 at 21:50
Hi Debbie,
I’m super grateful that Mark is doing all the driving! As it is, being a passenger, navigator, and extra set of eyes is stressful enough… We’ve had some crazy experiences on the road, but we are all still alive and recently fixed damage done to the truck and camper by the nasty roads.