by Catha
It felt great knowing that somewhere up there in the mountains
there would be a place where Alex and Toni would wait for us, a place
that was peaceful and quiet, rewarding us for the long, challenging bus ride
we had taken upon ourselves.
After a day of relaxing and acclimatizing to the altitude, we
started off with a long, difficult hike through a beautiful valley of
Frailejones up to the snowcovered glaciers. Since we had little
experience hiking in high altitude, every step forward took a lot longer
than it usually would, causing a strong tiredness that we really felt
when we reached the top.
The view was beautiful and overwhelming. It felt like one of these
places that one would not experience very often in life, making it a
very special and almost spiritual moment. Not long after we
started hiking back, Toni's prediction came true and it started hailing
and raining heavily. We got to a point where we kept running down
without breaks to find ourselves totally exhausted and with bad
headaches when we reached the cabana.
The hacienda la Esperanza is a multiple generation managed farm that
existed long before tourists touched the national park's ground. While
the farming is done by a local family which leases parts of the house
and surrounding land, toruism is run by a very nice and welcoming guy
called Guillermo. He loves to spoil his
guests with the most delicious food and is always up for a conversation
at the fire where people could warm up after returning from a long hike.
The next day all of us where very greatful about the decision of
just finding a nice spot for the day where we could hang out, relax, get
lost in small things, observe the clouds doing strange formations in
the sky and watch triple rainbows while being protected by a huge
mountain dragon.
Our last full day began with a rich breakfast and a little bit of
observing the group of about 6 men which had prepared to climb up the
peak of the glacier. They seemed very optimistic to make it up and down
within one day although some of them didn't really look it!
As we left, we were to count 5 people and one dog named Oso,
including a guy called Marcus who had joined us on our hike up to the Laguna Grande
the first day. It took us a little less time to get to the other lake.
The way there was even more beautiful, following a sparkling stream
until we reached our goal, a turquois Laguna with noone there except for
us. We took a dip in the ice-cold water and rested for another hour,
enjoying the silence. On the way back it stayed beautifully and sunny,
something kept reminding me of the song "Wir sind die fünf Freunde...
und Timmy der Hund..." while thinking this must have been how they felt
while experiencing their adventures!
When we got back to the finca we were confronted with bad news:
There had been an ongoing fight between local farmers, the indeginous
people of the area and all the other people who benefited from the
tourists. *
Guillermo seemed very depressed and sad as he told us it would be
better if we left the park soon since farmers had already blocked the
roads with rocks and vehicles. He told us that he feared the park was
going to be closed for the public soon. It was a disturbing night with
long discussions, countless assumptions what would happen and a rather
pessimistic feeling of a happy outcome. Especially Guillermo seemed very
thoughtful and got very quiet when he was asked what would happen to
him and his family if the government gave in to the pressure of the
farmers. The look on his face made every explanation unnecessary. Later
that evening as I couldn't sleep, I sat with Guillermo for a while,
talking. There was something in his eyes that told me he wasn't going to
give up, something that let him hope, the way "La Esperanza" had always
been. We left early in the morning, encountered a roadblock but soon
afterwards got to the town of El Cocuy where nothing seemed to have beclouded the
lazy sunday mood with all the people being dressed for church.
* What we heard is that local farmers made tourists responsible for all negative developments in nature (eg the melting of the glacier) and thus wanted to ban them from the national park. What we guessed was that the farmers didn't feel they were profiting enough financially and also were put under pressure by the 'guerilla', so they can farm some substances not to be seen by foreigners.
