A desert in miniature: Colombia's Tatacoa

In my recent travels, I was fortunate enough to visit the beautiful country of Colombia. As is often the nature of my travel plans, I was kind of wandering around free-form with only two clear cut goals - visit Cartagena and do a four day Lost City jungle hike. Yes, those stories are coming… Having just completed the Cartagena leg of my trip I decided to fly down to the town of Popoyan near the border, changed my mind mid flight about where I was going (thanks Lonely Planet) and bussed back up country to another very special, lesser known part of Colombia: the Tatacoa desert.

It was worth it to get here!

Situated near the city of Neiva, Tatacoa is really a desert in miniature, covering only 330 km squared (contrast this with the 9.2 million km squared of the Sahara, and we aren't even talking about the polar deserts yet…). Though even the local signs refer to it as ‘el desierto’, technically, it is actually a semi-arid tropical forest. Err? What? Yes, that was my reaction too. Whilst not exactly bristling with the sort of plant life that a forest brings to mind, Tatacoa does offer some stunning desert landscapes:

Wandering through the eroded miniature canyons is an otherworldly experience, much like the experience of the local culture. People staying in the desert are a very different breed. For a start, the locals speak Spanish in a lilting, sing-song sort of way that, to a non native speaker sounds almost exactly like a completely different language. Even with a passable level of Spanish you may find yourself having a hard time communicating! Local cuisine is similarly… colorful. All I will say on that score is that no matter what people tell you, goats here really do taste like they smell.

From a scientific perspective, Tatacoa is fascinating for a number of reasons. For starters, the area boasts one of the most important observatories in the country. Visitors can go at night and attend a presentation given by a local astronomer under the stars and view them through some of the smaller telescopes available.

Even more interesting to palaentology buffs and those with archaeological inclinations are the many artifacts and fossils the area is known for. Tatacoa is the richest site in South America for Miocene and Pleistocene era fossils.

This friendly looking 3.5 ton fellow was called Granastrapotherium

Also wandering the landscape back in the day were Glyptodonts like this one. I wonder if they tasted better than the goats?

In addition to ancient beasts, archaeologists in Tatacoa have unearthed evidence of paleo-Indian indigenous cultures dating back to the Pleistocene-Holocene border (around 11700 years ago). Though these sites are off limits to tourists, the atmosphere in Tatacoa is suitably rich with history. Certainly for myself, the landscape felt timeless and yet, somehow fragile, given its size. If ever you find yourself in that part of the world, give Tatacoa a look. Chances are this tiny desert will enchant you.

Happy Steeming,
The Wise Fox

References:
http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5766/
http://magicalcolombia.com/en/tatacoa-desert/
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-tatacoa-desert

Image credits:
1: http://magicalcolombia.com/en/tatacoa-desert/
2: https://getlostandbefound.com/2017/11/13/tatacoa-desert-a-well-kept-secret-of-colombia/
3: http://magicalcolombia.com/en/tatacoa-desert/
4: http://magicalcolombia.com/en/tatacoa-desert/
5: https://www.deviantart.com/tag/granastrapotherium
6: https://nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villavieja-formatie#/media/Bestand%3AGlyptodon_old_drawing.jp