[pe2-image src=”http://lh5.ggpht.com/-l7_bg7XHKJA/UX-xSTKABsI/AAAAAAAAVA8/2futz5y1glM/s144-c-o/IMAG0060.jpg” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection2Stage14Colombia2BoarderPanamaToBoarderVenezuela#5872607367052396226″ caption=”One of the thousands of large 15 cm grashoppers being a plague in the bushes in Puerto Bolivar” type=”image” alt=”IMAG0060.jpg” ]

Pos: here
Loc: before Cabo de la Vela
Acc: house in mining company Cerrejón

I wrote my update too early yesterday, expecting nothing interesting would be happening…

But at 5 pm, David, the coast guard boss, came to talk over the weather options for next day with me, accompanied by Eliécer Ávila, public relations manager of the mining company next door, Cerrejon. He spoke good English and invited me for dinner at the company’s restaurant for tonight. Thanks!

I told David the wind had got worse for the next night, and that I had to stay put for all of SIX days now…

Eliécer came with co-worker Isabell to take my for dinner in one of the two company canteens. There are about 250 people living here in the mining area of Puerto Bolivar, and apart from a few indigenous fishing families living outside the fenced area and the police station where I stayed, that’s all of this remote village. All private!

But with Eliécer companie’s help, they made it possible for me to get hosted in the mining area! Thanks a lot! After dinner in the well-sorted and organized canteen with good food, they showed me “my” new house where I could stay the next days. It was almost larger than the whole police station, built for a four-person family. My double bed was as big as my whole room before :-). Definitively a great upgrade in accommodation! Thanks a lot to Eliécer and Isabell to organize that for me!

[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-UISJESzCvG0/UX-xUWaNofI/AAAAAAAAVA8/GsbDrsSs4I4/s144-c-o/IMAG0061.jpg” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection2Stage14Colombia2BoarderPanamaToBoarderVenezuela#5872607402285441522″ caption=”My own private house in the mining company” type=”image” alt=”IMAG0061.jpg” ]

They also took me a bit around the fenced mining area that night, and explained how things are working here. This is actually only the loading station of the world’s biggest open coal mine, where a train line brings nine times a day the coal from the mine in the mountains to the loading harbor, where huge ships from Europe and all over the world take in the coal they bought. Allover, it seems to be a well paying international business, judging by the high level infrastructure and the quality of internationally educated workforce I met here. A good place to hang out for the next days!

Eliécer had to go to the mine in the mountains today, and besides breakfast and lunch with Isabell in the canteen I stayed in my house working online all day.At night, he took me for dinner, and we were sightseeing a bit more around the area. He also showed me the sport facilities – a pool, soccer and other ball game fields, two gyms, raquet ball and in one large room they had a South American dance class where a bunch of people were watching the about 25 students and the teacher. It didn’t go without many laughs and teasing comments from the spectators! Unthinkable in a “serious” class in Europe… 🙂

While walking through the garden area claimed with lots of effort and water from the desert, Eliécer showed me the many large 15 cm grashoppers sitting in the flower bushes and eating the leaves – a plague! Thank goodness we don’t have those in Germany (any more…)