[pe2-image src=”http://lh4.ggpht.com/-XDyf3K1OdaQ/UX0j40dblDI/AAAAAAAAU-M/yk_9HTEymAM/s144-c-o/P4190005.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection2Stage14Colombia2BoarderPanamaToBoarderVenezuela#5871888948222727218″ caption=”The ‘hitchiking’ local guys in their reinforced forced dug out canoe, holdig tight to a thin rope during the hot ride” type=”image” alt=”P4190005.JPG” ]

Pos: here
Loc: behind Dibulla
Acc: tent
Dist: 51,3 km
Start: 6:45 End: 17:40

To find the entrance of our natural harbor last night, “La Piscina”, my coast guard guys took a local guy from a cayuco on board. In return, they gave the three paddling fishermen a short lift board to board. Their kayak was made out of wood as usual, but had a layer of fiber glas on it to make it more durable. New world also here!

[pe2-image src=”http://lh3.ggpht.com/-bc3deszkHJg/UX0kyMghDWI/AAAAAAAAU-M/WsNBN3EEL7w/s144-c-o/P4190003.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection2Stage14Colombia2BoarderPanamaToBoarderVenezuela#5871889933930663266″ caption=”The hold on the hitch hiking is tough, but the canoe is beautiful!” type=”image” alt=”P4190003.JPG” ]

They drove back out of the harbor once they dropped me to drop the local back to his friends in the cayuco. I was already set in my tent, and assumed when they came back they now drop simply their anchor and enjoy also a peaceful night in the calm natural harbor here Latitude=11.324666, Longitude=-73.957472.

But the poor guys simply had no anchor! First they obviously tried to get the boat with the bow on the beach to hold, which seemed not to be durable enough. At 10.15 pm, I was already asleep, I heard the engine howling in an effort to get the boat off the beach again for a better position or such. Noise and exhaust smell is bad for a peaceful sleep…

1 am the same, and at some point more during the night I heard the howling engine and suffocated in the exhaust smell. Thanks, guys! In the morning, I saw them eventually lying sideways up on the beach with the heavy 12 m open three engines boat, tied to a tree, but the engine was howling up high again in their attempt to get the stern free of the beach. My god! If the poor guys really went out that under equipped having no anchor, they must be able to float around in shifts in this quite large natural harbor. Instead, they were trapped now, and eventually 10 men plus myself were working hard for over an hour to get the boat afloat again. And I was sure with that engine noise all night the guys didn’t sleep either.

If this place had have been my stop point from last night, I should simply have paddled on already….but we needed to drive up to my spot about 22 km north. When the boat was eventually free, it took them a while to get settled and loading my gear and kayak to finally drive where I stopped last night! I was on the water only at 6.45 am, 1 1/4 h later than planned. I thought as the wind may be as low as yesterday, I simply paddle one hour longer to get my full regular ten hours, and the wind agreed…fortunately.

But at 3.30 pm the guys asked me to stop already, and to drive to Dibulla, where I was supposed to sleep under the supervision of the local police. Ok, no problem, but I will simply paddle there until 5 pm, and not stop already now! The wind was low to moderate, and I still could paddle 1 1/2 hrs more!. They were not too happy, as this crew wanted to drive back to Santa Marta tonight, but they called the next crew coming from Riohacha which was obviously waiting at Dibulla. They swapped over my bags, and I rather called the new crew to come close to me to check on the number of bags passed over… better safethan than sorry and suddenly having no tent or such…

It soon turned 5 pm, and I had paddled almost my 50 km. A good day, apart from the late launch! I waved my new crew boat, and I sure had to go on board now with my kayak to load my bags! They already wanted to pass me the heavy gear bags over board down to my kayak – where to put them then? Storing on my lap???

I tried to explain how to get me on board, and with some effort it eventually worked. But this new boat was the worst one for transporting my kayak I had ever been on! The usual petrol barrels were nicely covered with a full platform with no boards at all, just with four of those line knobs with two pointy ends. I had to watch and hold carefully my kayak so it didn’t simply slide off this flat deck and got poked by one of those line knobs before it slides into the water…The bow was resting only on a narrow bar in the front, with a gap where my slim bow was trapped for a while, including a few low crackling noises…

The drive to Dibulla was very short, as I did almost paddle until there. Still the driver liked to be in the wave zone, where I definitively didn’t like to be with that bad positioning of my kayak! He was also not able to keep the boat straight into the waves, but caught a bunch sideways, which caused one of the guys almost fall off the platform before I was on the boat. He barely could literally jump on his belly and grab one of the line knobs to stay on board…a guy swimming would have been great practice for tomorrow, which I didn’t know at that point….

Eventually, we were across Dibullla, and all I saw was only a river mouth with a wide belt of confused high breaking waves…was this the spot where they planned me to go sleeping watched by the police? Maybe they should better have thought about how to get there? The coast guard boat was not able to go to shore, different to a smaller motorboat we saw coming out of the river mouth. But it was standing more than once on it’s stern climbing a breaking wave…

surely this was not a place for me to land either! All before Dibulla, the surf looked small and narrow, and now this… hahaha! As I had in mind they said after Punta El Seguaon, which was just before Dibulla, the waves would die down, I had some hope the confused surf zone would stop soon and told the driver to drive on for a few 100 meters. It really looked calmer right behind the village, but still the driver preferred not to stay off the surf zone…I really had to shout at the guys to make them the f…to get out of the waves! They obviously have no idea how fragile my kayak was and how stupid it was positioned on this boat. A small jump, and my bow would be cracking….a wave from the side, and the kayak may slide off the deck together with me or into the pointy knob…

between, instead of watching where to drive, and to go there also “quickly”, as it was late already, the driver was more busy to call the police that we would not land in the city but behind…Once we were on a reasonable spot after maybe 3 km of driving, I just had to urge again to get off the wave zone that I could start loading my bags…if I’d had been already loaded this morning! Once ready, how to get now the heavy kayak best asap into the water without hull cracks? I even left most of my water bags on the boat to save weight…but I was not allowed to launch *now*, they haven’t reached the police yet…

I got really angry, as we were drifting again into the surf belt, shouted at them to get the f… out of the waves again, and to let me go *NOW*! They could call the police anytime later! It was late, as we were already floating around for more than 3/4 hrs, I was tired, scared to break my kayak again, and sick of them picking an impossible landing place and not to stay out of the waves once I was on board. I urged one guy to help me push my kayak in, and off I was…

My choice of landing was still a wide surf belt, but had lower waves. I was sure I could make it, but caught quite soon a fat one from the side, and had to brace hard while getting turned and surfed to the beach. But I stayed upright, and concentrated on the next waves. I heard the guys following me and shouting “EY”! What did they want? Take me back on board again? That’s not going to happen, guys…I rather concentrated on my landing, took no notice, and with a few more braces I surfed in without more problems but wet all over and with water in my nose and ears.

I just relaxed, breathing hard to get my adrenalin down, as already the police came to check on me. One guy spoke good English, and I explained that the coast guard guys had a well meant thought for me to sleep at their station, but the waves upfront were simply too high to land! They surely agreed, and watched me put up my tent. As it was time to change, I signed cards for them and made them leave for my well deserved shower in late sunset! Privacy!!!

As if this day wasn’t late enough and full of stupid uncoordinated actions, one tent zipper wouldn’t shut any more due to the continuous sand abrasion. Nothing new for me, I just had to change the zipper which was combined with some effort and can’t be done on an already erected tent. And as the beach was full of bugs at night, I quickly had to simply sew the zipper together before I could eventually relax…What a fucking day! Ok, the mileage was all right…but the rest rather only annoying.