Travels with Libby: Laguna de la Cocha, Colombia

Creek running to la Laguna de la Cocha.

Bracelets in the foreground and el pueblo behind.

Up until now, we´ve been in only the cities of Colombia. Now, no. Quite the opposite. We´ve been putting Gato´s tent up on the front porch of a brother and sister´s house and tienda. They are both in their 60s or 70s, probably.

I initially asked la señora if we could put our packs in their store while we walked around and explored the village a little. She let us. We went for una vuelta, came back several hours later with two bags full of dinner preppings in our hands and el señor simply said, '¿Vas a cocinar aqui, no?' We didn't even have to ask. So we cooked the fresh cow meat we had just bought down the road at the butcher's shop. The dead cow's head lay underneath a sink while his body hung from the ceiling. Freshly killed that day.

After cooking and eating with Bucañero and his sister (regretfully, I never learned her name), Bucañero asked us if we wanted to sleep in their corridor. We ended up on their front porch and we´ve been sleeping there ever since. We´ve cooked every meal in their kitchen, mostly fresh rainbow trout from the lake and shared every feast with them, except for lunch today when la señora made us soup. ¡Oh, que rico!

Today, after almost five days without running water or any form of a shower and sleeping in a tent (you always feel dirtier after sleeping in a tent, for some reason), I was CRAVING a shower. The toilet I've been using is the public toilet across the street from the house with a sign above it that reads 3.000 pesos. Bucañero showed me to it the first time. He carefully wiped down the seat for me, flushed a primary flush and said "Siga." I guess he and la señora use this toilet too. Anyways, it took me a little bit to work up the nerve to ask la señora where I might shower; they've given us so much already. I'd also been wondering where they shower themselves. Ruben told me to ask her if she showered. "If she says yes, ask her where? and if she says no, say 'oh, me neither'."

Eventually, I asked. La señora looked at me confused for a minute and then told me that she would ask her son, next door. They didn't have water that day, so she asked her grandson who ran across the street and asked his mom, her daughter. Meanwhile, the son and his wife explained to me that there aren't really showers here in Laguna de la Cocha, everyone just uses a cup and a bucket of water. "It's better in the morning," they explained, "with the warmth of the day to follow."

It's much different living with a family than staying in no-matter-how-primitive-I-think-they-are hostels. The hostels I've stayed in have showers at least. Maybe not free toilet paper or toilet seats or hot water, but they at least have running water. It's very different living without running water. Washing the dishes is interesting.

The kitchen sink. You pour water from a bucket of fresh water (maybe lake water) into one pan to scrub the dishes and have another pan to wash them off in. The yellow bucket on the floor is where you scrape the plates. That bucket goes to the pig.

The stove.

I think most of the pueblo was in on finding me a shower. They finally found me one. The best shower in a while, I must say.

We're frying rainbow trout right now on a open flame in the kitchen. The one-eye-green-one-eye-blue cat is waiting patiently for us to spit the bones her way. La señora gave us three plantains to make patacones (smashed and fried round pieces of plantain, Yum.) The speakers blaring from the church across the street are starting up. They play the same latin loving songs every night, beginning at the same time, while the futbol teams warm up. Every night two different teams from el pueblo play in the plaza in front of "our" house. Their final championship is approaching. The first night we stayed here, it was a little awkard setting up the tent in front of the futbol game with most of el pueblo watching and giggling at us.

Fishermen's boats.

The family and the front porch where we slept. Bucañero and la señora are in the middle.

On the island in the middle of the lake. After a week of being in this pueblo where most tourists only stay for the day, we got a good deal on a ride out to the lake and island.