El Camino Real de los Guanes

7:00 AM. I had a hard night. Toothache. The best time to have teeth problems is when you are thousands of miles from home, among three gigantic mountain ranges, and with no health facilities within a radius of 300 km. Anyway, I'm about to take the Camino Real from Barichara to Guane, the ancient path created by the Guane indigenous people centuries ago. Why so early, you might wonder? Well, the sun around midday is unforgiving and the trail will take me around two to three hours. I was told there is no shade along the path, so it is better to start early—but not without breakfast.

8:30 AM. I'm resting on a small stone along the trail. So far, it has been easy. The trail has been mainly downhill with lots of small, uneven steps and paved paths with tufts of grass popping out, a few scary snakes, and no human beings. If I am to be kidnapped by the FARC or paramilitaries, this is the place. I wonder how much further to Guane. The scenery does not disappoint. The blue skies are interrupted on the horizon by the Yariguíes mountains as you start descending into the canyon of the Suárez River. The vegetation is mainly dry and short, enhancing the ocher color palette of the stones.

11:17 AM. I finally reached Guane and found refuge in the only café in this sleepy town. I grab a cold beer and sit down to write. I am soon interrupted by a 40-something-year-old Catalan traveling solo in Colombia. "Hombre me llamo Xabi, y tú?" Xabi starts telling me about how Guane was once an ocean floor "millones de años atrás." He is a geology high school teacher in Barcelona and he seems to miss his classes and students. With a beer in hand, my legs stretched and feet resting high on a bench, I listen attentively to Xabi's lecture on Guane.