The Tatacoa Desert

Also known as the Valley of Sadness, as it was called in 1538 by the conqueror Jimenez De Quesada, the Tatacoa Desert (the Tatacoa is a harmless local snake) does not have the typical natural features of a desert. Instead of the classic sand dunes, you can admire curious red earth sculptures that in some areas join and intersect, giving rise to natural labyrinths of majestic beauty, the result of centuries of ground erosion. The sky, over that remote and silent expanse, is almost always clear, ideal for astronomy lovers and scholars who at night, with a good telescope, can distinctly observe and analyze the clear celestial vault. The apparent scarcity of life forms, typical of a desert, is however even more curious when you consider that during the Tertiary period, millions of years ago, that area was an immense garden full of trees, flowers, and many other plant species, and was inhabited by monkeys, turtles, crocodiles, and giant sloths. The fossil remains of the lush flora and rich fauna of that distant epoch unknown to man make the Tatacoa Desert a true paradise for geologists and paleontologists. The climate is hot and dry and the daytime temperature hovers around 27 degrees. The ideal time for a few hours’ excursion through the rocks, shrubs, and cacti of the Tatacoa Desert is late afternoon, when the sun lowers and the weather cools. The reference point for reaching the Tatacoa Desert is the small colonial village of Villavyeia, about fifty kilometers from Neiva and about ten kilometers from the first desert signs of the landscape. In Villaveya there is the paleontological museum – which is worth visiting before venturing into the desert – where the fossil remains of animals that became extinct millions of years ago are preserved and where the natural historical phases of the evolution of that territory, from the birth of the universe until the appearance of man on Earth, are reconstructed.