In Colombia not everyone can afford a car but the growing lower middle class family especially couples is taking to the roads on motorcycles, mostly single cylinder machines less than 200 cc and when the family takes a vacation it’s with a tent. Or not. Sometimes it’s glamping in a cabana.
We the weirdo foreigners camp in our cars and the wealthier Colombians glamp in a fully equipped hut. We are so rare and unusual we are a byproduct of the camping scene so facilities are an afterthought for us and can be mixed.
Some campgrounds are merely hotel parking lots with toilets and showers usually provided even though hot water may not be available especially in warmer climates at sea level.
There are very few campsites that really understand overlanders and those that do exist are usually owned by foreigners some of whom may themselves have experience of travel by vehicle. Colombians adapt their facilities for campers to make space for vehicle dwellers.
The good news is we don’t get charged US campground prices, the bad news is it’s not easy to find wild camps in these countries where there is no tradition of public lands so hard core wild campers have to dig deep into tracks and dirt to camp in the woods. We don’t do that.
But when we find a ten dollar a night campsite that feels like a wilderness wild camp that feels like a score and instead of one night we’ve stayed four, it’s so peaceful. During the day the tour buses park under the trees a hundred yards away so we don’t even notice them.
Rusty loves it here as there are no other dogs, he gets to lay in the grass and sunbathe between showers. He goes on patrol and checks the property when he feels like it.
Weekdays they don’t expect visitors and the place is abandoned. Robinson the gardener collects our 40,000 pesos daily but other than that we are alone on our grassy knoll. It’s pretty amazing.
The clouds make for sunsets that streak different colors.
When the weather is cooperating.
There’s no electric hook up or dump station, no neatly ordered rows in which to park. We just move around as the scenery demands. We use an outdoor shower and a toilet attached to the nearest cabana across the parking lot.
The shower is hot and the toilet is fully equipped with seat, paper a sink, mirror and so forth. It does lack a light but a flashlight solves that issue. We use our own toilet sometimes and empty it into the flush toilet like we do most places. It’s rare to find a dedicated dump station but we use bicarbonate of soda in ours and we don’t put toilet paper in, a universal rule in Latin America. It works that way.
Horse tours wander up and down the river across the field.
Does he look stressed?
A short walk to the shower.
So now to the glamping. The cabanas are pretty cool at least from the outside as we haven’t been inside any. Oh and trash is not to be thrown on the ground, whatever language you speak. 
Luckily we have a Berkey filter if we want to use this kind of water outlet. We buy purified water from supermarkets to fill our thirty gallon tank and in Colombia it’s expensive, about a dollar a gallon.
“The Farm” cabana, just like a US red barn.
And shower with an odd looking picnic table. Notice the fire pit and grill too.
Check out the different themed cabanas, very cute.
Alpine cabin?
Movie buff.
Florida beach lifeguard?
The field set aside for tent campers with showers and power outlets to charge devices.
Foreigner alert.
Dog on patrol.
Our views on sunny evening.
Horseback tour.
No wonder he likes it here.
It’s a good spot but they aren’t all like this place. Tonight we’ll be alone here probably for the last time. We do need to go south and check packages but we’ll travel slowly and hope that in a couple of weeks we’ll have GANNET2 back at 100%. In a month I hope we’ll be in Ecuador. I’m ready.
