Bucaramanga/San Gil/Villa de Leyva, Colombia

As it turns out, the health authorities let us go with the promise that we keep in close touch with them just in case (no word yet), so we left Santa Marta on the afternoon of May 1, after unsuccessfully trying to find a replacement adapter cable for the laptop (of course, a generic one wouldn’t fit - why is DELL so evil?). We said a final goodbye to the Caribbean (to be honest, we are kind of spoiled when it comes to beaches after the San Blas Islands experience, anyway) and drove south for a few hours, enjoying the change of scenery. There are a lot of palm oil farms and mango groves in this part of the country. We passed by a town called Aracataca, which is apparently where Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born: it made us think that, judging from some of the neat characters we have met so far in Colombia, he didn’t really need to use a lot of imagination to write his books! We spent that night in a truck stop parking area before waking up early to drive some more and that day we made it to Bucaramanga, a pretty little city in the hills, where after running around for a while we finally found a cable for the computer! This area of Colombia is well known for a delicacy called “hormigas culonas” (literally, fat-ass ants!) so we bought some to try. Deep-fried and salted, the kids say that they taste a bit like a mixture of wood and earth. Then we continued on to San Gil, a small town further up the hills that is becoming well-known for adventure tourism like white water rafting, paragliding and such, and where there is a nice riverside park where all the trees have these long, wispy beards hanging down. The drive from Bucaramanga to San Gil was one of the most breathtaking experiences so far on the trip – snaking our way up the mountain, we drove through the Canyon de Chicamocha, which was absolutely stunning and it seemed like we were flying instead of driving: the compass on the GPS was going nuts! We arrived in San Gil just after dark, and found a spot to park in the parking lot of the riverside park. After a dinner of tomato sandwiches with artichokes and olive oil, we sat on the park benches and people-watched for a while. The next morning we woke up to a lot of curious people who wanted to know about our trip and take a look inside the westy. People are generally incredibly friendly and open in Colombia, and it has taken us by surprise. Anyone who still thinks that Colombia is a dangerous place to visit doesn’t know what they are missing (but then again, maybe it is better this way – it keeps the hordes of tourists away!) Some people recommended that we check out this swimming hole/waterfalls area a little bit down the road, and we ended up staying there for the day and even staying overnight. It was Sunday of a long-weekend so the place was full of Colombian tourists enjoying themselves in the cool water. In the evening there was a torrential downpour, and the guys who take care of the place had to unplug the swimming area to avoid us getting flooded out! The next morning we headed to a beautiful town in the hills about a half an hour outside of San Gil called Barichara, which is thought to be the most beautiful little colonial town in all of Colombia. All of the buildings and streets are completely preserved as if it was hundreds of years in the past, and there is a stunning lookout behind the old cemetery where you can see the entire valley below. We decided to keep driving that day instead of staying in Barichara, and so we drove through beautiful mountains and saw lots of waterfalls cascading from cliffs covered in cloud forest. At one point our GPS told us that we were at 3117 metres, the highest we’ve been on the trip so far, and the vegetation, climate and even type of livestock changed. The people even started to look different, wearing wool ponchos and round wool hats. We stopped at a place called Barbosa to buy a selection of typical sweets from the side of the road (mostly made with various combinations of dulce de leche, fruit, coffee and coconut). We got to Tunja just as it was starting to get dark, and because it was suddenly so cold for us, we decided to head to a town called Paipa, about 20 km away, where we had been told there were thermal baths. The people at the thermal pools let us spend the night in the parking lot, and the next morning we took a nice soak in the hot and salty/mineraly water (it was the perfect thing too, as we all had achy backs and sniffly noses from the cold). After warming up our body temperatures a bit, we continued on our drive to Villa de Leyva, an amazing mountain town about 2 - 3 hours northeast of Bogota, where we have been for the last three days and have loved every minute of it (aside from a bit of altitude sickness for Gustavo and Mateo). This town is kind of like Barichara in that they do not allow any modern architecture and is situated in a picturesque valley, but it is a bit bigger and more prepared for tourism (lots of well to do people from Bogota come here on the weekends) so there are amazing bakeries and lots of restaurants and shops. The streets are lined with stone and the colonial architecture with red tiled roofs and flowering trees (with mountains and cows and donkeys in the background) is candy for the eyes. In a wierd way it kind of reminds us of Punta Del Diablo, except in the mountains. We can only imagine what it is going to be like once people clue in about Colombia and international tourism starts to kick in... We found a wonderful hostel to stay in called Renacer, a peaceful place in the mountains run by a really nice family, with Wi-Fi internet and a kitchen to use, including a wood burning oven (which we tried out the very first night with pizzas!) and a parilla: we feel right at home here. The owner’s son Oscar is a biologist and really into birds and fossils, so the kids are in heaven. There are apparently 25 different bird species that hang out here (and Mateo has been taking photos of them all!). Aside from walking into town and testing out the ice cream (the best one is salpicon, basically fruit salad on a stick) and pastries (the best almond croissant EVER!) we have been going on hikes around the area: yesterday we went on a scrambling uphill hike to a lookout over the town, passing through an amazing stone canyon and some cool waterfalls. The thunderstorm that caught us in the middle of the hike only added to the adventure. Today we went searching for fossils in the fields and found a few neat ones, and Oscar even gave a couple of fossils from his collection to Mateo. Tomorrow we are planning to head to Zipaquira, where there is supposed to be an impressive underground salt cathedral, and then over the mountains to the coffee-growing district around Armenia before heading south again toward Ecuador, where we will hopefully be able to meet up with Al, who is on his way back up to Panama from Peru.
A pesar de no tener ningun resultado sobre la salud del mono y despues de haber explicado nuestra situacion y la necesidad de seguir andando en la clinica de salud de Minca, salimos de Santa Marta, al ratito nomas de saber que nos dejaban “salir.” Salimos tarde, el primero de Mayo, despues de buscar una bateria para la compu sin mucha suerte. Manejamos hasta que se hizo tarde y como tantas otras veces, preguntamos en un par de lugares para pasar la noche. Nos quedamos en el estacionamiento de un hotelucho, y y comimos una rica pasta con alcauciles, y esa noche nos cagamos de calor. El pueblo se llama Curumani. Durante la noche, no tuvimos ni la mas minima brisa, pero por suerte llovio un poco y eso refresco el ambiente. Aterrizamos en Bucaramanga a eso del mediodia, y despues de buscar en un par de lugares encontramos la tan ansiada bateria, porque por un par de horas pensamos que no la ibamos a encontrar. Aquí tambien conseguimos unas muy ricas hormigas culonas, que Ari y Teo gustosamente comieron.
Esa noche terminamos durmiendo en San Gil, creo que hicimos unos sandwiches de tomate con queso y alcauciles (de nuevo), y un poco de aceite de oliva. Nos quedamos cerca del parque Gallineral, y al otro dia tuvimos un monton de visitantes, que curiosamente se acercaban y nos preguntaban sobre el viaje, la camioneta, y nuestras experiencias. Al mediodia salimos hacia unas cascadas llamadas el Pozo Azul. Alli pasamos casi todo el dia, y como nos gusto tanto decidimos pasar la noche junto al rio. Llovio desde las seis de la tarde en adelante, y recien paro de llover al otro dia, asi que esa maniana fuimos a un pueblito en las montanias llamado Barichara. Varios colombianos nos habian comentado sobre este lugar, y amigablemente nos amenazaban diciendo, que si no conociamos Barichara, no conociamos Colombia. La verdad que fue uno de los pueblitos mas lindos que vimos en el viaje: todo colonial con una plaza principal muy linda y en medio de las montanias tan verdes y el aire tan puro, era como volver en el tiempo. El unico problema era que habia una panaderia perfecta…. Probamos unos pancitos de yuca y casi vomitamos todo. Estaban hechos con aceite de palma asi que tenian un sabor a pescado podrido muy fuerte. Nada es perfecto.
Salimos de Barichara hacia Tunja, tratando de llegar a Villa de Leyva. En el camino vimos unas cascadas cayendo desde un acantilado 100 metros de alto, al lado de la carretera y pasamos por caniones (el canion de Chicamocha) cubiertos de selva nubosa. Al llegar a 3117 metros sobre el nivel del mar ( mas de 3 kilometros, y lo mas alto que estuvimos en todo el viaje!), la flora cambio de selva nubosa a bosque pigmeo. Empezamos a ver gente vestida con ponchos llevando sus ovejas por la calle. Hacia tanto frio que decidimos ir a Paipa, un pueblo que tiene aguas termales. Llegamos al parque acuatico que tiene piscinas de agua termal y un tobogan bastante grande. Cuando llegamos era de noche, y preguntamos si podiamos acampar en el estacionamiento. Nos dejaron quedar y usar el banio. En la maniana entramos al parque y a la piscina mas calentita (hay tres) que estaba muy linda. Estaba lleno de gente lugarenia que van todos los dias a ese lugar a relajarse en las aguas llenas de minerales y sales naturales.
Despues de un largo banio nos fuimos, esta vez a Villa de Leyva que es muy parecido a Barichara pero mas grande y mas poblado. Cuando llegamos comimos un pollo asado con papas saladas y ensalada. Este lugar nos hace acrodar un poco a Punta del Diablo, pero en las montanias! Encontramos un hostal en las afueras del pueblo llamado Renacer donde estamos acampando y tenemos acceso a internet, banio, cocina, tele, horno de barro y hamacas. Ayer hicimos una caminata en la montania y pasamos por un par de cascadas, y al llegar arriba pudimos ver todo a nuestro alrededor. Ya varias veces fuimos al pueblito, que es muy colonial, y nuevamente uno se siente como que vuelve en el tiempo. Cada vez que vamos a hacer mandados, aprovechamos y disfrutamos de unos buenos helados artesanales, los favoritos son los de salpicon, o sea lleno de todo tipo de frutas. Ya tenemos unas tres noches por estos lados, asi que maniana arrancamos…