To Bucaramanga and overnight to Cartagena, Sept 30-Oct 1

We had met a Irish couple who are 7 months into their South American travels.  Had a great time talking with them as they started in Ushuaia (tip of Argentina) and have come all the way up by land. We ended up taking a taxi (about 45 min, COP 40,000) with them from Villa de Leyva to Arabuco.  From there we caught a bus going north.  It was another one of those crazy rides, full of curves and ups and downs and full throttle bursts and hard braking.

Somewhere between San Gil and Bucaramanga.

Thankfully, Amanda had some dramamine which calmed my stomach down.  They got off in San Gil and we carried on to Bucaramanga which meant a total of 8 hours of fun on a bus (COP 25,000 each).  I have to say, we were both wiped out by the end of that ride!  But, we had planned ahead this time and had a room reserved at the Kasa Guane Hostal (COP 50,000).  We took what seemed like a labarinthine taxi ride to get there (COP 7,000).  We have yet to notice any arterial roads.  Or else we really are being taken for a ride in these big cities.



 After looking for a recommended fish restaurant on Calle 39 and finding that there was no Calle 39, we settled for a Colombian version of a Mexican Restaurant.  My shrimp quesadilla was actually very good & Duane was happy with his hamburger (together, COP 23,000).  Saturday, we slept in late, bought eggs, bread and fruit and cooked at the hostal.  We wanted to take a picture of traffic - lots and lots of motor cycles and they zip in and out between cars.  But this is really the only picture of Bucaramanga we ended up with:

Apparently, this is the smallest urinal Duane has ever seen.  

We still did not know where we were headed and we knew we did not want to spend any length of time in Bucaramanga.  Although the name is fun to say (I remember the name from when we lived here), we wanted to beeline for the coast and enjoy the Caribbean.   We spent a couple of hours on the computer trying to figure out how to get to the coast without having to be on a 10 hour or so bus ride and going as far north as either Cartagena or Santa Marta.  But alas, after another homemade sopa at the hostel, we found ourselves on the 7pm, 10 hour bus ride to Cartagena.  As it turned out, it was possibly the best bus ride we have had to date and I am writing this some 4 weeks later!  The seats reclined and the bus felt luxurious and we actually slept.

Villa de Leyva, Sept 17-29

The Villa de Leyva main plaza is said to be the largest in Colombia.

A view of the city from a shrine up on the mountains to the east.

Typical architecture.

Villa de Leyva and the surrounding area have been a haven of safety for those in Bogota throughout the years of violence in Colombia.  So during the years of turbulence within Colombia, it saw mostly Bogotanos, now it is a destination for a wider sector of Colombians along with international tourists.  It is noted for how closely it still resembles the colonial days with the architecture and cobblestone streets.  A truly bucolic place to be, tourists are told they can walk anywhere, anytime of day in and out of the city. That is music to the ear!


Unless you get traveler´s GI issues or a cold.  We each got one of those, so that is partly why we stayed in Villa de Leyva for so long.  A very nice place to be feeling under the weather.

Beautiful courtyards.

We´ve definitely seen multiple efforts directed at encouraging recycling and separating types of trash.  Not exactly sure it´s happening, but the effort has definitely started.

A shrine here, a shrine there.  This one has some fossils which are characteristic to the are.

Dogs are happy in Colombia from what we have seen.  They are well fed and walk around wagging their tails for no obvious reason.

Duane entertaining himself one day when I wasn´t feeling good.

Looking back down at Villa de Leyva.

Once we were on the mend, we did a great walk up a mountain just behind the Renacer Hostal where we camped for over a week.  It was a more than 3 hours up.  We really didn´t know what we were going to see.  Turns out there are people who live up there, with their cattle and crops.

In the valley 3+ hours up the mountain.

This brown guy seriously needs a hair cut!

They have a great open air market on Saturdays. We ended up cooking for ourselves most of the time partly because this is a tourist town - we paid over $15 for pizza, over $3 for a simple bowl of tomato soup, $5 for a hamburger.  Not cheap for our budget.  But then, Colombia is not proving to be the cheapest place to travel.  The 2009 Lonely Planet guide book is definitely already dated on pricing.




We visited two areas which had multiple water falls. Apparently there are over 100 waterfalls in the area.  Basically, we hopped on a local bus with a map from the hostal and then followed our noses.

Our self-appointed guide at the ¨La Periquera¨ waterfalls.

Still difficult taking pictures with that damn button....

¨El Hayal¨ waterfall.

The clutch move at ¨El Paso del Angel¨ waterfall.

Some shots of our 1.2 km walk to and from town and the Renacer Hostal.

You may have expected this.

Yes, a military base on the dirt road up to the hostal.

Closer to town...

Hammocks and a common kitchen for all.

We camped 9 nights for COP 144,000 (about $72).

El Renacer Hostal - we highly recommend!

The guidebook attractions for tourists in the area include a museum where a remarkably complete and old fossil is housed.  I don´t recall the type of ¨araus¨, but it was impressive.  Another major attraction are ruins from one of the pre-colombian cultures which archeologists now interpret to have been a ritual site that paid tribute to fertility and served as a means of telling the seasons by how the sun fell on a series of fallic columns.  We rented bikes to do the tour of the attractions which was also a great way to see the surrounding countryside.

The conditions in this area were ripe for preservation of fossils.

One of many columns.

Well, I hope you appreciate these pictures.  Even if you don´t, please act like you do. I will not be posting this many pictures in a post unless I figure out how to do it without taking the amount of time I have spent on this post.  It´s been pretty rediculous.

VMonk

North of Bogota: Salt Cathedral and Crazy Bus Rides, Sept 17

Saturday, September 17


It was a calm bus ride Saturday morning leaving Bogota, first by the mass transit bus system then a regional bus heading to Zipaquira about 100 km north.

There are some nice vacation homes outside of Bogota!

According to some, Zipaquira is the numero uno tourist destination in Colombia - the mines that have been providing salt to the region and beyond for over 500 years.  The draw is that they have mined out the salt in an area, making a "Cathedral of Salt" and also a series of the 14 stations of Jesus.  It is unique for sure, but neither of us will have this as our personal numero uno attraction.  While interesting, it felt a bit contrived.  My family visited the original salt cathedral here back in the 70's.  Duane & I kind of wondered if that one might have felt more like a place of worship for the miners rather than built specifically for tourists.  Don't know.  Will have to compare stories with my parents as my memory is blank from my first visit back in the 70´s.

Over a thousand that can celebrate mass in this underground cathedral.

We did an additional ¨miner´s tour¨ hoping to see how mining was really done. The hats were the most authentic part.

We then fumbled around Zipaquira with our packs on trying to find a bus. Once we found where we needed to be, we had a wait.  Duane felt confident enough to go ask for ice cream on his own.  He came back with none, but asked me again how to say "ice cream" in Spanish.  He returned from a second shop without ice cream and not knowing exactly what happened.  A bit later I decided to go find some yogurt.  The people asked me if I was with "that other guy".  Then asked what he was wanting.  Apparently they understood his version of "helado" to be "cigarillos".  We all had a good laugh.

Boy, and then we had a wild ride.  Duane had the dubious pleasure of being in the front seat.  Probably not a good idea since he is not as used to their crazy driving.  Plus, where I was, I didn´t even know the driver was on his cell phone.  The good thing is that bus companies are required to post in a visible place their injuries, accidents and deaths for the previous month.  This company had all ¨0´s¨.  Posted, that is.  After the really crazy bus ride, we then transferred to a smaller van - camioneta.  That ride was better, but not exactly relaxing.  As laid back as latin americans are said to be, there was nothing laid back about the driving of these two guys.

We broke a travel rule of having a place reserved if you are getting to a destination after dark. This wasn´t a safety issue at all.  Our destination, Villa de Leyva, has been a bastion of safety for Colombians thoroughout their internal conflict.  It was just annoying after a long day of travel to walk around trying to find a hostal.  But we really did luck out.  By happenstance, we found a place with a private bathroom which would prove to be handy over the next few days.

VMonk