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.