Colombia - a country re-born

Our journey to the mountain town of San Gil in Santander on Sunday 8th January was interesting. We drove up a very windy road through a beautiful canyon called the Canon del Chicamocha, there was a lot of slow moving traffic on the hairpin bends and a lot of impatient Colombian drivers cutting in and out who clearly thought they were immortal. We continued further on up this quite dramatic, barren canyon until eventually we came over the top and down into the valley and the town of San Gil.

The road through Canon del Chicamocha

The barren canyon sides

Alternative transport

View from the lip of the canyon

How did they manage to park an aeroplane here?

San Gil relies by and large for its prominence on the Rio Fonce which seems to be the adrenalin junkies centre for Columbia. It features white water rafting, abseiling, bungee jumping and a range of other semi tame excitement activities that urban people look for when they have time off at the weekends.

We found the most delightful campsite right next to the Rio Fonce a couple of kilometres from the town. The campsite itself was set in a copse of trees which were covered in thick maidenhair lichen, some of which was getting on for twenty feet long, giving the impression of camping in something that might have been written by Tolkien about the old forest on the edge of the shire. And of course, we went to sleep each night listening to the water babbling and rattling over the rocks of the mighty river.

Camping on the bank of the Rio Fonce

Maidenhair lichen covering trees at the campsite

Detail of bamboo stem

Monday was spent getting our thrills on the Rio Fonce. In the morning we did some white water rafting which, as you would expect, involved us sitting with several other people in a big rubber raft and bouncing our way through the big wave trains and cross turbulence with everyone squealing and having lots of fun.

Maidenhair lichen overhanging the mighty Rio Fonce

Alan being Alan (have you heard that somewhere before?) decided that white water rafting was much too tame and that he'd like to have a go at kayaking the river. At the finish he made some enquiries and found out that there were two very experienced kayak guides and they had a suitable kayak for him. What he forgot was that whilst he has done a lot of white water kayaking, he hasn't done that much in recent years.

At three o'clock the guides came and collected Alan and they went to a put in which was a few hundred metres upstream from where we'd put in with the raft earlier in the day. The rapids were BIG and they looked even bigger when sitting down in a kayak. It was then that he discovered that the Rio Fonce was an awful lot more river than he is a kayaker. This was confirmed shortly after they started when he had a rather painful swim and belted his knee on a rock. No permanent damage however.
All was well for a couple of kilometres, then in another rather hefty piece of turbulence Alan swam again and this time his boat went bouncing off down the river, pursued by one of the guides while the other guide towed him into the bank.

Alan's pride and confidence were now at an all time low and there was a bit of a consultation but Alan, being Alan, was not giving up. He hitched a ride on a raft through the next 500 metres or so of very turbulent water where he was then reunited with his boat. The next several kilometres were mostly sustained grade 1 and grade 2 and whilst there was a lot of bumpy stuff it wasn't as savage as the stuff that kicked him out in the first place and the three hour trip was completed without further mishap.

He returned to the campsite in the dark and the pouring rain, with a bruised  knee, a slightly bruised ego but otherwise well!

Tuesday was a much quieter day. The most exercise we had was a quiet stroll around the Parque de Gallineral.

The owners of the campsite were lovely people, very helpful, and they kept trotting across with glasses of fresh orange juice and chocolate biscuits for us. The other campers were also really friendly and we enjoyed chatting to them in our best Spanglish and, as frequently happens, they showed huge interest in Lucy and were given full guided tours in return.

We left San Gil on Wednesday 11th January and drove the short distance up through the hills to Barichara where we spent a very pleasant couple of days.

Simple stone church, Barichara

Barichara is a somewhat spruced up colonial town where all the original features have been retained and enhanced, there are lovely stone paved roads, the buildings have open timber ceilings and there is a glorious cathedral built of warm, natural sandstone without any garish paintwork on the outside of it which has been a feature in so many other towns we have visited in this part of the world.

A quiet street in Barichara

Barichara Cathedral

Street view, Barichara

Typical colonial houses, Barichara

The streets in Barichara are steep

View from the top of the hill

Pretty window boxes, Barichara

We stayed in a delightful old colonial hotel built around a quadrangle and from the terrace we had a wonderful view of the cathedral and the hilly landscape beyond all the lovely wonky tile roofs.
We strolled around the streets of Barichara which were quiet and peaceful but the real highlight was the view from the western side of the town where there is a dramatic drop and a huge wide valley with a river and a series of mountains beyond.

Sue on the edge of the escarpment

Sue above the river valley

Alan on the edge of the escarpment

We also had a walk up to the ridge beyond the town, past the various municipal parks and a small arboretum and up to a transmission mast near the top of the ridge. Thereafter, the path disappeared and the going got a bit bushy and we had a minor difference of opinion as to whether it was appropriate to proceed. Alan was happy to continue bush bashing and climb to the top of the hill but Sue wasn't enjoying it much and it was all a bit scratchy and sweaty so we decided to come back down into town.

Aloe with river valley behind

View from above Barichara

Distant view of Barichara and river valley behind

Butterfly on blossom, Barichara

Whilst in Barichara we met a very interesting Colombian chap called Felipe on a couple of occasions whom we hugely enjoyed chatting to. He told us that he worked for an international organisation who provide social services to private companies in the way of health, housing, education and training. He was highly articulate and spoke excellent English and we spent quite a long time talking about the improvement in the political situation in Colombia, the demise of the drugs cartels and the inclusion of the guerrilla groups who are now being slowly assimilated into mainstream government. From what Felipe told us this seems to be the work of the previous president and the current president and indeed the current president won the Nobel Peace prize for his work in this regard. A truly magnificent achievement.

After a lovely few days in Barichara, we set off again on Saturday 14th January and headed south to another colonial town, Villa de Leyva, which we reached after a long but interesting drive through the beautiful highland countryside.

We camped in the grounds of a very nice hostel a little way out of the town and managed to position ourselves next to the perimeter wall where we had a wonderful view over the town with all its whitewashed houses and tile roofs. In the early morning half of the town was bathed in brilliant sunshine whilst the other half was in shadow, the reason for this being that the sun rose behind the mountain that was to the rear of the campsite and therefore it was not until about a quarter to eight that the sun finally came over the rim of the mountain and flooded the other side of the town with light.

Camping spot, Villa de Leyva

Villa de Leyva just before the sun came over the mountain behind

Soldiers on patrol near our campsite

Sunday was spent strolling around Villa de Leyva which has been beautifully preserved, much in the same way as Barichara, with cobbled streets and immaculate shuttered buildings adorned with flower filled window boxes. Unlike Barichara however this colonial gem was absolutely crawling with tourists and almost every building around the huge plaza was either a hotel or restaurant.

Balcony display, Villa de Leyva

Arcaded terrace on the Plaza Mayor, Villa de Leyva

The Plaza Mayor, Villa de Leyva

Sue beside the bougainvillea, Villa de Leyva

Dog asleep on the cathedral step

Top of cathedral showing barren mountain behind

Plaza Mayor, Villa de Leyva

On Monday morning we had a fairly strenuous walk up the mountain to rear of the hostel, using a map which the hostel gave us as a guide. To begin with the track followed the course of a stream where it went between the cliff sides of a deep ravine and there were plenty of opportunities to trip up and slip around the place.

After a while we came out onto a lawned area and beyond it there were some extremely posh houses. Apparently we should have stopped there or thereabouts and enjoyed the view. However, we did not. We continued up and up until the extremely expensive houses which we had seen further down were merged with the distant view of Villa de Leyva itself. The vegetation changed from aloes to tree ferns and the track was dusty and steep with opportunities for slipping and sliding as before.
When we got about three quarters of the way up the mountain Sue called for a sight of the map. This was at about the same time as the track petered out into a number of dubious sub tracks none of which seemed to be going anywhere.

View of Villa de Leyva on the way up the mountain

View of Villa de Leyva from the top

Coming back down the mountain

It was concluded that we had gone about three times as far as we should have gone which explained in part the fact that it had taken us over two hours to do the walk up which was supposed to take one hour. We therefore sat down and enjoyed the wonderful panorama and then slithered back down the track.

On Tuesday morning we packed Lucy up and set off in the direction of Medellin, formerly renowned for being the cocaine capital of the world under the violent control of drug baron Pablo Escobar, now transformed into a vibrant and stylish city. We had decided to take a cross country route across the highlands rather than continue on the main road to Bogota and back up to Medellin.

We drove over some pretty high mountains with absolutely stunning scenery, although at times we were high up in the clouds and couldn't see more than a few yards in front of us. The road was interesting, sections of dirt road interspersed between good tarmac, twists and turns, deep ruts, bits of road missing and some very strange roadworks. However, it was a delightful road in terms of the panoramic view once we got out from inside the cloud.

After stopping for the night at the small town of Cimitarra we set off again on Wednesday morning for the second and final leg of our journey to Medellin. The road was fairly hilly and the countryside very green and at one point we came across an area that had some quite amazing trees with an orange blossom which was quite dramatic.

Trees with orange blossom, road to Medellin

Show horse in training, seen while on lunch stop

Mountain waterfall, on the road to Medellin

The second part of the journey was no less interesting than the first, largely because the roads were very windy although they were tarmac and there were some extremely large rigs coming up and down the road which largely consisted of hairpin bends requiring them to take a very wide swing to get round. There were several occasions when two big rigs were both trying to get round a hairpin in opposite directions and that caused everything to come to a complete standstill and delayed us for some little time. There was no possibility for overtaking of course although certain drivers were doing their best to commit suicide.

Once we got into the greater Medellin area the roads become much bigger and better, in fact at one point we were on an eight lane highway although the standard of driving remained as suicidal as elsewhere. In the late afternoon we finally reached our chosen hostel in a quiet leafy neighbourhood of Medellin where Alan enjoyed a well earned beer and Sue a cup of tea!

Medellin is Colombia's second largest city and so we could never hope to see more than a small part of it but we found it a great place and have very much enjoyed the few days we have spent here.

We abandoned any idea of trying to drive around the city in the chaotic and frequently gridlocked traffic, instead using the metro and cable car which form part of the excellent public transportation system in Medellin. The trains run very frequently, they are rapid, smooth and spotless and we were very impressed with how an incident we witnessed was handled. A lady unfortunately suffered an epileptic fit in our carriage just as the train was drawing into one of the stations. We don't know how the alarm was raised but within seconds a paramedic had boarded the train to attend to her, accompanied by two policemen. There was a short delay whilst they assessed the lady and then they assisted her off the train a couple of stops later whereupon two cleaners boarded the train to clean up the spillage. We somehow doubt whether events would have been handled quite so efficiently on the London Underground.

We used the metro and cable car to visit the Parque Arvi, a forest reserve at the top of the eastern slopes of the city. The cable car was as smooth and efficient as the metro and the view going up from Medellin was of high rise buildings and commercial structures tailing off to what can best be described as semi slums further up the slopes. We then changed cable cars for the last part of the journey which rose steeply and then over the top of the park.

Shanty houses shoehorned onto the side of the mountain

Cable car view of hillside shanty houses

View from the cable car on the way up to Arvi

Cable car with view of Medellin beyond

Cable car gear with distant view of Medellin beyond

The visit to the park itself was not a huge success and our plan to walk some of the trails did not come to fruition. Shortly after arriving the heavens opened and Sue became very chilly. It continued to rain and rain and at one stage there was a mighty clap of thunder that made everyone jump, simultaneously with a great flash of lightening. It was decided by a majority vote that we would go back down to Medellin because poor old Sue was shivering and so we got back on the cable car and did the whole thing in reverse.

The heavens opening at Arvi

Aside from that we have enjoyed visiting the Jardin Botanico, old churches, a square filled with huge bronze statues and a stroll through a shambolic flea market which seemed to occupy the space beneath the high level metro track ways.

Dying palm leaf, Medellin roadside

Odd looking pineapple, botanical garden, Medellin

Flowering tree, botanical garden

Flowering tree, botanical garden

Cathedral, Medellin

City scape - the upside of Medellin

Junk market - the underside of Medellin

By coincidence Josh, the overlander with whom we shared the shipping container from Panama, was in Medellin at the same time as us. We arranged to meet up and enjoyed a very nice supper at one of the local restaurants together with Katy, Josh's girlfriend, and his father Freddie who had come out to see him for a couple of weeks. It was good to share travellers' tales.

Today, Sunday 22nd January, is our last day in Medellin and we have spent it walking up the Cerro El Volador in the Parque Natural. This place is basically a steep green lump that sticks up out of what is virtually the middle of Medellin and mercifully some far sighted city father decreed that it should not be built upon like most of the rest of the valley sides and bottom have been developed. It is therefore a little bit like a green lung in the middle of a vast urban conurbation and is used by the locals for flying kites, dog walking and picnics, for which it is eminently suited. At the top we had the most stupendous 360 degree view of the whole of Medellin and we sat at the various benches and just drank in the view.

View of Medellin from the top of Cerro El Volador

Flowering tree in the Parque Natural

Dog enjoying ride on motorbike

Tomorrow Alan is going to have one final attempt to get some gas for our little cooker (we have not been able to fill up since we arrived in Colombia) and then we will be on our way to Guatape which is not very far from Medellin and where there is a beautiful lake. Medellin has been a great place to visit but we are both ready to get out of the city.

Alan's camera has been playing up for some little time but he is now only able to use the telephoto lens and the normal lens will not work at all. Many of the photos on this post have therefore been taken with the phone camera. We merely mention this lest anyone should think that the photos are not up to Alan's usual standard.