JJ's Travelogue

Sometimes this blog can feel like homework hanging over my head.. but I know it’s important.

After returning to Santa Marta from the Lost City trek I took a look at the calendar – something I rarely do these days – and realized that I had been in Santa Marta for three weeks already. Not only that, but I’ve been in Colombia for nearly two months, yet I’ve only seen a small part of it! Time to get a move on..

I’m still getting used to the larger distances in South America compared to Central America. The next place down the road looked on the map like it was maybe a couple of hours away. Over 10 hours later, I made it to Bucaramanga. In hindsight I should have taken a night bus – the scenery was flat and boring except for the final couple of hours when we started climbing into the mountains. But I’ve heard mixed reports of night buses – some say they’re dangerous and robberies occur, others say it’s a good way to save time and the cost of a hotel room for the night.

Bucaramanga is a metropolis of a million people, funny that I’ve never even heard of it. As I move away from the coast, I’m noticing people are a bit more formal and polite – using the “usted” rather than the “tu” form, proper greetings, etc. They also dress better, and there are a ton of beauty salons. Unfortunately it’s also more expensive than on the coast. The taxis here have actual meters, the first time I’ve seen that on my entire trip thus far. And my hotel has hot water – the first hot shower I’ve had in months. Funny, this hotel wanted all my personal details down to my profession, home phone number, passport number, everything – the last place didn’t even ask my name.

One of the delicacies of this region, particularly this time of year, are Hormigas Culonas (literally, “‘big-ass ants”). Their heads, wings and legs are removed and the rest of the body is toasted and salted. Needless to say, I did not partake in this particular specialty.

Bucaramanga was really just a stopover for me, so after spending just one night I caught a bus south to San Gil, a pretty little town up in the Andean mountains. The ride was nausea-inducing – lots of switchbacks up and around and down and over mountain passes. Very pretty views, though. The town is a pretty collection of white-washed houses with red tiled roofs. It almost looks Mediterranean; in fact, the entire area could be mistaken for southern Italy or Greece. The hills are so steep that one woman implored me to jump into a passing taxi when she saw me huffing and puffing up her street. I’ve found the people here to be a bit less outgoing than on the coast, but still quite friendly and eminently honest – several times I have mistakenly given too much money over for a transaction, and each time they corrected my mistake. This even happened with a taxi driver, completely unheard of in the world.

San Gil and the surrounding region is the center of adventure and outdoor activities in Colombia – white-water rafting (up to Class IV, yikes), caving, paragliding, rappelling down waterfalls, you name it. I did have an adventurous day caving in the morning and paragliding in the afternoon (the full story in the next post, as soon as the videos and photos finish uploading), but the water sports just make me shiver thinking about them. I guess I’m still thinking about the last time I went rafting – we were on tour in Norway in the winter, and it was so freakin’ cold, despite our thermal layers.

As I’ve learned in previous countries, the main backpacker’s hostel here that all the books recommend turned out to be not to my liking. Although gringo-owned hostels are generally good sources of information, offer inexpensive tours and activities, and are good places to meet fellow gringos (on the rare occassions when I feel like that), the actual accomodation is wildly overpriced. Locally owned hotels generally offer a much better value. So after spending one night at the hostel in a windowless room with no toilet, I changed hotels to a nice room with private bathroom, tv, and balcony for only a few dollars more.

One of the aformentioned gringos I met at the hostel is a sweet Vietnamese-American woman from L.A. named Uyen (pronounced “win”). She is traveling around Colombia for two weeks following a vacation with her boyfriend who had to return to work. We’ve become good pals over the last few days, sharing all kinds of personal details like a brother and sister. I needed a hair cut, and although she had never cut hair before, Uyen gave it a try and it came out quite well, I think. It’s extremely short on the sides, back, and most of the top, and choppy and spiky in the front. I would post a photo, but yesterday I dropped my camera like a dumb-ass and it is dead. That camera has been a workhorse for years, surviving all manner of adventures; ironic that it should meet it’s fate in such a non-dramatic way. I thought about replacing it with a tiny pocket-sized model for discreteness, but I think I’m going to go the other direction and opt for photo quality – the Canon G10 looks pretty amazing. Hopefully I can find an affordable retailer in Bogotá.

Yesterday Uyen and I took a bus to the nearby town of Barichara, a beautifully preserved (well, restored) colonial town of cobblestone streets, wooden balconies, and white walled houses. From there we walked the Camino Real, an old Spanish road, to the tiny town of Guane. It was a really pleasant stroll on 400-year old paving stones with crumbling stone fences on either side. We passed the occassional farm animal, but it was otherwise quiet and peaceful. We ended up having to kill a few hours in Guane as the bus only runs a couple of times a day, so we sat in the main square and watched the town kids make up games to entertain themselves. Check out these photos that Uyen was kind enough to upload.. including some goofy ones of me. I especially like the goat licking the Colombian guidebook.

I wouldn’t mind spending another couple of days here, maybe rent a bike and go exploring, but I need to get down to Bogotá, since my visa is about to expire. Hopefully renewing it won’t be too much of a pain. I’m looking forward to the huge city and all it has to offer – there are numerous theatres, museums, clubs, you name it – 8 million people live there. Also I have several friends of friends or colleagues to look up in Bogotá, so that will be nice to see and meet friendly faces.