Adventures of land and water part 2

Day 7/8

Macondo hostel, San Gil

San Gil is a lively town situated, once again, in the marvelous Colombian hills. With roads as steep as those in San fransisco, we arrived praying that our hostel wouldn't be at the top. Luckily, Macondo was nestled somewhere in the middle of the hills so that it kept the impressive views of the valley but did not tire us out. The added bonus of a jacuzzi went down very well with me,  and I quickly dived (...well, stepped...) in, despite the now standard rain. 

waterfall at San Gil

The main attractions of San Gil revolve around the fast flowing river that cuts the town in half and defines the valley. Rafting, paragliding, waterfalls and caving are all available, to name but a few activities. Due to a limited budget, we chose to follow the advice of a fellow hosteller who had visited the waterfall the day before without paying the hostel fees to abseil down it. We climbed onto a stuffy bus and bumped our way over the not-so-smooth roads to the entrance of a very deserted looking gated path. Fortunately we were in the right place as a very local lady greeted us with son and daughter, charging us 10,000pesos (£3) to go up 'without a guide'. The path was fairly defined to begin with, I felt like harry potter entering the chamber of secrets due to the dogs (largely friendly) on leads guarding the path. The wildlife was certainly beautiful, with blue butterflies the size of our hands courting each other and leaf cutter ants leading us up the right route. As we continued my Harry potter turned ino Tarzan, with vines hanging down and the path becoming rapidly wetter and less defined. Using a rope to cross a little cascade, I began feeling a little less sure-footed and when the rope turned into dodgy ladders going up waterfalls my Tarzan turned into Lara croft. 20 minutes of ladders and ropes and general soakedness (thank god we bought a dry bag) later we discovered the waterfall; stretching 180m high causing wind and rain like back in Edinburgh. At this point the son from the bottom of the trek appeared and I rather ungraciously assumed he was there to watch us. It turns out he was actually there to lead us back across the slippery cascades and down the Tarzan ropes. Of course bean and Lizzie strided on, for the most part refusing his offers of a hand delicately hopping from stone to stone, while I slipped and slided ungracefuly, taking every hand I was given [this may be an over exaggeration but in my head it felt like this!].

We eventually got to the bottom to be

kindly given a cup of coffee (or 'tinto' as thy call it) and some homemade biscuits. Poco, their dog, a big fluffy bear, looked on enviously. We thanked the family and went back to the road to hail a bus (no bus-stops here!). Hail we did and 40 mins later turned up (already soaked) to some extraordinary flash floods in San Gil. The geography of the city meant that all the rain (I forgot to mention it was raining. Just assume it as a standard unless I say otherwise) wooshed to the river that runs through the city. We appeared to be the only ones brave/stupid enough to face the genuinely quite strong currents lining the streets, but got ourselves home safely and quickly jumped in the warm jacuzzi. While the cold had beaten Bean, Lizzie and I warmed up and reminisced in the hot tub about or exciting day.

We went for dins at a new local restaurant 'elementales' where the very friendly owners, a south american couple, talked us through local sites and where to go next. Under their advice we spent the next day in Barichara, a nearby village with wonderful views.

Burichara

Barichara, although beautiful, could probably be described as a work in progress, with most of the roads having been pulled up for works. The beautiful terracotta rooves stretched on and on, and at the top of the hill, a view of the entire valley tested the 'panorama' function of my camera. 

From here we somehow decided it would be a good idea to walk to the nearby village of Guane (yes, we/mainly I called it guano) via a hiking path. An hour long journey, each way. Or so we thought. An hour and a half of down hill later, with a grumbling Bean and Corkie in tow, Lizzie led the troops, trying to keep up moral, despite the thought of the inevitable climb back up the hill. When lizzie¨s moral failed we

knew we had been beaten and sat down, contemplating the uphill return to come, with the added time pressure of having a nightbus to catch. With Guano just appearing in view, we wondered whether to go on to see our not-so-holy-grail, or to try and get back up the path in time to catch our bus.

Luckily an elderly local man of about 70 passed us confidently with his stick and reassured us we could get a bus from Guano, thus meaning we didnt have to do the uphill struggle. Said man, our saviour, hobbled on as we celebrated this news. 

We reached guano 15 minutes later and found a fairly comprehensive village with restaurants, roads and all. We chose the first resto we saw (once again having forgotten to bring lunch). Excited we sat down, overjoyed by our adventure an the fact that a parrot was watching us eat. This joy slowly evaporated on the presentation of a soup of some format. After a few hungry mouthfuls we realised the chicken was not chicken but instead cow tongue (gristle included). All of us, but partiularly Lizzie were not feeling too peachy after this despite a yummy second course, so we bussed back to San Gil feeling slightly beaten, and with the rain one again flooding the city, yesterday's excitment did not reappear.

Having enjoyed our adventures in San Gil, we were all prepped for some sun, hopefully to be found in Santa Marta, very near the Carribbean coast and our next stop....

(If you made it to the end of this one, well done it was long and thanks for reading!!)