Fast times in San Gil

Since the last time that we have written about we have managed to do quite a lot in a short little while here in Colombia. From Cartagena we moved on to Taganga - a small, pretty fishing village north of Santa Marta that was overwhelmingly overrun (with people, fried food and club beats) on the weekend, Bucaramanga - a big but welcoming city in the eastern Andean highlands, and San Gil - a small town with a big reputation two and half hours (and a huge canyon) southwest of Bucaramanga.

In Taganga we got the last of our Carribean beaching out of our systems. Taganga itself was full of foreigners but funnily enough the nearest beach, Playa Grande, wasn't. Instead it was packed with Colombians on holiday, as school vacation had just started the weekend that we were there. We spent a great day lounging on the beach tucked in amongst speedos and thongs (the bathing suit kind -Torrance was not complaining!) and we met a number of very friendly families who sat us down and gave us tips on where to travel, how much to pay etc...One of the best things we have found about Colombia so far is that the people will go out of there way to make sure that you are having a wonderful time in their country. The other thing that we have found about Colombia is that everybody thinks we are German...Oh well, at least they don't think that we are brother and sister they way that they did in Nicaragua!!

Unfortunately, though, we forgot to take pictures in Taganga!

Not our photo, but a picture of Taganga in the dry season. It was much greener when we were there. If you are thinking of travelling Colombia, check out the website where we stole this picture from: www.off2colombia.com

In Bucaramanga we really just layed low - visiting a small colonial town nearby (named Giron) and taking a cable car across the Chicomocha Canyon.

The pretty church in pretty Giron

One of the many cobbled streets of Giron

Tor (looking like a stud) at the Chicomocha Canyon

The canyon from the cable car

We were recovering from our 9 hour turned 14 hour bus ride from Santa Marta. Even though this was fairly close to torture (arctic conditions and back-to-back action movies) we did have some not-so-exceptionally-bad movies on that ride, meaning that we did not have to watch Fast and Furious 5 yet again.

And then, we arrived in San Gil. We have liked almost all of the places that we have visited on our trip (minus Momostenango and Jinotega, Nicaragua's version of Momostenango). But San Gil... we love San Gil. It only took Torrie 20 minutes after getting off the bus to decide this!

Some of the things that we have loved about San Gil -

a) The central park with Avatar-esk home tree (you almost expect the people to be blue)

San Gil's central park

b) the nicest hostel of our trip thus far (Sam's VIP - it is great! Wait until you see the bathrooms and kitchen!)

Our dorm's bathroom

We cooked such good food here!!

c) beautiful waterfalls

Tor traversing the Juan Curi waterfall

Me and the falls

d) drinkable tap water

Yay!

e) nice looking dogs

Niko, our hostel's adorable dog

f) Fresh fruit juices! (sorry, no photo)

Of course, some of the other things that we have loved about San Gil are these -

 

It turns out that San Gil is the adventure sport capital of Colombia...

Rafting on the Rio Suarez was amazing...and believe me, I wasn't fully convinced ahead of time. I knew that really I wanted to go, but clearly...

Tor and I, looking seriously unimpressed during the safety talk.

I was terrified!

If you are in Colombia and thinking about doing this, but are a little scared off by a) the heavy price tag or b) the huge amount of heavy water that will be coming at you and potentially launching you from the raft, don't be. We would highly, highly, highly recommend that you go! It is so much fun!

But don't worry Mom and Dad, despite it being amazing, I don't really feel like rafting is necessarily something that I will want to do again. Once was unreal, but maybe once was enough.

If you can zoom into or faces in this picture you should do it!

Paragliding on the other hand was one of the loveliest feelings I have ever had. Poor Torrance came down with a flu of sorts so it was a solo adventure, but luckily a friend (Guyeon) from our hostel decided to come too. When we got to the launch, the paragliding guys sort of wrestled Guyeon into the tandem backpack contraption and he was off the ground just like that. When my turn came around next it was basically a similar experience despite me trying to ask these wrestling men if it was really ok to paraglide with the dark black clouds rolling in behind us...It turns out that it was... sort of. It was a short flight, maybe only two minutes, but two minutes of soaring through the air over an amazing landscape before we had to land in a nearby farmer's field because of the rain. The company was great though and gave me back everything that I had paid. It was a short flight, but a cheap one and I certainly can't complain!

About to begin!

In the air wth the Chicomocha canyon in the distance.

Tomorrow we will keep our feet firmly planted on the ground and if Torrance is better we will spend the day in Barichara. If we're in need of a little adventure there I'm sure I can convince Tor to try the regional specialty - hormigas culonas - literally, fat-assed ants!.

The infamous big-bottomed ants.

As always, thanks for reading! We will be writing again soon!

Love Lisa and Tor (who is now feeling almost 100% better)