We drove further north, aiming to make a detour into the swampy central part of Colombia. Getting there was a long drive and this post gives some highlights of what we saw along the way..
Von Villa de Leyva bis zur nördlichen Hafenstadt Cartagena ist ein langer Weg. Dennoch wird es nicht langweilig, denn es gibt immer wieder Neues und Überraschendes.
Along the way traditional sausages were smoked and offered.
We travelled via Arabuco to Barbosa, then to Confines where we turned off to Charalá, a quaint village with a beautiful plaza, dominated by an enormous Saman tree (Raintree or Mimosa Saman)- one of the most impressive ones we had seen to date (Colombia has many spectacular trees).
By nightfall we reached Cascadas Juan Curi Camping, basic but adequate and we took a stroll to see the falls the next morning before we continued.
The butterflies and moths kept us fascinated, not only while walking to the falls but also along the road we drove.
The road took us via Paramo to San Gil with slow progress due to many road works and the rain. We continued through San Gil on to Barichara, another beautiful little village which is also a popular holiday destination. It is high up and afforded us splendid views.
The town plaza sports a sandstone church with intricate masonry work.
We returned past San Gil to the camping site Rio Fonce where we were camping under trees covered with long old man’s beards, giving it a mystical atmosphere, especially when a whistling bird-like sound started after dark. To our amazement we discovered that it was a pond full of frogs.
On the road to Bucamaranga along the Ruta 45A we had a marvellous view into the Cañon del Chicamocha, overlooked by a super modern water amusement park. The road was fantastic with scenic mountain passes.
We continued to Floridablanca, shopped at Exito (local supermarkets with good selection), enjoyed coconut and coffee ice cream (excellent throughout Colombia), finally camped between Rio Negro and El Playón at Balneario del Bambu -not very good but it was all we could find.
We were not so happy about the passing trucks but did not realise how relatively good the night was until our next stop in the parking lot of Hotel Calle Real in Aguachica.
When we arrived we were directed to park next to the pool of the hotel and use the facilities there. As the afternoon progressed more cars arrived until the parking lot could not fit another vehicle. Fine, we thought, and went for supper in town. When we returned, the disco adjacent to the hotel started in a loudness, that we could not hear ourselves any longer. This continued until 4:00am. This sleepless night would probably remain our worst of the trip.
This post covers 6th-8th Oct 2016.
