Posts for August, 2009

We had a tour booked for today to a place called Islas Del Rosario. It had been suggested by the travel agent in Panama but we really did not know much about it nor what to expect. But as instructed we were waiting down in the lobby of the hotel at 8:00 am where after a while we were picked up by a bus containing a number of other tourist and taken to one of the tour docks near the old city. Eventually we got seated in an open boat with seating for 30-40 people, issued life jackets and told that we had a ride of about an hour to the Islas.

No tours today. We simply spent some time walking on the beach, visiting the old town and researching the route we will take through Colombia.

We spent a restless morning waiting around the hotel and shopping at nearby stores for groceries and buying some additional minutes for the Colombian phone chip . Unlocking my Blackberry to work with any phone chip is turning out to be a good move.

First task this morning was to try Citibank in Cartagena to do the money transfer - no such luck, only if we had a Citibank account - even though the money was going to another Citibank account in the US!!.

By 8:10 this morning we were in the office of the customs agent, and then out to the port for a customs inspection and other formalities that we did not understand. It took all morning with Nina and I sitting in the waiting area while Betty (the agency representative) talked to various officials getting papers signed and stamped. Back in the agency office just before lunch we found out that the customs officer decided not to physically inspect our vehicle and that all we needed now was one more signature at the customs house near the agency's office, Columbia car insurance, and then we could get the Tiger. So come back after lunch.

Not a very exciting day. First thing this morning we did some repacking of the Tiger, in particular I put the storage pod back on the roof-racks - turned out to be much easier than I had feared. Then we visited our customs agent office to get the insurance. We are now set to travel.

Checkout was 13:00 and we stayed at the hotel until almost that time doing a variety of packing, computing and shopping chores.

Our first night camping in Colombia was without problems; though the local roosters got active about 5:00 and ended our nights sleep earlier than we might have liked.

The road started to climb almost from the start of todays travel and after we crossed the bridge over the Rio Cauca the climb was on in ernest. You might notice in the photo of the bridge the sand-bagged machine gun post at the far end of the bridge. We climbed from 500ft to over 9000 ft in less than 100 miles and got to 7000ft in about 30 miles.

After a relaxed start we set about driving south through the center of Medellin. Our goal was to at least traverse the city using the main north-south road to get a little flavor of the place. As a goal we set ourselves a Texaco station on the southern side of the town that we had heard about as a potential over night stopping place. It was hectic following the traffic and trying to read the signs, but we were helped by the GPS and the free Colombia map we got on the internet. We found the Texaco and also got stopped by some transit police, they gave us the most thorough review of any police so far but in the end we were on our way with no troubles.

After our goodbyes this morning the road continued a winding climb. The streets in some of the villages were so narrow that home owners had erected posts made of 10 ft sections of railway track in front of their houses to protect then from passing trucks. In a couple of places there was a man with a flag to ensure that only one vehicle at a time tried to negotiate a particularly tight corner. Twice we were forced to back up to allow tanker trucks to pass. All very exciting!! And this is a toll road.

Our first destination today was the town of Giron said by our guide book to be noteworthy for its cobbled streets and white washed Spanish colonial buildings, and its beautiful central square. Our first effort to turn off the highway into Giron was less than successful, we turned into a nice cobbled one-way street the wrong way. Needless to say the street was narrow and took us about a dozen back and forward moves to get turned around while the local drivers encouraged us by sounding their horns, and squeezing around us while we tried to turn. Our second effort to turn in Giron ended in another nicely cobbled street, but a dead end. This time Nina asked a pair of moto (small motor cycles) riders where the entrance was and rather than explain one volunteered to lead us there. Well, the correct turn was a sharp 330° corner that we could only negotiate with a K turn. But the fun was not over. This town was founded in the early 1600, well before motor homes were thought of and the streets are narrow - at one point we passed between a pedestrian and a moto rider and both of them had to duck so as not to be hit in the head by our side mirrors.

As you can see we did not travel far today.

Back into San Gil this morning for a bit more internet business and to discover that yesterday we had missed the center of San Gil and its almost stationary traffic, and multitude of road works. There after we followed the highway through Barbosa towards Tunja and Bogota until early afternoon when we arrived at Arcabuco.

We had a quiet day looking around the town, lazing around the campground, and simply enjoying the place.

I think it would be accurate to say that today was a full day.

The camping ground was much quieter this morning, with many of the cars of last night having departed sometime during the night. The campers that were still present were in the process of packing indicating that the holiday weekend was coming to an end. The road down out of the mountains was also much quieter with only a little bit of local traffic.

We got really lucky today when our hosts Gloria and Miguel offered to take us into downtown Bogota to see a few of the sites.

Our hostess Gloria and her family have opened a bilingual school for their own and other local children. This is probably what would be called a Charter School in the US. We spent much of the day at the school meeting the children and hearing the story of its creation, about current activities and plans for the future. It definitely threw Nina back into Teacher mode and we have had a number of conversations about what would I - Rob - do if we came down here for a few months so that Nina could work at the school.

At the start of the day it seemed like it would be an easy 200 miles or so today, so we did not rush to depart and sat with our hosts, Gloria, Martha, Miquel chatting until well after 10:00 am.

The first task this morning was to get some minutes for my cell phone and lookup the internet for directions to Hacienda Bambusa. We found a Comcel shop on the road into Armenia and parked in a side street nearby. It took me about 20 minutes and when I returned to the vehicle Nina was nowhere to be seen. Then I heard a voice from a nearby house. Nina was inside talking to Deisy, the lady of the house, who was preparing hot chocolate and food for us.

A second day at Hacienda Bambusa. In the morning we drove into Armenia to do some shopping and internet. The town was bigger than we had expected and we were pleased with ourselves that we found a parqueadero close to an internet store and large enough for the Tiger.

Leaving Bambusa was like jumping back into the fray after a nice respite.

We headed back into the Southern fringes of Cali this morning to visit Jardin Plaza on Carrera 100. An impressive modern mall with a Carrafours supermarket, a very large hardware store and many other clothing stores. Very up market. Wifi in the outdoor food areas. We stayed there much longer than expected as I was trying to buy some parts for the propane system as the time is approaching when I will have to figure out how to get our propane tank refilled or use a local gas bottle.

We headed north and then east along a minor road to the village of Silvia to see the Tuesday market. The Lonely Planet guide book suggested it. The road was another one of the now familiar twisting mountain roads that followed the side of a valley. However this road was not complete and we eventually came upon the road crew that is building the last few miles.

This morning was wet and somewhat miserable. Last night there had been some discussion about leaving both vehicles here for the day and catching a bus to San Agustin but Nina and I decided we would drive and Sandra and Bernie opted to come with us.

This morning we made an early start on retracing our steps along the slow road back to Paletara. The weather was better but the road was not. About 60 miles in all back to Paletara, the last 40 over dirt and the total trip took 5 1/2 hours. Lots of low range over big pot holes. There was more traffic on the road today almost all of it trucks carrying cattle or sacks of something. One truck driver stopped to warn us that there were guerillas on the road - at least that's what we think he said. But we had no problems.

As planned last night we were up and moving by 7:30am and made good progress south on slightly less twisting road than yesterday. The drive was simply spectacular as it passed through wide and deep valleys. There were sheer drops mere feet from the road way. As has been the case on most Colombian roads the scenery is spectacular but there are no places to pull off the road so any effort to enjoy the scenery has to be done from the moving vehicle. This does not make for good photographs.

We were out of the gas station by 8:00 am looking to get some propane and have the Tiger washed. For some reason at the 4 places we tried all said NO!. We drove a few miles north to a propane plant, they were willing to fill Bernie's portable bottle but initially said they could not fill the tank on the Tiger. However, after a while, and we think a discussion with the plant boss they story changed and I drove the Tiger into the plant. Like in Central America, at first, the plants pump could not force propane into the tank against the pressure of gas in the tank. But eventually they cranked up the pump pressure and we got topped up.

Not much to say about today, we stayed at the campground all day. At first putting Bernie's vehicle back together, the internal engine cowl was not put back completely by the mechanics that fixed the problems. And then cleaning up the inside of the Tiger, at least Nina cleaning up and tidying up the inside.

Another relaxed (read lazy) day. Mid morning we drove down into town and found a laundry that did our washing. While the washing was in progress we visited an internet cafe, bought some groceries and Nina had a wonderful time buying a truck load of souvenirs.