Falling in love with Colombia

 Central America, although full of adventures was not always easy to overland through.  At times we missed the easiness of Canada/USA/Mexico for camping, but have now been in Colombia for a month and can not believe how comfortable it is to camp here, how many facilities there are and most importantly how diverse the country as a whole is.  We have understand why we have met so many Colombians in campgrounds or overlanding.  They love there country and they want to see it as much as foreigners do.

We are definitely falling in love with Colombia, it really isn't difficult to do.

June 22^nd – Should’ve worn socks!

We could have stayed in Barichara but there is just so much to see it is even the spot we purchased our first real souviner; a mat!  We drove through mountain roads only stopping for road side snacks and a police check stop.  Just like our experience with a military check stop is started with a solid handshake and questions about how we are doing, except this time the police officer even reached across Paul to make sure Kendra also got a handshake!  At this check stop they checked everything; they went through all our papers and confirmed we were legally on the road.  After a few minutes we were told we could go, but not before we were both handed keychains from that National Police which said “don’t speed” in Spanish.

We arrived into the community of Guadalupe and set up camp for the day on a family’s front yard who allowed us to stay with them.  This was the perfect spot for us as the views of the mountains in the distance were unbelievable and we were only a 15-20 minute walk to Las Gachas.  We had arrived to this spot pretty early so we decided to spend the rest of our time at the river.

Las Gachas is a small shallow river with many circular pools formed by natural water erosion, but even after seeing them we don’t understand how nature would have formed these odd circles as there seemed to be no pattern for their location, size or depth.  

Before we could go to Las Gachas we had to cross into three different properties each one having a person taking a little less then a dollar per person as a toll.  Crossing private property to get to tourist attractions seems to be quasi normal here in Colombia and being expected to pay to cross private property is a well established process (luckily it was only $1,00 Colombian Pesos/person each time).

The river of Las Gachas were as cool to see as it was to jump into with many of the pools being deeper than we are tall; we just wish the water temperature was a bit warmer.  The only thing we didn’t count on was how slippery the river was from the shallow moving water.  We were quick to be told by the locals that we should have worn socks as that prevents you from slipping on the rocks.  Even though we had read countless reviews about this place no one mentioned socks, but every single Colombian was wearing some.  You could really tell we were foreigners with our lack of socks.

We spent a few hours relaxing and watching kids slide from one pool to another and laughed at some of their “stunts”.  Unfortunately, the sun was starting to set so it was time to return to the van and do a bit of research into tomorrow.

 

June 23^rd – Hours in Traffic

Google told us that we had almost 7.5 hours of driving to do today so we left Guadalupe relatively early and started our drive.  Pretty much the entire drive would consist of mountain roads meaning that some would be in good condition, others would not be and most of the drive would require us to go no more than 40 km/h.  We ended up encountering far worse roads than we expected meaning to drive 255 kilometres took us 8.5 hours.  The drive felt especially long as well as for some reason our car stereo decided to stop working intermittently.

The last 70 km or so should have been fast as we had finally hit a main highway which is in good condition with a speed limit of 80 km/h but we encountered standstill traffic where we remained for a little over 2 hours.

No one seemed to know why the road was closed, but most assumed there was a major accident that closed down the highway.

This first hour went by relatively slowly.  We kept on trying to find things to do, thankfully we were by a gas station so we filled up some gas and purchased some freezies from a guy on the road (we were hoping for a bread person or someone selling other goods, but only the freezie man showed up).   The second hour we took apart the car stereo and magically got it to work again so we grabbed the iPad and watched some tv shows (our current watch list includes Beef and Unsolved Mysteries) . 

15 minutes before the road reopened (unbeknownst to us) we seriously contemplated staying at the hotel at the gas station.  We try to avoid driving at night and nightfall was quickly approaching, the only issue was the hotel was terribly reviewed with most reviewers making comments about the cockroaches, bugs and the smells.  We would have just slept in the van in the parking lot but even with the sun below the horizon the temperature was still above 30 degrees.

Finally, the road opened up and we decided to keep driving to our destination, a community known as Doradal where we planned to get a hotel as it was going to remain quite warm throughout the night. 

We arrived after dark and we were exhausted and hungry, we parked the car and explored the community of around 10,000 people.  We were blown away how many people were in the streets visiting each other and having a few to drink at the local bars (drinking in the evening seems to be a cultural norm in Colombia any day of the week).  We grabbed some street food (Kendra’s favourite- papas rellenos- stuffed potatoes usually stuffed with an egg or meat and then deep fried) and explored. It almost felt like there was a festival going on in the town, but it was just a regular Friday night.  We decided to stop in the park for a few beers and watch kids drive miniature versions of Jeeps and motorcycles.  Yes they crashed into each other, and no, no one seemed to care, it was absolute anarchy where these kids were driving. It appeared as though some adults may have had steering and speed controllers, but who knows who was actually driving.

Part of us wanted to stay up and keep on exploring but after a long day of driving we were exhausted so we returned to the hotel and fell asleep with the air conditioner set to 25, because we are becoming acclimatized to some heat, just not 30 degrees in the van at night.

 

June 24^th – Exploring Pablo Escobar’s old estate

The name Pablo Escobar probably rings a few bells, he was the notorious drug lord of Colombia who was dubbed the “King of Cocaine”.  Although he had many houses his most luxurious and largest was Hacienda Napoles just outside of Doradal.  This estate was massive while Pablo owned it and  it is now home to a private zoo of many different animals including various large cats (tigers, pumas, lions, etc.) as well as hippopotamuses, elephants, zebras, monkeys and many exotic animals.

Pablo was killed in 1993 and the estate was taken over by the government.  Not really knowing what to do with all these animals the government opened the area to the public and demolished most of the original buildings.  Since then, the park has been expanding with water parks and hotels being added while stripping anything associated with the Escobar name and legacy from the premises.  We decided we would checkout this estate.

We arrived early and decided to just do the zoo, dogs weren’t allowed in the water parks, and it was too hot for Rupert to stay in the vehicle, but dogs are allowed in the zoo part and are not allowed to stay in vehicles.  We walked all around the park and saw so many animals including Bengal Tigers!  Surprisingly Hacienda Napoles contains almost 1% of all Bengal Tigers in the world.  We also saw some leopards that were VERY INTERESTED in Rupert.  They watched him incredibly close, probably hoping he would somehow get into their side of the enclosure.

We did enjoy seeing Hacienda Napoles, we just wish they had kept some aspects of its history intact, but knowing how controversial Pablo Escobar was and how much the government did not like him, we understand why they have removed almost all aspects of him.  We were able to see a garden planted in the old hacienda’s pool area and walked and drove on the remnants of the private air strip, but other than those pieces, there was no way to know what this piece of land may have been used for.

After thoroughly exploring the park we made our way back to the van and up into the mountains where we found a nice camping spot by a river and rested our muscles with a cold beer in our hands. 

June 25^th – “Wow, we like Colombia”

Our next stop was the resort town of Guatape, a community a quick drive away from the major centre of Medellin meaning it was a favourite spot for local people to visit.  The drive was uneventful, still relatively long by Canadian standards for such a small number of kilometres but before we knew it we were walking the cute streets of Guatape

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We have had a growing feeling in our minds about Colombia and there was something about Guatape that made us verbalize it; we like Colombia… a lot.  It may just be our favourite country of the trip thus far.  The country is a mix of tradition and colour with modern amenities all with a very reasonable cost of living.  There are so many different things to see and the rock that Guatape is famous for looked like a community out of a cartoon with lots of water surrounding the towering rock formation.  Many people compare it with the look of Dragon Ball Z.  We wandered down by the malecon then through the colourful alleyways before reaching a park with live music which had attracted a large crowd.  Without a second thought we sat down and enjoyed music mixed with the ambience of the environment. 

Time flies when you are having a fun, and without warning the sun started to set and we didn’t have anywhere to camp.  Unfortunately, Guatape is known to be a difficult spot to find camping and after going to three potential spots we were getting concerned about where we would camp; however, we had started to notice a trend, many hostels in Central America and Colombia often accept overlanders and allow them to camp in their parking lot for a small fee so we pulled into the nearest hostel and for few bucks we had a safe camping spot near to the water.

Since we had been eating most of the day during our walk around Guatape we weren’t entirely hungry when we arrived so Paul spent the evening trying to make the perfect burger from our camp stove.  A lot of love went into these burgers with caramelized onions, fresh buns, curried meat and some delicious condiments, it was definitely the best burgers we (Paul) had made.  Some times it is just amazing the food we can cook with a little two burner stove (when only one burner is working- more on that later).

 

June 26^th – 740 steps to the top!

The most popular thing to do in Guatape is to climb the Piedra del Penol, a large rock famous in Colombia with many legends about how it got there, some involving aliens.  To climb the rock, you need to ascend up 740 steps where, once completed you will be met with sweeping views of the country side and, of course, a general sense of accomplishment.

We arrived relatively early as yesterday when we arrived the car park was packed and there were hundreds of people doing the climb.  When we arrived, there were only a handful of cars in the parking lot and a few people ascending the rock.

At the bottom

Halfway there

Made it to the top

I’d like to say that we struggled up the 740 stairs but we didn’t, within 15 minutes were at the top looking down on Guatape.

Surprisingly going down was a lot slower and there are different sets of stairs depending on if you are ascending or descending, and, in our opinion, the descending set of stairs were far narrower and more unforgiving if you are not watching your feet.

Guatape was another community where we could have stayed multiple days but we had decided to purchase tickets to see a football (soccer) game in Medellin so we had to leave the resort community for the big city.

Medellin was an adventure to drive in, especially since we decided to drive to various spots in the city to purchase some new supplies.  Paul’s hiking sandals had recently broken, our camping chairs were falling apart and almost broken, our car stereo was not working again and our camping stove was not working correctly, with only one burner getting propane.

We were able to buy new sandals for Paul (in his size!!!) and even new (and better) camping chairs, but we are very concerned about the likelihood of being able to purchase a new camp stove here.  Even if we find a new camp stove, all the adapters and even the propane tank are different here in South America meaning we would have to buy new EVERYTHING (stove, regulator and hose, and propane tank).  We decided to leave this problem to solve another day. 

We went to a Car Stereo place which seemed to be well reviewed, but they convinced us the issue with our stereo was actually an issue with our speakers, a short in them, so we purchased new speakers and had them install them.  It seemed like it cost more then it should, but we were happy that the radio issue was fixed.  After 15 minutes of driving, we learned the issue remained…so frustrating!  We did think about returning, but we felt like we were taken advantage of with them constantly trying to upsell us, so we will try to get it fixed at a different place sometime in the future.

Since we would be going to a football game tomorrow, which obviously is not dog friendly, we decided to get a hotel for a couple days in Medellin to have some time away from the van.  This turned out to be a good idea due to the frustration about the car stereo and camp stove, so we decided to get a little inebriated and watch a bunch of Youtube videos and forget about or van problems temporarily.

 

June 27^th – GO SPORTS TEAM!

Everyone Paul traveled with on the sailboat kept in contact through Whatsapp, and thanks to that group we learned about a tour through a hostel to see a local football game.  Knowing how huge football is in Colombia we couldn’t not go. 

The tour started at 4pm so we spent the morning relaxing and checking out the area around the hotel until the time finally came for us to walk to the hostel and board a bus to the game. 

The game itself started at 7pm, so the first three hours of the tour consisted of taking us to locations near the stadium for some pre-game drinking and socializing.  Due to issues in the past, you are not allowed to drink in the stadium so we did as the backpackers do and made sure we were well “hydrated” before the game. Drinks were some of the most expensive drinks we have purchased from a store, but many of the backpackers were exclaiming how cheap the prices were (compared to other establishments) so we were able to appreciate how cheaply we have been able to buy goods when we are travelling on the road in our own vehicle.

Finally, it was time to make our way into the stadium.  The game was good, the home team lost.  Surprisingly the fans were far more interesting to watch them the game itself with most of them singing and dancing for the entire game!!  If you think the Saskatchewan Roughriders (or any CFL team) Pep band can play, the pep band played the entire game! There was even a demonstration 3/4 through the game where fans pulled out a huge banner telling the manager of the football team to quit.

It was a good night and we had lots of fun socializing with the backpackers on the tour.  We are very glad we did it, and it was nice to see a few of the people Paul sailed with (again).   We could probably be convinced to go see another game, especially now that we have jerseys! Go Sports!

 

June 28^th – Touring around Medellin

One thing we absolutely loved about our hotel is we got free breakfast from the café across the street.  It became pure bliss to wander over to the café every morning and have a delicious breakfast and coffee and talk about the plans for the day, the news or whatever else came to mind.  We would sit for a couple of hours until we were ready to properly tackle the day.

We decided to head to Comuna 13 a community famous for its drug violence during the time of Pablo Escobar as it gave “easy” access to the rural areas of Colombia and the urban area of Medellin, a city where Pablo was based out of.  During the height of the violence Medellin was the most dangerous city in the world with the epicentre being Comuna 13.  Now Medellin is mostly a safe city and Comuna 13 is a tourist area with shops and graffiti telling stories of the hardship the people who lived here faced.  It is a surprisingly beautiful area with so much to see and learn about.

After wandering for hours, we ended up finding a little store that looked out to the entire neighbourhood.  We were shocked to see so few people in it enjoying the views, especially since we had passed so many places full of tourists where the beer was double the price.  We truly felt like we lucked out to be able to enjoy the views of Comuna 13 without the noise of all the other tourists in the area.

We thought we had lots of day light left so we headed towards Plaza Botero, known for its unique statues.  It was a 10 kilometre drive but took over an hour as we were driving into the heart of Medellin during rush hour.  It was nerve wracking to say the least.

 We did eventually find parking and arrived to the park and took in the sights.  The park itself is cordoned off from the rest of the downtown area, which makes a huge market.  It felt like Medellin had tried to make a safe place for tourists to enjoy the park with approved vendors and police guarding each entrance.  Our favourite part was probably the people watching, specifically watching the kids gawk at the statues with genitals.  Some would slyly look while others would run up and investigate.

We did eventually leave the “safety” of the cordoned area and explored the market, it was mostly clothing and other things we didn’t really need, or feel like buying at this time. We did see someone selling a drink we had never seen before called Chicha, which according to the sign was a traditional Venezuelan drink.  The drink was a sweet, and extremely viscous drink, but was delicious and tasted like rice pudding. What was odd was while we were ordering it a Colombian man came up to the street vendor and started to be rather antagonistic to him.  It was the first time we actually started to realize not all Colombians are happy with how many refugees or immigrants have moved from Venezuela to Colombia in the last 10+ years.

We had hopes to return to the hotel and relax in a rooftop Jacuzzi at the hotel, but it seemed to be broken, so instead we decided to explore the area going to a pedestrian street with tons of restaurants and bars on either side.  We ate some dinner and went to a local brewery for some of the most delicious beer we had ever had while we watched some university students create an art display across the road.

We should have just gone back to the hotel after but we decided to get a midnight snack at a food vendor near the hotel where we purchased the largest burger of our lives.  We did try to eat it (singular) but the two of us barely ate half of it.  This burger is going to be lunch for tomorrow.

 

June 29^th – If views could kill

Our time in Medellin had come to an end it was time to return to camping our way through South America.  We did have a slower start to the day as we still wanted to have an enjoyable breakfast before heading towards the town of Jerico.

There are two communities that seem to be in competition with each other for the unofficial title of Colombia’s cutest town, Jerico and Jardin, so we decided to visit them both.

The drive to Jerico was pretty quick but offered beautiful views of the Andes Mountains before we ascended into them.  Once we arrived in Jerico it was easy to see why people felt it was a cute town.  It was colourful with streets lined with colourful buildings and an inviting town square.  It was easy to see that the locals wanted to increase tourism as everyone we met was really friendly and excited to see tourists.  All the signs and tourist information posts and key locations within the community were in English and Spanish and, probably most surprisingly, we seemed to be the only English speakers in the entire community.

After exploring most of the town of foot we headed towards the Christ the Redeemer mirador which overlooked the entire community.  We thought this would be one of the best views we could get in the area until we reached our campsite for the night, a local restaurant where people start their paragliding descent.  If views could kill we would not have survived Jerico.

 

June 30^th – Averting disaster on Colombian backroads

For some reason Paul got it in his head that sunrise would be beautiful from our campsite so he set the alarm for 5:30am.  Sunrise was nice, but that early morning alarm, not so much.

When we eventually woke up again we decided the best way to appreciate the mountainscape of Jerico was to hike to the top of the nearest mountain, which happened to be known as cloud mountain.  The hike was not the easiest but relatively well defined and upkept.  They even had the stations of the cross on the way up, in case we wanted to pray along the way. Regardless of how hard we thought the hike was the views were beautiful with unique cloud formations and views for days.  We did meet a few other people at the top of the mountain, humorously a man from Canada (he initially said Toronto but when we told him we were Canadian he said Mississauga). On the way down we stopped at the no longer running cable car (with a hole in the bottom of the car) and got a little lost in a field before reconnecting with the official trail again.

By the time we returned to Jerico it was time for a break and thankfully Jerico had some cute cafes with excellent coffee thanks to its location in the heart of the coffee region of Colombia.  All in all we loved Jerico.

Retrospectively we should have stayed another night in Jerico because we truly loved the community and the campground, but instead decided to drive to Jardin.  There are two ways to reach Jardin from Jerico, the first is the recommended highway route of 100 kilometres that is estimated to take 2.5 hours, or the 40 kilometer backroad that we were told would “take longer”.  Well, we had just watched a youtube video of people driving backroads in Colombia so decided that our Dodge Grand Caravan Bearry was up to the task. 

The road was…an adventure with a difficult section for us to traverse every kilometer or so.  These difficult sections consisted of mud, deep potholes, extremely narrow roadway sections, rocks, etc. but the van (and Paul) were able to tackle all of them and we made it to Jardin after 2 hours and 40 minutes.  I guess the locals were right, it did take longer.

By the time we arrived in Jardin it was getting pretty late so we went straight to a restaurant that offered camping and put our feet up for the night happy that our decision to tackle Colombian backroads didn’t end in disaster.

 

July 1^st – From Bats to Birds in the Garden City

We were excited to see the town so many argued was the cutest town in Colombia; Jardin, Spanish for Garden, definitely was green and bustling with tourists, both international and domestic.  Quite the contrast from Jerico which barely had any tourists.

Our first stop of the day was to “the bat caves” where we were guided through old mining tunnels of Jardin that were now full of fruit bats. After being guided through the tunnel we were treated to views which opened up to greenery that looked like they were right out of an English garden with natural water features.  Jardin definitely was a beautiful community.

We spent the mid morning to early afternoon just exploring the little shops and cafes until a bird sanctuary in Jardin opened up famous for the density of Tunki, the national bird of Peru, (better known as the Cock of the Rocks).  These red birds were weird looking birds and incredibly vocal with each other and people passing by, it was definitely something to behold.

                     
 

Unfortunately, by the end of our time at the bird sanctuary we were exhausted so thought to head to a different campsite that promised hot showers (a true luxury on this trip) and potentially WIFI.  Well there was no WIFI but the hot showers were exactly what we needed and we even met another couple travelling Colombia so we spent the evening sharing stories of our trips thus far.

 July 2^nd – Ummm…keep the eyebrows.??! (or that time we slide into a rock wall)

We had noticed for the last few weeks that Rupert was not enjoying the heat and he had become quite a shaggy dog so it was time for him to get a haircut.  We had made an appointment with a groomer yesterday but we failed to discusses with each other how Rupert should be groomed so Paul had to make some executive decisions.  He decided that he wanted Rupert’s hair to be as short as possible with a cute face.  When the groomer asked what he meant by a cute face Paul replied, umm keep the eyebrows.  The groomer confirmed a couple times Paul’s request then said to come back in a couple hours.

We spent the couple hours away from Rupert at cafes in the mountains above Jardin until we got the call saying Rupert was done.  Unfortunately for Rupert’s ego, the first thing Kendra does when she see’s him is burst into laughter.  She didn’t stop laughing until she had tears in her eyes.  Poor Rupert if he could hear he would probably have tears in his eyes too. The groomer followed Paul’s instructions quite literally.  Rupert is completely shaved down, with eyebrows.

Jardin was nice, but we definitely had preferred Jerico and even considered heading back to Jerico, but in the end decided to continue heading south.

We started to regret this decision almost instantly as this 270 kilometre drive was projected to be over 8 hours due to construction.  It was a brutally slow drive with many stops, vendors selling stuff and changes to where we planned to sleep.  For some reason we decided to keep with our original plan to drive to a hot spring, enjoy said hot spring then sleep in the parking lot. 

The hot spring was known as San Vincente Hot Springs which was well reviewed except for one detail.  Many people complained about the 12 kilometer dirt road leading up to the hot springs.  As Canadians who have driven on many dirt roads we were confident that this would be an easy 12 kilometers, unfortunately we were wrong.  Most of the road was 1.5 car widths wide with the requirement to pass large tourist buses heading to town from the hot springs.  Thanks to one of these large buses Paul reversed to the side of the road where Kendra had noticed was full of incredibly soupy mud.  Within a couple seconds the mud had sucked the van into a rock wall.  We were stuck!

Paul couldn’t drive forward, or to the side and thanks to the mud the further he reversed the more we were pushed into the rock wall and the more damage would occur to the van.  We sat unsure of what to do for a few moments when suddenly a massive bus full of employees from the hot springs pulled over and asked if we needed a hand.  Without saying another word 10 strong men jumped off the bus and formulated a plan to push our van up the hill and out of the mud.  It wasn’t easy and everyone got muddy but we escaped the mud with a few scratches and dents to remember the time we slide into a rock wall and a bunch of Colombians gladly helped.

We did eventually make it to the hot springs and it was glorious!  The reason we had chosen San Vincete is because of how natural in claimed the hot springs were.  Well, it definitely reminded us of Liard River Hot Springs for its improved nature concept.  You felt like you were in the midst of the jungle while able to sit comfortably in the hot water. 

After a couple hours the heat, and the stress from the day was getting to us and we were falling asleep. Since the hot springs is not dog friendly we headed 500 metres up the road and pulled into a large pull out to camp for the night.  It barely took any time for us to fall into a deep sleep the second our heads hit our pillows at the end of the day.

 

July 3^rd – Can we just live here?

We drove back down the muddy road to the community of Santa Rosa de Cabal surprisingly in better humour about the damage caused by the rock wall.  A big reason for this is that we encountered an American cyclist (from Florida) training in the mountains who was blown away that we had driven to Colombia which gave us the ego boost we needed.  

We did explore Santa Rosa de Cabal and although it was cute it wasn’t overly memorable for us. WE stopped at the Machete Park and wandered around checking out some stores. We were able to buy some more food for Rupert, so it was a productive time in this small city.

Today our drive took us to the community of Salento which quite a few of our friends on the road had raved about so we were quite excited to arrive. 

Its hard to explain exactly what it was about this town, but it could be a place where we could live, very walkable, full of stores, pubs and restaurants and a lively feel.  The main road Calle Real was alive with people and before we knew it we were enjoying coffee in a café, wandering into stores and purchasing souvenirs. 

Everyone in Salento was so friendly, when trying to find a place to eat we picked a crowded Arepa restaurant. While waiting to order, a couple from the nearby city of Armenia waved us to join them at their table where we spent an hour or so talking about our lives.  An hour late we decided to get a cocktail at a local tienda and spent another hour or so talking to the store employee who was around our age and we shared about our respective countries. He thought Canada and the USA were desirable places with no poverty and an easier way of life, while we assured him there is poverty and we enjoy Colombia’s way of life better since everyone spends time outside in the city squares and parks, not hiding or hanging out in their houses like many do in Canada.  It was easy for us to understand why so many overlanders, us included, love Salento.

 

July 4^th – TEJO

We had three goals for the day, #1 Relax at cafes throughout Salento; #2 Wander the rest of the city; #3 Play Tejo.

The first two goals were easily completed but the third one we were unsure about.

Tejo is known as Colombia’s national sport and it is a game consisting of throwing a metal rock at a target surrounded by paper triangles filled gun powder.  The result is a truly explosive game where drinking is almost mandatory.  There were many places we could have played it in Colombia but many people recommended playing it in Salento as it is set up for tourists.  There were two locations where we could play and shortly after walking into the door we had the metal discs in one hand and a drink in the other.  We definitely weren’t amazing at the game at first but after a game Paul hit the gunpowder causing a little explosion.  Potentially unsurprising, Paul’s rection was louder than the gunpowder when he hit it.

Nearing the end of our time at the Tejo board Paul ended up running into a few people from his sailboat who recommended a different people in Salento to play Tejo or watch locals play so we headed there for another game or two.  The second place was far better then the first place, the metal disks seemed easier to aim meaning more explosions from the gunpowder and the place used far more gunpowder meaning larger and louder explosives.

If you get a chance we fully recommend playing Tejo, its kind of like Bean Bag Toss or Cornhole but way more exciting and significantly louder. 

For anyone wondering who won, it was Kendra she won 3 games, Paul only won 1.

After returning to the campsite, we assumed we’d have a quiet rest of our night, but we got the opportunity to repay the kindness we received when we got stuck in the mud.  A family from the big city of Cali had a flat tire and had no way to inflate or change the tire.  We had all the tools they needed including an air compressor so we happily helped the family inflate their tire, which is when they realised there was a rather large hole in it.   We then helped them change the tire when they couldn’t figure out how to retrieve the full size spare under their vehicle.    We are believers that what goes around comes around and wanted to pay forward the kindness we had receive.

 

July 5^th – One year on the road

The main attraction in the Salento area is the Valle de Cocora famous for having the worlds tallest palm trees. 

We thought about trying to drive some backroads to see these palm tree but in the end decided to do an 11 kilometer hike instead.

The first 2 kilometers of the hike were incredibly touristy within the Bosque de Palma National Park with many viewpoints and photo locations including one where you stood on a large hand.  The hand is quite popular so we had to wait in line for a bit where Rupert made many friends, many of which still commented on his “cejas” (eyebrows).

The next 4 kilometers where uphill on a well defined old road, nothing very difficult, which was made easier knowing there was a small shop selling beverages at the top.  Unfortunately when we finished this section the skies opened up and we saw, and felt, the force of the Colombian rainy season, and guess who forgot his rain jacket, Paul.

We then had 4 kilometres of downhill in the rain and to say it was slippery was an understatement, even with good shoes we slipped often with Kendra taking quite to tumble and using her bum to slide down at a few points. 

Thankfully there was silver lining as the hike took us right into a hummingbird reserve where we saw more hummingbirds than we ever have in our lives and were treated with hot chocolate and hot vanilla (!?) with cheese (of course).

The last few kilometers were mostly flat but beautiful with amazing views of the Cocora valley and the large palm trees it was known for, the hike definitely was not a walk in the park but it felt like quite a triumph to complete it with all the technical portions of it thanks to the rain and mud.

Today was actually a very special day for us, today marks 1 year on the road.  We have no idea how to celebrate but we are in awe that we have made it this far.  There has definitely been some hiccups on the road but we definitely have no regrets.  We had hoped to celebrate this accomplishment by going for a nice dinner but unfortunately there were not good restaurants nearby so we ate a burger and had Colombian Nachos and spent the evening playing a few games.

 

July 6^th – Celebrating our one year on the road

Our propane cooking stove was driving us crazy.  We were not used to cooking with one burner and the one burner that did work seemed to be having some issues as well but we had a plan.

We recently had a thought, if we could get our battery fixed in Barranquilla could we get our camping stove fixed?  I guess it shows a bit of our privilege and/or the norms we are used to. When something breaks we will  buy new stuff instead of thinking about trying to fix it.   We didn’t know what we would even google to try to find someone to fix our stove, but we had recently spoken to a couple from the nearby city who had done a bunch of propane work on their campervan.  What luck!  We even had their number so a few text messages later we had someone who could potentially fix our stove.

We drove to Armenia, the capital city of the Quindio department and dropped off our stove; happy that we may have found a solution to our camp stove woes.

We seemed to keep on finding potential solutions for our problem as when talking to the owners of the campground we decided to stay at in Armenia they mentioned that they knew a good Electrical Mechanic shop that may be able to fix our car stereo issue (yup still a thing).

Feeling quite excited that a bunch of our problem may be fixed tomorrow we decided to celebrate our one year on the road with steak, potatoes and of course wine.  We don’t want to get our hopes up but, wow it would be nice to have the camp stove and car stereo fixed!

 

July 7^th – EVERYTHING IS FIXED!!!

We decided that we would try to fix the car stereo today.  We were pretty sure there was a short somewhere in the power supply but had no idea where it would be, but at least we were going to someone who could potentially fix our van,

We arrived and after a small discussion with the guys at the shop we had three people looking at the van.  They found the short in 2 minutes.  The short was in our auxiliary power outlet (the cigarette lighter hole).  Before we knew it the plastic console was off, the wiring was fixed and everything was put back together (with some found Mexican Pesos and a Loonie).  What we couldn’t believe is when we asked them how much to fix this issue the responded roughly $3.50 CAD!!!  Unbelievable, to have this issue fixed after the frustration we felt in Medellin when we were told to fix our issue we needed new speakers!!

Yesterday the person who said they could possibly fix our camp stove mentioned that they would contact Paul sometime this afternoon to let him know if they could fix it.  Well because the car stereo fixed took so little time to fix we had some time to kill so we explored Parque de la Vida which was full of bamboo and Agouti’s which are slightly bigger guinea pig looking creatures (they are about the size of a small rabbit).  We could have spent longer in the park but the skies once again opened up and the rain poured down.

The rain didn’t dampen our feelings too much as we got the call we had hoped for, the camp stove could be fixed (for about $20)!!    Picking up the fixed camp stove was surreal.  Two issues that have plagued us for weeks and caused us stress have now disappeared.  We can’t believe it, but everything is fixed!!!  The only issue is in our experience as soon as one issue is fixed another one presents itself.  I guess we will just have to hold our breath and hope nothing will arise.

To celebrate we decided to head to a brewery. Unfortunately, the brewery is only open for people with reservations and the other brewery we tried to go to opens at 6pm, so having a celebratory beer was a bust.