Mudville

Villa de Leyva, Colombia

 

Yesterday, we left our hotel in Cali fairly early in the morning, for the drive to the Cali airport (a fair distance outside the city, especially during morning rush hour). We had a short flight to Bogota, where we were to be met by a small bus that was to take us to the town of Villa de Leyva. Apparently, due to hitting a couple of rocks on the way to Bogota, it was delayed and we were eventually loaded onto a temporary replacement. That bus took us to the outskirts of Bogota, where we had lunch and transferred ourselves and all our luggage into our now-repaired, originally scheduled vehicle.

 

Once we were safely on our way again, we made good time on a smooth highway until the skies opened and the torrential rains began. The bus did not have a working defogger for the front window and the driver struggled to keep it clear with a towel - we were not making good time any more!

 

Eventually we left the main road and made our way towards our destinalton via a smaller, twisty but nicely paved road, until we were stopped by a mud-slide. There was no way we could continue on that route but fortunately our bus was small enough to get turned around, unlike the big rigs that were stopped in front of us.

 

We successfully completed our journey by taking a detour through some nameless small town, then via a couple of more circuitous roads, arriving around 7:00PM. The rain did not let up until we started our evening orientation walk around the town, which was really very considerate of the rain gods.

 

This is a very nice colonial town, with a huge number of restaurants, coffee shops, ice cream shops and adventure travel outlets. This is where a lot of citizens of Bogota come on the weekends but fortunately for us, this is not a weekend and the town is quite a peaceful break after the big city of Cali. We are assured that this is a very dry area that rarely sees any rain at all - the locals are ecstatic!

 

 

 

 

This morning, while some of our group chose to take a challenging hike up a scenic canyon nearby, Sue and I decided to spend the day taking a more relaxed view of the town. We did a short, very pleasant hike to the very touristy Casa Terracota (probably the biggest piece of pottery in the world) and took in one artistic museum. Just after noon, the rains returned and after braving the elements for a while, hustling from shop to shop, we took refuge back at the hotel - thus this lengthy post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow, we will be off again, to who knows what adventure.

 

 

{GMST}5|37.941|N|73|31.353|W|Villa de Leyva, Colombia|Villa de Leyva, Colombia{GEND}

 

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Cali

Cali, Colombia

 

After a short drive on much nicer highways, we found ourselves in the big city of Cali, the "Salsa Music" capital of the world.

 

 

 

For the most part, this is an unattractive city, but it does have a pleasant park area downtown. A trip to the "Cat Park" and the "Christo Rey" statue high above the city were the highlights for us. The weather is a little warmer here, closer to the Pacific coast, but still a bit rainy.

 

 

 

 

 

We had only the single afternoon for exploration, then an early morning start for a long travel day.

 

{GMST}3|27.1|N|76|32.0682|W|Cali, Colombia|Cali, Colombia{GEND}

 

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Wild ride

Popayan, Colombia

 

Leaving San Agustin this morning, we were warned that we were in for a rough ride - anyone who gets motion sickness should take appropriate measures! Susanne has been feeling pretty rough herself the last couple of days and elected to take the "better life through drugs" approach. Our leader gave her a magic pill that appears to have kept her stomach contents in place; the only side effect of which is that she is a bit of a zombie this afternoon.

 

Because we are a large group (17 people in all), It has been more economical to use private transport instead of local buses. Thus, we had a small bus for our group alone, for this section of the route. Probably much more comfortable than the alternative.

 

 

 

The route itself was as bad as advertised. Some of the worst roads we have been on in years. The first and last sections were nicely paved but extremely hilly and curvy. The middle section, much of it through dense, rainy jungle, was a sort of narrow, potholed, small-boulder-sized gravel affair, populated with small motorcycles and huge semi-trailer trucks. It took over 5 hours to traverse the 120km route.

The scenery was pretty spectacular though.

 

This is a very wet area - that is not cactus

 

At the end of the road, we came to the large town of Popayan, known as the "white" city, primarily for the colour of all of the downtown buildings. After a bit of a walk around town (most things are closed because it is Sunday), we are ready for supper - the fried chicken has been highly recommended.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow we continue on to Cali.

 

{GMST}2|26.58|N|76|36.612|W|Popayan, Colombia|Popayan, Colombia{GEND}

 

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The journey begins

Hostel Hacienda Anacaona, San Agustin, Colombia

 

Our Tucan Tour is a full load, 16 people, of which several are men (Whew!). Generally a well travelled, older group, which suits us just fine. A total of 5 Canadians.

 

 

Yesterday was a travel day, taking a flight from Bogota to the town of Pitolito, then an hours drive to the town of San Agustin. We have a room at the beautiful Hacienda Anacaona, just outside of town.

 

 

 

Today, we spent the bulk of the day on a tour of the Parque Arqueologico Nacional, a surprisingly extensive set of monolithic rock sculptures, originally buried along with the Mesitas, a people who lived in this area some 3000 to 5000 years ago. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. The site contains the largest collection of religious monuments and megalithic sculptures in Latin America and is considered the world's largest necropolis. See, who says this blog is not educational?

 

 

 

 

 

The guide was great and it was a very full day. A lot of walking. The weather has been very comfortable, although it cools off a bit much at night. Our power was out from sometime last night to sometime this afternoon, which meant no hot showers this morning.

 

 

 

Tomorrow we will be moving on to the town of Popayan, where the adventure will continue.

 

{GMST}1|54|N|76|16.848|W|Hostel Hacienda Anacaona, San Agustin, Colombia|Hostel Hacienda Anacaona, San Agustin, Colombia{GEND}

 

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Bogota from on high

Bogota, Colombia

 

Yesterday we took the graffiti tour in the morning, then took refuge in the Botero Museum when the rain started in the afternoon. Hail and rivers running down the streets but by the time we left the museum the worst was over. Great museum, by the way!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hail swept up in the Museum courtyard

 

 

Today, we took the funicular railway up Monserrate mountain, where spectacular views of the city were to be had. At this point, we had met up with a couple of other women who are going to be on our tour and they all voted to walk back down the mountain. After that, Sue and I just wandered around town and enjoyed the vibrant pace of this city. We stumbled upon a couple of interesting churches along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plaza Bolivar

 

 

 

 

This evening we will meet the rest of our tour group and find out just how much trouble I am in. So far, all we have met have been females - I'll probably end up having to carry these poor helpless girls everywhere.

 

{GMST}4|36|N|74|4.128|W|Bogota, Colombia|Bogota, Colombia{GEND}

 

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