So long Colombia

So we reached our last few days in Colombia :( . What better way to finish though then by hitting San Gil, the adventure sport capital.

We arrived last Saturday by day bus (don´t do it to yourself - night bus it all the way) and booked into Sam´s VIP hostel right in front of the town´s main square.

We signed up for white water rafting on Colombia´s only grade five rapid river - perhaps not the best idea for amateurs - on day one. Unfortunately it was cancelled due to the river being too high from rain in the hills. It was cancelled the next day, and the next - in fact no-one went out for the six days we were there. So be warned if you are heading to San Gil for that only - it is quite possible it won´t happen.



Instead we looked into the other things to do which includes paragliding, caving, canyoning and mountain biking. We opted to go hydro-speeding with some guys we had met in the hostel the night before, Sam from Oz and Anthony from NZ. We bonded over food in Sam´s Pub (awesome steak and ribs) and DVD evening of Dirty Dancing. Yes you read it right. After finding out that Sam (who is only 20) had never seen DD or Top Gun we watched the film after dinner - much to the dismay of the hostel - although not so much the girls. Boys - I know you were all secretly watching as well - everytime I glanced up it was like catching Dad watching Neighbours when we were kids.

Anyway Hydrospeeding. This seemed like a good idea. Basically it is body boarding with flippers down a river with grade three rapids. Perhaps it would have been better to think it through before I got in the river. With a helmet too big (I couldn´t see ahead of me) and both flippers already having fallen off before hitting the first rapids (you need them to help you kick through the torrent) it wasn´t an enjoyable experience. After having the confidence knocked out of me I would have liked to get out of the river there and then but that wasn´t an option so thanks go to Anthony and Sam for keeping me going (my husband was no-where to be seen).

Everyone else seemed to enjoy it and to be fair the calm bits of the river were cool. Afterwards we all headed to Gringo Mike´s for burgers. If you are ever in San Gil you have to check them out - they are amazing.

 

The next couple of days were spent recovering from hydrospeeding - we were all sore from being chucked about by the river.

We hiked up to the local waterfall which was beautiful. Arriving at the entrance with Sam and two guys we had met on the bus, the lady working there obviously thought we couldn´t manage the route ourselves and got her eight year old niece to show us the way. She was right - but seriously this little girl was like Lara Croft. She navigated us up and across the river so that we were able to get right under the waterfall.

The next day we tried our hand at cliff jumping (although more a rock then cliff). I chickened out,  after my hydrospeed experience I didn´t fancy another dirty, fast moving river and instead chilled sunbathing at the top watching the birds fly overhead.

That evening we met some new guys including a lovely coulple from Melbourne, Matesse and Paul. We headed out in a large group to play Tejo - the traditional sport of Colombian where you basically throw metal disks at a clay target which explodes if you hit it. It was great fun and actually quite hard.

Our last day we headed to a local town called Barichara (45 minutes in a bus). We had heard a lot about this place all week. Mainly about the brownies you could get in a cafe in the square, which as we were very well-informed by Sam were to die for - so naturally we had to have one.

There was so much more to the place than the brownie though. It is absolutely beautiful and I definately recommend it. It has the feel of a spanish or italian hilltop town and the architrcture, churches, views and history make it well worth a visit. If you go, make sure you make it up the hill to the artist´s sculpture garden.

After Barichara we did a two hour hike across to Guana an even smaller village before heading back to a home-cooked dinner of roast chicken and veg - kindly made for us by Matesse and Paul - love those guys.

Our last day we chilled out by the pool before catching the night bus to Bogota and straight on a plane to Lima. It was touch and go whether we would make it with the bus driver naturally taking an extra two hours to do the journey but we got there in the end.

Colombia has been fab and we definately recommend it but looking forward to adventures in Peru now.