SAN GIL

Street in at Barichara

From El Cocuy we had a 14 hour bus trip to San Gil. The mountain roads are so steep and curvy and narrow that as soon as the bus got up to speed the pavement would fall apart or part of the rode was missing and we’d slow down to a crawl. Sheri sat a few rows back and Curtis sat at the front next to a friendly dwarf which was good since he didn’t take up much space. Once we did make it to more developed roads the drivers totally abused the idea of a direct bus and picked up people for a few blocks and dropped them to pocket like 25 cents and also drove out of his way in heavy traffic to drop some potatoes at their girlfriend’s restaurant.  We switched buses in Tunja with assurances it was a direct bus, which it was, but it stopped at about 40 minutes out for an hour long lunch break. This bus also showed movies in Spanish at maximum volume: Pacific Rim where robots or something blow up the navy; RED 2 where Bruce Willis shoots a lot of people; and Sylvester Stallone in Bullet in the Head where, well guess what happened. After all this we were a bit traumatized and were happy to be dropped on the highway at dusk in the town of San Gil. San Gil is a colonial town along the Fonce River surrounded by mountains. 

Mansion de Sam, NW corner of the Plaza in San Gill

We stayed at Manison de Sam at the corner of the main town plaza. We had a nice big room with 6 beds and a balcony on the street. At the corner of the plaza people were gathered around a barbeque and sitting on benches chatting and sipping beer. So we got a couple of ice cold Aguila beers and did the same. It was a perfect temperate and much warmer than where we had been. Later we went back to Sam’s and had great thick sirloin steaks for about $6 each (12,000 pesos). 

Our room at Mansion de Sam

Inside courtyard at Mansion de Sam

A band in the plaza stirring up support for a candidate in the March elections.

Street chechas: grilled chicken or beef kabobs or a Perro (hot dog), topped off with a boiled potato as a tip holder.

 

Our favorite beer store in next to the plaza in San Gil

Electioneering Band took over this small cafe.

One day we took a bus to Barichara, a colonial town, and walked along the Camino Real (royal road) to Guane, a small village. The old cobbled road was empty except for three friends who were trekking along for exercise. One guy was from Colombia and was nicknamed ‘Robocop’ because he was so thick and heavy footed; the other guys were from Venezuela and one joker called himself Arturo the Good. Arturo owned an old house in the village and took us there then he took us to a small museum where they had a lot of fossils and a mummy and indigenous pointed skulls (apparently they wrapped their heads tightly to make them pointed). They bought us chicha, a fermented corn drink, and headed back to Barichara on foot, but it was way too hot for us. We took the bus. Back at the room apparently there had been a 5.5 earthquake 14 miles away and small parts of our plaster ceiling had fallen down. 

Cathedral at Barichara

Old doorway in Barichara

Start of the Camino Real in Barichara

Colonial street in Barichara

Old man's beard in a tree on the Camino Real

Sheri and Arturo "the good" at Arturo's house in Guane

Fossils at Guane Museum

Fossil in Guane Museum

Curtis, "Robocop", Victor, and Arturo "the good" in Guane

In San Gil we walked over the Rio Fonce on a pedestrian bridge, leaving the old busy colonial town and entered directly to a modern sparkling new outdoor mall complex. Two faces of the same town. We had lattes overlooking the town and the river from the stylish Cinnamon Café. Sheri stared at her smart device the whole time.

Footbridge over the Rio Fonce in San Gil

The main market at San Gil

The main market at San Gil

One afternoon we booked a rafting trip. We had six people and a guide on a paddle raft and the rapids were surprisingly good (2,3,4). Pretty much right out of the chute the raft flipped and everyone swam. Actually the water felt good and it was only $15 (30,000 pesos) for a 2 ½ hour trip.