Rafting

Unbelievable but true I went to the white water rafting capital of Colombia. Ok San Gil is the only place in Colombia where you can go rafting but we won’t be picky will we.
The other reason why I thought of stopping in San Gil was that it nicely breaks up the 20 hour bus ride to the coast. Didn’t expect much from the town but I liked it very much. It is not that big (30.000), very clean (which is surprising for a SA city) and feels very safe. Safe enough even to go for a run after dusk on a small dirt road outside of the city. Don’t worry there is enough police and military with big guns around. In fact I have never seen such a big police and Military to inhabitant’s ratio anywhere. I think this was mainly due to the fact that Monday was a public holiday and a lot of people from Bogotá and Bucarmanga come to San Gil for the adventure sports. Unfortunately or fortunately in the end I had to wait two days before my rafting trip left as I didn’t want to do the stock standard grade 2 rafting trip they normally offer.
The time between was wisely spend on having a look at Barichara which as a whole was declared a National Monument. The town consists mainly of colonial buildings and has not changed in the last 300 years. The roads are still paved with huge stone slabs and the houses all still have the old look to them. Quite nice and have a look at the pics.
The day after I went to a waterfall with a swimming hole. Not the Iguaçu falls but the location in the middle of a forest and the cold water made up for that.

Then on Sunday it was time to get up early to start the rafting trip. After a two hour drive to the starting point I saw my group the first time. I had the feeling that something was odd as there were quite a few people idling around and after a closer look I saw that they had Uzi's (a kind of machine gun), revolvers and assault rifles. It turned out in the end that one of the group was the finance minister of Colombia (or something similar). At the end of the trip there were even more Bodyguards, police and Military around. Don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people in plain clothes with guns in my life and I certainly never had anyone on my table with a revolver tugged into his trousers.
Back to the rafting. I have to say it wasn’t that bad. It started slow but the last sections were of a grade 4 or 4+ (out of 5) and lots of fun. Unfortunately one of the spoiled brats of the finance guy fell out and we didn’t continue the trip after lunch. It seems that apart from me there were only he, his family, his friends and bodyguards.

One of the local delicacies of this area is (apart from stewed goat) fried giant ants. The ants are about 1.5cm long and are eaten with your beer instead of peanuts. I tried them (obviously) but they taste like you think ants taste. Kind of funny. Don’t think this will replace peanuts around the world.

Next stop Ciudad Perdida (“the lost city”)

---

---