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Published: February 25th 2010
It's been a couple of days since my last update and there's a fair amount to fill you in on, so I'm going to do this update in two parts.
I guess that the last time that I wrote I was enamoured with Villa de Leyva and its laid back way of life. It really would have been too easy to stay there, but on Monday night I was sitting in a bar on my own overlooking the square which was totally empty. There was a heavy thunderstorm and webs of lightning streaked across the sky - a silhouette of mountain etched into the distant landscape. Beautiful.
I noticed that the lightning moved
across the sky rather than heading towards the earth - is this normal? It was interesting to watch but that it was interesting should be enough to tell you that I was kinda bored. I guess that I'm a city boy at heart. In fairness, I think that Tuesday night would have been much busier (seems that pretty much everything is closed Monday nights in VdL). I pondered the fact that I've got a fair distance to travel and not
that much time to do it in
Hotel Plaza Mayor #2
Looking up from the breakfast room- so I figured that I'd better crack on. I LOVE VdL though (except Mondays) - I would definitely recommend it.
So yesterday, I decided to check out of my hotel in Villa de Leyva and head north to my next destination - San Gil.
Checking out was harder than I had expected. I can't remember if I've filled you in on what I'm doing regards travel money but, basically, I've got a VISA credit card and a Post Office travel money VISA card (like a debit card, I suppose). It seems that neither of these work in terminals in retail establishments - they work fine in cash machines, just not when you want to pay for something by card. Bizarre.
OK, so I need to make a cash withdrawal at an ATM - except the most that you can withdraw is 300.000 COP - sounds like a lot but it wasn't enough to cover my bill at the hotel - fortunately I had two cards. Any way, I've posted some shots of the hotel. It's called
Hotel Plaza Mayor and it's an expensive (relatively) but nice place to stay. The owner Juan speaks English, although the receptionists don't. Also,
Hotel Plaza Mayor #3
Enough breakfast room already! there were some works on the water system whilst I was there so there wasn't always hot water. When there
was hot water, it was REALLY hot. But apart from that, it's a good place to stay and has great views of the the Plaza Mayor from the terrace.
I'd called ahead to the Macondo Hostel in San Gil to reserve a room here. They have an odd system whereby if you want to actutally
confirm the room, you have to pay for the first night's accommodation in advance. That can be done at a "participating" hostel - in the case of VdL, that was a place called "Adventure Colombia" which I remember having seen on my wanders around the town. So, having finally settled the bill at Hotel Plaza Mayor, I set off to try to find Adventure Colombia. I thought that it was on the road to the bus terminal but I couldn't find it. In the end I gave up and just headed to the terminal hoping that nobody else would nab my hostel space whilst I was en route.
Mónica had told me that, in order to get to San Gil from VdL, I
Hotel Plaza Mayor #4
1st floor - overlooks the breakfast room needed to get a bus to Tunja and then change. At the terminal in VdL, the bus vultures were out and were trying to convince me to go somewhere entirely different to Tunja - kept saying that it was a lot further travelling via Tunja. It's worked out so far that Mónica is always right, so I ignored what they said and got on the first "bus" to Tunja. As the driver was loading my bag, I asked him when we were leaving. He said "15 minutes". I asked if that was 15 Colombian minutes or 15 normal minutes. It raised a laugh - think I'll use that line again 😊
As it happened, the bus left on time and, compared to my trip to VdL, it was super comfortable. Fortunately, the bus was incapable of travelling more than 45 mph so the driver was less inclined to overtake on blind bends etc (although he did try a couple of times). And we got to Tunja within 15 minutes of the time that was officially stated.
Tunja bus terminal was as most bus terminals are - pretty drab and uninspiring. I'm sure that I only saw the worst bits
Hotel Plaza Mayor #5
It's odd that it doesn't seem odd having a tree growing in the middle of the breakfast room of Tunja, but what I saw made me glad that I'd not booked a night there.
I found a bus company that Mónica had recommended - Copetran. Apparently Berlinas are the best but Copetran are ok. I checked that the bus was a "big bus" and the guy at the ticket office assured me that it was. 20.000 COP later, I headed downstairs to what I thought was the waiting room. As it happened, the guy that sold me the ticket grabbed me about 10 minutes later and ushered me and another passenger over the road and then hailed the bus that we were supposed to take.
The coach was AMAZING - the seats were almost like lazyboy chairs (leg rests, foot rests, reclining seats...super comfortable!). So off we set towards San Gil. Before I borded the bus I'd called ahead to the hostel in San Gil to check that the room was still available and it was. I pleaded with them to hold it for me - "No, I'm not going to change my plans (again), I'm definitely getting on the bus right now" etc.
About an hour into the journey, we pulled over at the Colombian equivalent
Hotel Plaza Mayor #6
The view from my front door. of a greasy spoon. I asked a fellow passenger what was going on and it turned out that we were stopping for lunch. Of course.
Well, I hadn't really had much for breakfast so I was cool with that. I asked the driver how long we'd be stopping for and was told 20 minutes. That was 20 Colombian minutes, of course.
Walking into the "greasy spoon" was like something out of a film. As soon as they saw the gringo, everybody stopped talking and all eyes were on me. Very odd senstation. Not unfriendly, just odd. I could almost see the tumbleweed rolling in front of me.
I ordered a couple of bits and a drink and went to stand outside to eat it. And the heavens opened. I stood under a 2 ft wide lean-to trying to stay dry and wait for it to stop raining. But it didn't. The rain just got heavier and heavier.
And it was at this point that I was offered my first drugs in Colombia. A fairly shifty looking guy sidled up to me and said something about the weather and then said something along the lines (forgive the pun) of "do
you want to buy some coke" (I think). I wasn't really sure what to do - I didn't want to upset the guy. Fortunately a combination of "no entiendo" and "no me interesa, gracias" seemed to be enough for him to wander off and leave me alone.
Just as the rain was getting to its heaviest, the driver decided that it was time to move on. I hung back while others queued in the rain to get on the bus. Smart you see 😊 Once everybody else was loaded, I dashed on board.
The total time for the trip from Tunja to San Gil is about 4 hours and for the long leg of it, we had a movie to watch (Hitman, dubbed in Spanish) and, later, some pretty awful music (played really loud). Oh yeah, the air conditioning was on full too -
everything that you hear about bus journeys in South America is true! Hahahaha. Honestly, I didn't mind. I was super comfortable and warm enough - and I was just ASTOUNDED by the views that I was being treated to. The road from Tunja to San Gil is basically winding mountain road, and the quality
Hotel Plaza Mayor #8
The view from the terrace. of roads isn't all that good. There are a number of places where you see rocks covering one of the lanes, or holes so large that you could lose a minibus in them (ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration). In fairness, I can't imagine the effor that it must take to keep these roads open - all things considered, I think that they do a pretty good job here.
Anyway, as I was saying, the views....WOW...the views. I tried to get a couple of shots with my iPhone which I've uploaded. Honestly, they really don't do the trip justice. I've never seen anything like it.
There's a type of tree here which has bright red flowers and, occasionally, you will see a group of them together. The closest thing that I can thing of by way of comparrison is when you see a field with a bunch of poppies in the middle - the redness just takes you back. And I kept seeing these small pockets of "red flower bearing trees" against a sea of green. Amazing valleys full of trees. I really, really love this country.
Our trip took us over 3000 metres and then back down again to where we are now - about 1000 metres (I think). It's weird (to me) that the climate here is determined much more by the altitude rather than the distance to the equator. Certainly, stepping off the bus at San Gil (largely on time, btw) was the first time that I really noticed the heat in this country.
So that was my journey yesterday (fairly uneventful, really). Having got to the terminal in San Gil, I jumped in a cab to the hostel and was shown to my room (they'd held it for me). I've got a private room which is actually in a seperate building to the main hostel (next door but one). Ah, OK, San Gil is the next posting. I won't tell you about it here. I'll try to get the next update written tomorrow - would be nice to get back up to date 😊
Just a couple of things to note for anybody lucky enough to be doing a trip like this:
* The middle of the coach is the most comfortable place to sit - fewer bumps. Funny, I remembered being on the school bus when I was young - the back seat is the cool place to sit but you get thrown all over the place. Remember?
* When travelling on a coach over here, bring something warm to wear - you'll need it.
* Hitman is NOT a good film - although fortunately the dialog is so unimportant that I'd probably understand the film if it were dubbed in Russian.
* Travelling with a quality coach company (Berlinas or Copetran according to Mónica - who is never wrong) makes ALL the difference.
That's me done for now.
Hasta luego
UPDATE: For some reason, I'm unable to get my "on the coach" photos transferred from my phone to my PC. I'll try to post them up later - if I ever get it working. Sorry.
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anita
non-member comment
A good morning read
Hey Chris, I was getting withdrawal symptoms without my daily fix of travel blog! Your writing is so good, just pulls you in, almost like your there yourself. You are a clever chappy! It made me laugh about running to board the bus last. You should have been first in the Q.. Upholding the British way of life ;-).. stiff upper lip and all that. It was only a bit of rain.. hehehe. It's been constant rain over here. Next time.. take me with you!! Looking forward to hearing all about San Gil. P.S: If Monicas always right.. can she guess what the lottery numbers will be Saturday?