San Cipriano and the MotoTrain

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Two hours from Cali on the heavily militarised Buenaventura road sit several uninspiring wooden shacks. Yet behind this seemingly dull facade lies the magical village of San Cipriano. Its just over the crystal clear river and down a set of disused train tracks.

As we (Mark, Darragh and I) got off the bus we were greeted by the young athletic Oscar who led us over a rope bridge to a set of train tracks. But here the trains don't run anymore, in fact they don't run anywhere in Colombia, and the villagers of San Cipriano were plunged back into isolation in the jungle. That is until some smart villagers of San Cipriano invented an ingenious new method of transport which i have dubbed the "MotoTrain" as i don't actually know what it is called. The MotoTrain is rather simple it involves a plank of wood on wheels that attach themselves to the rails and a motorbike attached to the plank of wood which when it starts drives the plank of wood and its passengers along the train tracks. Not everybody was convinced...A Colombian tourist looked in horror at her boyfriend and said "We are not really getting on that...are we?"....Similarly the chicken in front of us severely underestimated the power of the MotoTrain and tried to waddle out of the way, by the time it started flying it had the unfortunate fate of flying straight into Mark's pasty Australian leg and ricocheting onto the other side of the tracks.

The next 20 minutes were incredible, we sped along the tracks to the strange sound of jungle animals and motorbike engine, interspersed with our "Woahs" as we took a corner at heart jumping pace. On the sharpest corners Oscar cut the engine and we waited, patiently listening for any oncoming traffic (it is only one track) but today it was only chickens headed our way. On arrival in San Cipriano we were again faced with a group of wooden shacks and abject poverty...but again one has to look past the front to find the magic behind, in our case it was the crystal clear river that runs from the mountains down to the village. After a half hour walk further up the hill we were ready to rubber-ring downriver through rapids. Although the rapids weren't strong Darragh managed to get himself wedged between a rock and fallen tree trunk for a good 5 hilarious minutes as he tried to free himself. As we arrived back in the village we were greeted by another local lad who said he could take us to his sister's house where she would cook us fried fish and rice. After a hard day floating down the river and getting sunburnt it seemed a perfect way to fill our hungry bellies and it was.

The journey back from San Cipriano to the real world was even better than before. This time there were only 5 of us on the MotoTrain (Mark,Darragh, Oscar, myself and Oscar's mate whose only job seemed to be oiling the wheels before we started and halfway through the journey) which meant we went even faster!! There were several occassions when i felt my whole body jump up off the wooden seat which was followed by a look towards Mark that put into words would be "Oh shit i think i nearly fell off" mixed with "How awesome was that!" Back at the roadside wooden shacks there was wild excitement as a trussed up pig was carried into the back of a pickup by four men armed only with a half full bottle of liquor to help them blot out the haunting squeals of the swine on its way to be slaughtered.

Half an hour passed before we got on a bus back, this time we were the centre of attention being the only gringos on the bus and being so tall our heads hit the ceiling as we stood up most of the way home. That night was a rowdy one full of Bailey's like aphrodisiac, giraffes, culos (for those that speak spanish) and Samba Caramba. But until the next installment that is enough of the magical world that is Colombia, a magical world that i have fallen in love with.

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Photos

Oscar and his MotoTrain
Preparing for the voyage

The bridge
The first of many adventures that day

On the MotoTrain
View while riding

Hoooooo!
My open mouth encapsulates the unbelievable experience!!

San Cipriano
The town

The infamous pig
I'm still haunted by its screams as it was taken away