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Published: February 25th 2010
The view from Capilla Santa Barbara
If the climb up the hill doesn't take your breath away, then the view certainly will.San Gil (pronounced "Hill") is aptly named. It's built into a valley and it has hills that would make a Darwenian blush - I genuinely thought that the cab was going to roll over as it rounded the bend to take me to my hostel.
My hostel is
The Macondo Hostel and it sits at the top of the steepest hill ever, about 2 blocks north (I think) of the main park / square.
San Gil is renouned for its adventure sports and the people who are here are, unsurprisingly, kinda sporty. That said, the vibe in the hostel is good and, as with the Cranky Croc, very welcoming and friendly.
I opted for a privte room with private bathroom and, as I think that I mentioned in the last posting, the private rooms are in a different building which is two doors down from the main building.
A quick note, while I remember it, the private room with private bathroom doesn't have hot water for a shower - there's actually only one tap! But the shared bathroom at the end of the corridor
does have a hot water shower and, since I'm the only person in the private block, that's what
Parque Principal, Barichara
Well, the park's on the left I'm using!
As you walk into the hostel, the first thing that you notice is a one bright orange and one bright green hammock spread across the courtyard (which serves as the main communal area).
Overall, the main building is a little bit more "raw" than the Crank Croc. I've not seen the dorms but I'm happy to be staying in the private room (private room with bathroom is 40.000 COP per night, btw - that's about £13 to you and me).
The room has an electricity socket (of the 2-pin European variety, unusually - everywhere else that I've seen uses US style connections). But it doesn't work anyway. I'm in the somewhat unusual position of having to charge my devices in the bathroom - it works OK...but probably only because I'm not using the shower in there.
WiFi is free here but it doesn't extend to the "private rooms" building. Alledgedly, the internet is turned off from 12am to 7am but I'm writing this at 1.31am and it's still on. The door is open 24/7 and there is always somebody on the reception. There is a laundry service and fridge full of beer and soft drinks which is
operated on an honesty policy (you write down when you take something and are, presumably, charged at the end of your stay). The staff are super-friendly (they are predominantly Colombian, after all).
Any way, last night when I arrived I just unpacked my stuff and got chatting to some other people here. Went for dinner in town with a Australian guy called Chris and then headed to a bar across the road from the hostel (near as damn it) called Bar con Versano. This has become a firm favouite already since the selection of music is great and the staff (Nora and Alejandra) are super friendly. Tonight they taught me to play Rummy!
This morning I remembered that last night, I'd banged my knee on the bed and it was pretty sore. A good enough excuse for not getting involved in any adventure sports today 😊 So I decided to head up to Barichara which is around a 30-45 minute bus ride away (depeding on how many people are getting on and off). Fortunately the hostel provide a little map with directions to the terminal where you can get the bus (a short walk from the main square).
The bus itself is small but entirely adequate for a short journey and costs about 3.500 COP if I remember correctly (about £1) each way. The terminal itself is pretty small and each bus parks beneath a sign telling you where it's going - really easy. For info, you pay at the ticket office, get a ticket but don't actually show or hand over the ticket until you get off the bus. Bit odd, but it seems to work.
OK, I should point out that this was at about 10am and already the heat was intense. My watch said 33 degrees (although I'm not sure how reliable that is). Certainly it's been a super-hot day.
Where Villa de Leyva is laid-back, Barichara is more comatose. It's the sleepiest of sleepy towns that you'll ever come across. The weekends are, allegedly, busier. That's not to put the place down - it's really beautiful.
A big churh (Temple Immaculade) dominates the main square / park. The freshness inside the temple was super-refreshing (I'm beginning to see why church is such a popular passtime in this part of the world 😊
I wandered around the square for a while, trying
Temple Immaculade Exterior Brickwork
I appear to have developed a taste for photographing things of texture close-up. Hmmmmm.... to stay in the shade as much as possible. Foolishly I'd forgotten to put on sunblock (this is the first time it's been really sunny, as I said). I noticed a notice board (what else could you do with a notice board but notice it?) There was a restautant advertised that sold local speciality dishes. Sounded good to me and, although it was early (about 12 pm) I set off in search of it.
On the way, I noticed that there was a chapel at the very top of a super-steep hill - so, unusually for me, I was sidetracked from hunting down the food. The walk up the hill was NUTS - there was virtually no shade due to the height of the sun and I was exhausted only halfway up. Still, the view was great and it made the "hike" worthwhile.
When you're trying to find a somewhere (like a restaurant, for example) in a place like Barichara, you don't want to walk too far in any single direction just in case you overshoot and end up with a trek back up a big hill.
The street system here is simple - there are Carreras and Calles.
Carreras run parallel to Calles and each Carrera and Calle is numbered consecutively. This would be such a foolproof system if the roads actually had their names painted up somewhere. Typically, you'll find yourself knowing which Calle you're on but unsure as to which Carrera you're on or vice-versa. Anyway, that's what happened to me while I was looking for the restaurant. Every step was hard work - the midday (ish) sun doing its best to drain my energy.
Finally, I found what I was looking for. The restaurat was called Color de Hormiga or "Color of Ant". I was the only one there apart from the staff. It was a really nicely presented restaurant set in a courtyard (of sorts) overlooking two swimming pools that had been converted to fish ponds and looked like they needed a bit of a clean - being almost as green as the countryside that was just visible beyond the building that I overlooked.
First up I asked for for super cold bottle of water. Once I'd recovered my breath I had a look at the menu and asked for some suggestions - the typical dish of the region.
The bread came with
butter (as you would expect) and a really delicious aubergine sauce sprinkled with sesame seeds. Delicious.
But what I was really waiting for was the main course - the local speciality. Steak Medallions with ant sauce, fried plantain and salad...and rice, of course.
Yes, you read that right, I actually knowingly ordered a dish with ants in it. They're not just any old ants, though. Ohhh no, they're hormigas culonas - big-bottomed ants. They're fat arses. I guess that you can see from the pictures that these ants are big - the biggest that I've ever seen, for sure. I was certainly glad that they were dead. They WERE dead, weren't they??? Yes, they were definitely dead.
The ant sauce, from what I can gather, is made by adding fried ground-up ants to something not too disimilar to gravy. Then whole (fried but unground) ants are added as a sort of garnish (for want of a better word). The taste is difficult to describe - not at all unpleasant....just difficult to place. The consistency is like biting into a popcorn seed that hasn't quite popped. Just kinda crunchy, really. The steak itself was beautifully cooked and the meal overall was
super tasty. The salad contained tomatos that had been skinned but they were unlike any tomatos that I've ever tasted. The consistency and color was similar to water melon although firmer - and the taste not a million miles away. The salad dressing was sweet (but not too sweet). And the fried plantain was delicious. I think that the whole thing (including coffee) came to about £10. Can't complain at that.
So, well fed, I headed back to the square and took the bus back to San Gil. Little did I know that, apparently, there's a fairly impressive waterfall nearby which I totally missed. Oh well, I'll see that next time I'm in Colombia, maybe.
The trip back was uneventful. The bus was busier than on the way out and had more frequent stops to let people off so took about 45 minutes. I've noticed that on a typical bus journey, there is a good side and a less good side of the bus to sit. If you sit on the good side, you get stunning mountain views. If you sit the wrong side, you get to see a rock face for the duration.
Arriving back towards
Barichara street scene
You just can't imagine how steep these hills are - unless you've been to Darwen Lancashire... the hostel, I noticed that there was a hairdressers. Since it's been at least a week since I got my haircut, I stopped in and got it done. 5.000 COP for a clipper cut.
Then onwards to the hostel where I sat around and chatted for a bit, took my first ride in one of the hammocks here (was pleased that it didn't give way under my considerable gringo girth). Then, finally (and after having finally put on some sunblock), I headed off to El Parque Gallineral which is a botanical garden about 20 minutes walk from the hostel. I arrived at around 5 pm and was told that the park closes at six. In truth, at about 5.30 the sprinklers come on and it's a Tomb Raider type adventure trying to navigate the footpaths without getting soaked. So I only really stuck around for about 45 minutes - the light was fading anyhow and I only really went there to get some photos and to find out about some "extreme sports" which are organised by companies that are situated just outside the park.
Entry to the park is 5.000 COP, I think.
With the night closing in,
I grabbed a quick snack from one of the cafes in the main square and headed back to the hostel, stopping en route at Bar con Versano for a cooling, refreshing beer. Then back here to write up my adventures.
A note on timings I started writing this last night (Wednesday night), after finishing a fairly extended session at bar conversano, playing rummy and chatting. I didn't quite get finished so I'm posting it today (Thursday morning). So "yesterday" in this article means Tuesday, "today" means Wednesday etc. That's it, I'm up to date with the blog! Hurrah! Today (Thursday) I'm going to try to do some caving (about as extreme as I'm likely to get here). Hopefully it's not too late (currently about 9.50 am). Looks like it's going to be another scorcher. First things first, though - some breakfast.
Hasta luego
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Josefina
non-member comment
The flower..
..is a heliconia! Hummingbirds tend to like these flowers. Nice blog!