rad, bad and gnarly dudes

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San Gil is probably not the best town to decide to ditch the taxi and walk, heavy with packs, from the bus station to find accomodation. San Gil is built on one of the steepest hills known to mankind, and what the guidbook maps don tell you is that the bus stops at the bottom of the hill and the hostel we were after was at the top of it. Having recently experienced bouts of homesickness we decided it was worth the uphill effort to this Australian run hostel, if only for our mental wellbeing. A couple of guys standing outside the hostel watched us sweat and pant, lugging our bags up the steep hill. As we reached the top they both began to chuckle and asked 'do you guys have a reservation because we are booked out tonight?'

'Excuse me??' we both replied. We had been travelling for 5 months and in that whole time had never been turned away from a hostel. But here, on the steepest hill known to mankind it happened. Dejected, we turned around, and thankfully found a lovely hostel just a bit back down the hill.

San Gil is a lovely mid-sized town in central Colombia. The town itself is nice and laid back, with a pace that suggests nothing here could possibly hurt you. The reality however, is that San Gil is surrounded by all sorts of natural features and activities that are just waiting to kill, or at least maim you. This is Xtreme Adventure Country!!!

And just what were a couple of wimps from Sydney doing here? Well, to tell the truth we didn't really know either. Nevertheless within a few hours of arriving in town we had signed ourselves up to go jump of a cliff with a parachute attached to our back and ride down raging rock-filled rivers on some sort of inflatable object. Once upon a time we were rational people...

But before we took ourselves to early graves we decided to do some sightseeing. We came across the most gorgeous of town parks / botanical garden type things in Parque Gallineral. Here, a collection of macaws and budgerigars welcomed us, while tall trees draped in the epiphyte similar to what we call old mans beard swayed in the breeze overhead. All sorts of beautiful flowers ran through the understorey, and we walked long the many winding paths until we came to the beautiful Rio Fonce. We also came across a lovely, older Colombian couple who repeatedly complimented Jen on her excellent Spanish, but noticeably said nothing about mine. In fact as we were parting ways the man said jokingly to me 'so how about the fine Colombian women?' Not having a clue what he was asking, i replied with the usual 'si' (yes), and we parted ways. They were later seen laughing at us crazy gringos who were the only ones swimming in the icy cool waters of the parks dammed creek cum swimming pool. But at least it was a sunny day so we dried off quickly.

Paragliding
The next day there was no escaping the fate that we had already signed ourselves up for. A short van ride up into the tobacco plantations surrounding San Gil had us up on the hillslope being strapped into a paragliding parachute. At least Canadian Jay had the right idea - he was drinking a last beer before plunging off the hillside. I don even know what my last drink alive was...Probably boring old water! A young Colombian couple went first, soaring off over the trees and up into the sun. Then went Jay, following a similar course, trying to land 30mins later without much success. Apparently one of the 2 steering cords on his chute had snapped as his pilot began the spiral of death. So after a couple of knots were tied in the faulty steering cord, and a weight belt was placed in my lap (nobody else got this..was it just to make my deadly fall to earth that little bit quicker???), I was off and flying. Up and up, and then down and down and soaring over the trees. I felt like a bird, swooping down just centimetres from the crowns of the tallest trees. In reality it was quite an easy activity, just sitting back enjoying the view over forest, farmland, creeks and in the far distance a massive canyon. Then the guide taps your shoulder and asks, do you like spinning?. Well sure, you think. And for the next 5 minutes you climb higher and higher and higher into the sky, until you cant even make out people on the ground. Ready?? Sure!. And the death spiral begins - around and around and down and down and i sure hope this pilot knows what hes doing and geez is that my stomach in my mouth?? and around and around some more. The relief once the spiralling stops makes it all worthwhile! Then its a bit more soaring like a bird over the treetops and back to a safe landing. And just in time as I was about to be sick. But I held it down and put on a brave face for Jen who was the next to be strapped in. Up she went, soaring like a bird, laughing all the while, and through the death spiral and into a safe landing. 'How was it?' I asked, 'great!!' she replied, 'but watch out, I think Im going to be sick!'

White-water rafting
With Jen having never set foot inside an inflatable raft, and I having done so only in the safety of a manmade course, we initially chose the easy rafting option along Rio Fonce. Apparently it has rapids of grades 1 and 2 (whatever that means). However, as nobody else in San Gil was equally chicken this trip couldn go ahead as we were the only 2 to sign up. So we put our names down for the following days Grade 4 & 5 trip down Rio Suarez, and tried to convince as many other backpackers as possible to join us on this deathwish. In all 10 of us made the trip out to Rio Suarez where we were all given a long series of instruction on what to do in any number of situations - e.g. getting stuck underwater in a whirling rapid; getting stuck under the boat; how to ride down the rapid once the boat has flipped. At this stage a quick look around the group showed everyone with the same anxious, terrified face. OK, time to get in the water. One of the guides asked for a volunteer to test out the kayak rescue method, where the overboard passenger swims towards one of the kayaks and holds on the kayak in a particular way depending on whether they are at the front or back. Being the only veteran of the group (with my one manmade course raft) I volunteered. All seemed to go well until I tried to climb back into the raft, where I noticed that I had lost all feeling in my left arm!! I seriously could not feel the paddle in my hand and still have no idea what had happened, but nevertheless we were off and racing!

Our guide, nicknamed 'Red Bull' spoke only a few words of English, but thankfully yelled them quickly and clearly as we went through some grade 1 to grade 3 rapids. All in all it wasn't too difficult. We were getting soaked and having a whole lot of fun and eventually I starting to get some feeling back in my arm. Then we came to some grade 4 and grade 5 rapids where Red Bull became serious for the first time. He would explain which way we were going to go, when we would paddle forward, when we would paddle backwards and when we would just hold on for dear life. He would finish the explanation by saying 'but we'll be fine', and then laugh maniacally!

But we made it through them all, amazingly without losing anyone overboard. At one stage one of the kayak rescuers went upside down,almost got stuck under our boat and then in the process almost got a paddle in the head from Justen! Thankfully he eventually eskimo-rolled himself out of the water to everyones relief. While we never flipped the raft, at one stage we almost capsized, as the raft seemed to fold in two under the force of a big rapid, and water rushed in, creating a floating bathtub. Alive and without any serious injury we stopped for lunch, where the fun would just begin.

After a great lunch of exotic fruits the guides had us undertake a few activities on the beach. The first involved a team of two attempting to place a stick over a line in the sand without the jockey touching the sand. After travelling for so long with the same wardrobe the prize of a new t-shirt was very appealing to Justen and I. See photos for how we went... Thankfully the next activity was captured on video. Im going to try post it on YouTube one day because I think it is hilarious. Essentially it involved spinning around 20 time quickly, and attempting to run along the beach. My attempt was concluded with a very ungraceful nosedive into the sand as my legs kept running at full speed. I had a head full of sand for days! But the good news is our team won, mostly because Fletch from the other team nosedived himself not into the sand, but into the raging river!

We have a social life???
We had been extremely surprised throughout our 2 months to date in South America that we hadn't run into a single Australian. In fact, in Venezuela especially we hadn't run into that many backpackers at all. Perhaps this is why our homesickness had steadily been growing - the things we were missing most was hanging out with friends and like-minded souls over a beer or two. Sorry families, but you haven't been missed yet...(Joking)...Thankfully, all this changed when we made some friends in San Gil.

For starters there were Australians and Kiwis everywhere, and thankfully not the annoying type that you try to avoid. Secondly, there seemed a great backpacker social scene in San Gil. For the most part this involved standing out in the main square of town, drinking cheap beer and eating delicious street meat skewer with a papa (potato) on the end. We made some friends with queenslander Justen, a trio of darwiners, a trio of kiwi girls, a Jesus look-a-like in Irish Ronan and his lovely fiance Jean, Canadian Jay celebrating his 40th with a solo getaway through Colombia and many others. One night even saw us take to the dance floor in not one, but two karaoke bars!!!

Good times! San Gil now sits at number 1 in the charts of most fun South American towns!

Villa de Leyva
Villa de Leyva runs at a similar slow pace to the town of San Gil but without the deadly surroundings. Here we managed to save a few pennies by setting up tent at the Colombian Highlands hostel. This is our sort of camping, a tent just metres from hammocks, cold beer and wood fire stoves. It was a bit unnerving one morning however, to wake to the sound of chainsaws cutting branches overhead in the adjoining property. In Villa de Leyva we spent a bit of time hanging out in South Americas largest town square. However as it wasnt called 'Plaza Boliva' we are unsure if it can still hold claim to such a record. We also spent hours wandering around the lovely colonial building lined streets, spent all of about 6 dollars for the ingredients for a vegetable fuelled day of meals in the cool weekly markets. But the highlight of Villa de Leyva was a daytrip in a taxi ute to the surrounding sites. With a trio of American guys (Kevin and brothers Jesse and Gideon) we shared a ute-taxi hopping from local attraction to attraction. These were

Pozos Azules
These blue ponds were a bit disappointing as a first site, being just a couple of ponds with mildly blue water.

Ostrich Farm
At first this attraction seemed to be going the same way as the first, with just a couple of ostriches enclosed within a fenced area. But thankfully the lady came and found us, showed us an informative video about - would you believe - ostriches. Then we got to go and feed some, and there were a couple of male ostriches having a mating ritual fight. This stop was particularly funny as it became evident early on that Kevin is quite scared of ostriches!

El Fósil
Our favourite stop of the day! El fosil is the 120million year old remains of a giant Kronosaurus quensladicus (its a marine dinosaur). This fossil is displayed in situ, with a museum contructed around it. Part of the experience was trying to imagine our now mountainous surroundings as the inland sea which they were all those years ago. There were heaps of cool small fossils found here too which kept us amused for quite some time

Ecce Homo
I dont know what Ecce Homo means, but this place was once the most important monastery in the land. It was here that mostly Spanish missionaries would receive their training before heading out into the indigenous lands of Colombia and surrounds. Today this beautiful colonial building is used as a religious art gallery, with alot of the works quite impressive. Jen will tell you all about one in particular which caught her eye,....

Now, religious art is, as well as being quite beautiful, a little bit creepy at the best of times. We were all inside one of the old galleries, and i was lingering behind a bit to take photos of some of the works i liked the best. From a small distance, i saw a really unusual one of Jesus, where he had his eyes open, but they had really dark bags underneath, and he looked particularly emaciated and a bit spooky. I decided to get closer to take a photo, but when i stood in front of the painting, his eyes were closed! I jumped, turned round to tell the boys, only to notice they´d all left, and i was alone in a really old room full of old art and freaking out quite frankly. I couldn´t even take the photo because i freaked out too much and had to leave. I explain myself to the boys, and they just think I´m crazy. Later, reading about the monastery we learn that it is home to a famous painting of Jesus which, depending on where you stand sometimes has open eyes and sometimes closed.....So at least I know i´m not mad, but it was a fright I didn´t need! (see attached photo)


El Infiernito
This site was a grassy area covered in carved stone monuments with each of these aligned as solar calendars. By looking at the direction and length of the shadow the indigenous inhabitants used to (and possibly still do?) calculate the solstices and equinoxes. That in itself is really quite interesting, but the shape of ALL the carvings does make it a bit difficult to take seriously! See the photo for what I mean... Apparently its all about the fertility!

Apart from the day trip the rest of our time in Villa de Leyva was spent relaxing and socialising. We enjoyed some amazing homemade wood fired pizza (thanks Gideon and Luke), wandered around cobblestone streets and a whole lot of not-much..Bliss!

But next time its into the hustle and bustle of Colombia's capital... Can we steal a souvenir from the world's most important gold museum? Will we be mugged like all the northbound travellers had said we would?? Stay tuned for the next edition...


Peace out,
J-Fro to the Maxxx and Radicool J-dog
(aka Jeff and Jen)

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Photos

inside
up-market alternative to drinking at the town square street corner

RAFTING SUAREZ RIVER
Jen at back left, Jeff about to go underwater at front

streeeeeeeeeeeeeetch!!
Justen uses all his strength to keep Jeff elevated

and collapse...
unfortunately no new t-shirt for us

Villa de Leyva
feeling small in one of South America's largest town squares

Comments

[anonymous]

yeah that jesus is the scariest thing ever! poor jenren. love you both xooxoxox and continue the crazy adventures and fun times.