San Gil, Barichara, Chicamocha,

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I decided to spend my last time in Colombia with my very good friend Valentino, going extreme...

We took our (or rather Valentino's) little car, which I named cocuyito, probably a volkswagen???, and started driving north east from Bogota, towards adventures!

Our first stop was San Gil, supposed to be the capital of extreme sports in Colombia. Said and done - we had the time to do caving - walking, jumping, normal crawling, and having to crawl (or sometimes roll sideways and get very very dirty ;o) on your toes/knees and elbows, and at one point even having to hold on to a line in the water, tilt your head upways to stick your nose out of the water and pass where there was only about 5cm of air between the water and the roof of the cave!!!

One day we also did rafting, very light rafting I would say, after the tour I had done in Panama! But still very fine and splendid views from the canyon!

We also had a look at the local nature wonders; the trek to the water falls of Juan Curi and the Praque de la Libertad, which is full of trees that look exactly like if they were taken from a horror movie. They all have long and white/gery/lightgreen "beard" hanging down. And when you touch it it doesn't at all feel like you would imagine.


We also had a trip to Barichara, a very pretty village, totally in white and very well preserved colonial houses and architecture. There we also had the opportunity to try the speciality of the region - ants. Not as bad as you would imagine. Too bad only it was not yet the season - we had to eat last year's ants... hehehe


The Parque Nacional del Chicamocha was however a little deceptive. I had gotten recommendations from many persons about this park and how nice it should be. However, it is a typical tourist trap. Mostly Colombian tourists, but still way too correct for my liking. The nature was absolutely extraordinary at this place, but the park (which almost felt like a theme park, with iceskating rink, paved discovery routes and a huge water slide) made you completely lose contact with the nature. Surely it was fun to go on the zipline and on the huge cable car that takes you down the valley and then up on the other side during 6,3 km!!! but...
However, the road to drive there from San Gil made it more than worth it!

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Photos

Caving...
I am least trying to smile... :o)
Even though it is cold, wet and you feel strange, unidentifyable things around your body...