Success - San Gil, Colombia

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So after many tries I was finally able to secure a bus ticket out of town. I hopped on a night bus for the 10 hour journey to Bucamaranga (90,000 COP) where I would arrive dazed at 7:00am for a transfer to a bus bound for San Gil (20,000 COP) which took 3 hours. So after 13 hours on a bus I had finally arrived to the adventure capital of Colombia. So far though I've yet to be able to white water raft on the famed class IV rapids due to some recent rainfall which has made the river a dangerous and unnavigable class V. Rafting shut down indefinitely. I'm not that concerned though as more opportunities will present themselves along the way. For my goodbye, Santa Marta presented me with this:

On the bus to San Gil I met two guys from Ireland that were traveling South America before heading to Australia to work as electricians. Apparently the recession in Ireland was pretty bad and about 1/3 of the country's population has left to find work abroad, many of which go to Australia. These were great guys and we quickly hit it off with our quick witted banter. The three of us checked into Sam's VIP Hostel in San Gil which is a really nice place and of great value at 15,000 COP or about $7.50. The first day was spent just walking around the town getting my bearings and setting up my plans for the next few days. Unfortunately as previously mentioned the rafting has been shut down. The downhill mountain bike tour was also shut down do to the owner of the company going back home. However that night we learned of a group going to play Tejo at the local Tejo hall. Tejo is Colombia's national game which consists of beer, heavy steel discs, and gunpowder, I was sold.

Tejo is very similar to washers. The scoring box however is like bags. In Tejo you have an up-slope box filled with clay. In the center of the box is a steel ring on which you place packets of gunpowder. The idea is to throw your weighted steel disc - or tejo - across the playing field to the opposing box. 1 point if you stick in the mud and 3 points if you connect with the steel ring and the gunpowder packet. If you do this a loud explosion occurs similar to an M-80 firecracker. The hall sounds like a war zone half the time and it took some getting used too. Team USA dominated Team Ireland due to my previous washers/bags experience. Team USA was however crushed by Team Colombia due to Juan Carlos' previous Tejo experience. A really fun game and a great way to spend an evening.

The next day the Irish lads and I took a collectivo bus to Parque Nacional del Chicamocha. This was a beautiful park set in the Rio Chicamocha canyon which is billed as the world's second largest. The mountains were stunning and it reminded me of being back home. The air was crisp and the sites clear. We took a gondola to the base of the canyon and to the other side on top of the mesa. The sides of the canyon were so steep and it is incredible to see what nature can carve out over time. A really nice day of being out of any type of city and back into the countryside. I enjoyed it immensely.

I've now left San Gil to nearby Barichara. I'm in a really picturesque Colombian village and it is nice to have a quiet place to be. Today I even had the local delicacy of goat's meat and intestine, but that's for another blog. Until then I'll enjoy my sleepy village town by day hiking to the various mountain pueblo's and by night streaming NHL playoff hockey. I'll try San Gil for the river rafting once more in a few days and then head south to Villa de Leyva.

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