By 10am we were in a taxi weaving and turning our way through the streets of Bogota seemingly dodging any car nearby. We arrived at the central bus terminal and loaded on to a mini bus bound for Bucaramanga and San Gil. Bucaramanga is the fifth largest city in Colombia and is a couple hours north of San Gil. San Gil was boasted as a touristy town with out-doors activities. At 11am the bus pulled out of the terminal.
For the next 7 hours we traveled a paved highway reminiscent of a Scenic Byway in the U.S. Frequently, we would stop alongside the road if someone waved the bus down. As mentioned in previous postings, this is where the driver makes a little extra. Picking up and dropping off people along the route. A couple to several thousand pesos at a time and the driver is sending a kid through college.
Occasional road construction was encountered along the way. Quite frequently the road would clog-up behind a slow moving truck. This is when the excitement began. Drivers of all sorts of vehicles would begin jockeying for position for an attempt to pass the slower moving vehicle. Typically a truck; occasionally a passenger car. Double yellow line, dotted line, can’t see ahead ‘cause of another car, blind curve . . . no matter. Flatten that accelerator to the floor and see what happens. I mean really! We got Jesus on the dash board and his mother painted on the side of the bus enshrined in rosary beads and a cross. What’s the worst that could happen with a bus load of people; none of which are wearing seat belts?
The last leg of the trip was in a cloud-burst of rain. The road became a muddy torrent. By dark we arrived at San Gil and partly cloudy skies. We had traveled maybe 180 miles. In 7 hours remember. We could have done maybe 280 miles on the motorbikes in that time. Perhaps a little more. San Gil was hopping with activity. As we didn’t know where the plaza was we hopped a taxi. In less than five minutes we were at our hotel. Could have walked.
We checked into the Hotel La Mansion del Parque. A constant clamor of cars, buses, motorcycles, and people whistling and hollering came through every window. The young lady showing us to our room took us to a room facing the plaza. Insert loud obnoxious buzzer sound here. Not against the plaza! Kathleen asked that we have a room on the farthest side from the plaza. The young woman kindly showed us to another room. Way quieter.
Alright. These rooms. They reminded me of a horse stall converted into a room. Double doors opened into the room from a split level courtyard. The ceiling seemed high enough to house a ballistic missile. Sans the bathroom, a little straw on the floor and Seabiscuit woulda felt at home.
We ventured out into the plaza. A couple of trees were festooned with colorful flowers and butterflies. We’ve noticed these kinds of decorations sprouting up as the most wonderful time of the year approaches. Rather than reindeer, Santa, and snowmen . . . yeah, that’d be fitting in the tropics, colorful flowers, butterflies, and wildlife are preferred adornments.
The plaza was alive with folks sitting on benches enjoying the evening. On all four sides of the plaza traffic and people coursed their way to wherever. Kathleen and I sat and watched the activity while waiting for our hotels’ restaurant to open at 7:30pm. As we sat for a while, we noticed we were not being accosted by street vendors or the local neighborhood nut-job. If we were into people watching, this is where we’d hang out.
We had a nice meal and decided that San Gil was not our kind of a town. Twenty-eight thousand peoples-worth of activity was a tad too much for us. We longed for a Villa de Leyva-esque town. In the Footprint Guide, Barichara sounded like the placed to go visit. We’re on our way tomorrow.
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