San Gil is a lively town with lots of outdoor activities for those with a daredevil attitude. This would normally be me...if it wasn't for the fact that I met some great people who like to party. I started off innocently enough - I planned to enjoy the traditional Colombian game of Tejo. The maddest sport ever conceived...
You play on a lane with similar dimensions to a 10-pin bowling lane. At each end there is a pit full of soft clay, about 1 sqm, with a metal ring sunk into the middle. You are given a box of triangular paper pouches and each player has a large polished stone weighing about 5kg. One of the paper pouches is placed on the metal ring and the players stand at the other end of the lane. You then hurl the stone as hard as you can, trying to hit the paper pouch at the other end. I forgot to mention that the paper pouches are filled with dynamite. If you hit one, it creates an explosion and your team gets nine points. You can only play if you are buying beer (I'm not kidding). I went along twice and woke up with a hangover on each of the following days. Typical Colombia!
Aside from drunkenly exploding stuff, I went caving! The cave has a freshwater stream running right through it, cascading down limestone ledges and forming small underground waterfalls. Most of the trip involved wading or crawling through the water and at one point we had to swim through a small underwater tunnel. It was only about a meter long and had a rope to pull yourself through. When you got to the other end the guide would tap you on the head and it was safe to come up. I was so eager to get through that I accidently pulled myself past the guide and kept going. Just as I thought I was going to run out of breath, I was pulled up - much to my relief, three meters further than I needed to go. The highlight was the "mud slide" - a long stretch of muddy rocks which you can slide down, landing in a big pool of sticky mud! I had a great time!
I also visited the beautiful villages of Barichara and Guane. While walking through these tiny colonial villages, you get the feeling that life has not changed for hundreds of years.
Myself and Stephanie (from Holland) decided to walk the El Camino Real path from Barichara to Guane. This is apparently the route that Simon Bolvar took several centuries ago, when he was freeing much of South America from the Spaniards. The walk took us through some really magical countryside, with lovely vistas over the surrounding mountains and huge trees covered in grey whispering vines.
Once in Guane I tried the local speciality Hormigas Culonas, or fat-bottomed ants. They are toasted and made into a kinda paste. They taste exactly how you'd expect a toasted ant to taste. I will not be bringing any back to England...
Next stop was Villa de Leyva, a lovely little colonial village in the hills between San Gil and Bogota. On offer was walking in the countryside, eating nice food in the village and strolling the cobbled stone streets.
Unfortunately I managed to break myself in Villa de Leyva. It was all the hostel owners fault. He was giving me directions for a hike I wanted to do....
"Go left here, don't go right because that takes you up the mountain", he said. "Oh, maybe I can climb the mountain?", I said. "No, no one climbs the mountain, it's too difficult and there is no path".Well I was obviously going to climb it after that!
I ended up chopping my way through a small forest and at one point the ground gave way and I fell into a small bush. Inside the bush was a broken, sharp, tree stump. This just happened to pierce my calf at the exact point where a large vein ran across the muscle. Lots of dark blood came out. I applied some pressure which made it stop but the three hour walk back to the hostel was less than enjoyable.
It swelled up so much the next day I couldn't walk properly. Luckily there was a French nurse staying at the hostel who had a look at it. She was less than impressed that my attempt at first aid amounted to putting two plasters on it (I didn't have a big enough plaster to cover it with one). Anyway, she did some stuff and over the last five days it's got much better :-)
So, I'm now in Bogota, the capital of Colombia. The weather is the same as in England - cold and rainy. Not sure how much time I'll be spending here then...
The boys at the Tejo club. The guy in the middle is the owner - he loved us because we bought lots of beer.
To celebrate not making fools of ourselves, we went to a bar for some drinks. They like setting things on fire.
The lads - completely sober, of course.
The church in Barichara.
Nice gardens at the start of the El Camino Real path.
How many Colombians does it take to paint a door....
Punto Azul, a natural freshwater swimming hole. Turns out it's very popular with the locals at weekends.
About six minutes before stabbing myself with a tree stump, I saw this amazing butterfly. I'm not trying to build some kind of reputation as a butterfly lover but you have to admit, it's pretty cool.
That caving you did in your last post sounds a lot of fun! and good to hear all is well now.
ReplyDeleteYep, was such good fun! How is Canada, planning your next trip?
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