White water rafting on a level 5 river, canyonning jumping from 6 meter high cliffs, caving through tiny openings in a cave, repelling down a waterfall and visiting what is known to be one of the most beautiful towns of Colombia. It pretty much sums up the few days I spent in San Gil
Day 34
After catching an overnight bus from Taganga I arrived in the early morning around 5 o´clock in Bucaramanga. This city is basicly a hub to other parts of Colombia but not really worth checking out as it´s mainly industrial.
From the terminal I grabbed a minivan to San Gil, the place where my two friends from New Zealand – Nathan and Michael – were waiting for me. They arranged to go caving the very same morning and asked me the night before whether I wanted to join them. The hostel told them they would depart an hour later to wait for me if I were keen. It sounded like a great idea, so here I was trying to make it in time for the tour.
After 2,5 hours in the minivan I arrived around 9 in San Gil. I already had the address of the hostel, so I was able to walk to it quite quickly. There I found Nathan and Michael having breakfast. I checked in and signed up for the tour that was due in one hour. The Kwi boys hooked me up with some breakfast, so I was good to go.
Around 10am we left from the hostel. The tour was organized by the guys who run the hostel. We drove for about 10 minutes to a small town just out of San Gil. We drank some local licor they make in this region and afterwards we were off to jump off high cliffs and crawl through small openings.
We first entered a cave. With torches we were able to shed some light in to the pitch black darkness inside of the cave. Bats were flying all around us and the smell of batpoo was pretty bad. From there we had to crawl through a tiny tunnel to another part of the cave. It wasn´t easy for a tall guy like me to get through it, but I managed it. Good on me I am not claustrophobic.
From there we slit down a mud slide and we got to our waste in riverwater inside of the cave. We walked through the cave for a good 45 minutes. Finally we got to an opening where water was flowing into the cave. Here we climbed through the hole back into daylight.
From there the tour continued with jumping from a cliff into the water and climbing rocks. After a while we got to a 30 meter waterfall. Here we got into our gear and went repelling down through the waterfall which was a really cool experience.
The tour lasted for a good 4 hours. Finally we were picked up by a car which brought us back the hostel. Afterwards we went for some food in the center of San Gil and sat in the main square drinking a beer. That night we went to sleep early as we were all pretty tired of the day, plus that I hadn´t slept all that well on the nightbus the night before.
Day 35
We were able to sleep in for a little while, as the rafting we were planning to do was postponed to the afternoon. The rafting is heavily dependend on weather conditions. The past few days it had rained quite a bit, so the river was up a bit too high, which would make things too dangerous. Thankfully the riverwater went down in the morning so we were able to go rafting that afternoon.
We were picked up from the hostel around noon. From there we drove to the office of the ColombiaRafting center. We payed for the tour and off we went with a few of the guides to the best river for rafting in Colombia called Rio Suarez.
It took about an hour to drive to the actual river. Once there the rafts were taken off the roof of the car and brought down to the river. Another bus of other tourists arrived who were joining us for the rafting. Before we entered the rafts we went through all the safety instructions. What to do if the raft flips over, what to do if you are caught in a rapid, what to do if you fall off the boat, what to do if you are in a rapid but near to the rocks etc. etc.
After all of the instructions we went to practice the instructions in the raft. After we had practiced we got onto the river and off we went.
I had done rafting once before in Peru. If I remember correctly those were only level 3 rapids, which is not extremely exciting. The rapids are graded by how strong the rapid is. Level 1 is very calm and the highest level, level 6 is the strongest and of course also the most dangerous. Level 6 can not be done with kayaks as it´s too dangerous to go onto a level 6 rapid with a raft. Needless to say level 5 is the highest you can do in rafting.
We secured our foots onto the boat, so we wouldn´t be able to fall off very quickly. The first rapid was a level 3 rapid, which is just mediocre. Unfortunately a wave hit us from the side and the raft flipped over. Thanks to the safety instructions we all knew what to do and we all held on to the safety line of the boat. The guide got on top of the boat and was able to flip the raft back over again. We all jumped back in to the raft and got out of the rapid to the side of the river.
An girl from Miami who did the rafting for the first time seemed extremely scared. I could tell she wasn´t enjoying one bit of the whole experience at all. Fear was in her eyes. Meanwhile the rest of us (the 2 kiwi guys, an Isreali guy, the boyfriend of the Miami girl and me) were all laughing how we flipped the raft in the first rapid of the river.
The rafting went on for a good 2 hours. We didn´t flip the raft afterwards and some of the rapids were insane. A guide in a kayak took photos of us during the rafting. Some of the waves are just insane when you check out the photos. A really great experience.
After the rafting we got back onto land where a lunch consisting of fruit, crisps, cheese and sweets were waiting for us. Another 90 minute drive back to San Gil got us back to our hostel.
Afterwards we relaxed at the hostel and we went for some dinner at a Chinese restaurant nearby. Considering we were all the way out in Colombia, the Chinese food didn´t even taste all that bad. That night everyone hit the sack early again as this adventure stuff is pretty damn tiring.
Day 36
Me and the kiwi boys decided to check out this town not far from San Gil today. We grabbed a minivan from a small busterminal and drove in half an hour to this town called Barichara.
The town is known for its white walls and it´s streets paved with big stones. The town had a very relaxed atmosphere and it only consisted out of 11 streets. We had a little walk around the town and we sat down and had a beer in the main square watching the locals pass by. I also bumped into two dutch guys here who I had met up in Cartagena. We had a little talk. Afterwards we grabbed a minivan back to San Gil. I meant to leave that night back to Bogota, but I figured I could just as well catch a bus in the morning and have a good nights sleep at the hostel in San Gil.
That night I played some Wii with the guys running the hostel which was kind of fun. I cooked me some spaghetti with tuna and afterwards I went to sleep.
Day 37
Back to Bogota! I caught a bus in the morning from the terminal of San Gil. The bus that was meant to take 6 hours eventually took nearly 9. The bus was half an hour late and once we got to Bogota we got in to the worst trafficjam ever. It took two hours for the bus to wrestle itself through traffic. Once at the terminal I had to get in line for a taxi to my hostel.
An hour later I got to the hostel, cooked me some spaghetti I had left and had a beer at the hostel bar. There I met a few guys from Scotland and England who had been living in Bogota for the past few years. Most of them got married to a Colombian girl and were now teachers at an international school in the North of Bogota.
They invited me to come with them to a club in Zona Rosa, the uptown nearbourhood of Bogota. Here prices are a lot steeper than the rest of Bogota or Colombia for that matter.. 20,000 pesos (8 euro) entrance fee for the club is not an exception.
All in all it became a fun night and the guys treated me as I was their friend they knew all along. They even invited me to come to one of the guys´ birthday party tonight, where I´ll probably go to. All in all, it´s my final night in Bogota tonight!
Soon more news about my final days in Colombia!
Aug 10th 2010 – Aug 13th 2010
Leave a reply