After our visit to Villa de Leyva, we took off and went to the beautiful colonial city of San Gil, which was a lot warmer than the southern parts of Colombia that we had previously visited. It is a city with extremely steep streets and colonial buildings.
We had quite the adventurous couple of days in San Gil, to say the least! We hiked to a 75 meter (200 feet) high water fall where Scarlett and I went swimming and Scott rappelled down the face of the waterfall. It had rained the night before so there was tons of water! We met a nice couple from New Zealand who were traveling for 9 months. She is an artist and he is a writer and wanted to see South America before they had kids. When Scott got to the bottom of the fall, after rappelling, he found Scarlett and I at photo shoot (put on by our lovely selves...we were a bit bored after we got done swimming).
We hurried back into town so that we could be off on our next adventure of the day...paragliding! We didn’t have any lunch, so we picked up some plantain chips and juice and headed up to the mountains through tobacco farms to a peak overlooking farms and a huge canyon. Scarlett and I went paraglyding first and had a great time (well I did at least)...did some twirls and down spiraling but poor Scarlett got motion sickness. It was really cool being miles up in the air and being able to see the patchwork landscape of the farmlands below and the canyons and mountains. Scott went after Scarlett and I got back and on his way back down, turned gray as a gray ghost! He got a little motion sickness as well.
We then came back to the hostel and ended up talking to an Australian couple who went on the Ciudad Perdida and told stories about how the guides would take you to the cocaine fields to see how it is processed as it is in guerrilla country. Because the guerrilla make money off the tourists they protect them but if the tour guides don’t pay them their cut, they shoot the guides.
We ended up with one more day than we had expected in this sweet town because we decided not to take the long road to Cartagena by boat and decided to take a night bus. We first went to the touristic village of Barichara, which was a 40 minute bus ride. We got out and saw the village for about 10 minutes and realized that it was a waste of time because although it was pretty it looked too polished. Everybody told us it was worth going to, but we thought that Villa de Leyva was much prettier. We went to the main church and decided to get back on the bus and go back to San Gil. We then got some lunch in a run-down restaurant and then took a taxi to reserve our tickets for our night bus ride to Cartagena. After which we miandered over to a free water hole. It was a series of shallow waterfalls. A bunch of local kids were there, which Scott ended up becoming friends with. Comes to find out the three 14-year-old boys had a crush on me and Scarlett, which is why they started talking with Scott in the first place! One of them told us we looked like models...funny.
We ended up walking the mile back to our hostel and passed by some waterfalls and beautiful landscape (as we almost got hit as every car and truck passed us - so what if we were walking on the "freeway"). We showered and then went and got pizza and bought a tres leches dessert. There was a drunk guy at the pizza place that really wanted to talk to us and buy us beer. This was, I think, the only person that we thought was annoying in Colombia.
As we waited for our bus to board, Scarlett bought us a suprise! She bought ANTS! Yes, giant ants that you can eat (gross)! They were mostly for Scott cause he kept telling us how much he wanted to try them. So he and Scarlett indulged in the tasty creatures. I decided I would just watch. I have tried a lot of weird stuff, but opted out on the ants! We then got on the bus, which first stopped in Baranquilla (the birth place of Shakira) before the final destination - Cartagena. During our bus ride, we whipped out the tres leches cake that we had bought before hand. By the time it was gone, we all ended up with stomach aches, but it was SOOO worth it! They also cranked up the AC so everyone was mummified with blankets. Scott was the best...he ended up putting his arms inside his shirt and jacket and wrapping another shirt around his head in order to prevent hypothermia. It seriously was an ice box in there! We watched a sweet movie about a illegal immigrant from LA-turned soccer star in England. And then we watched some sweet Colombian music videos. We then tried to sleep, but seeing how it was SO bloody cold, this was IMPOSSIBLE!
We had quite the adventurous couple of days in San Gil, to say the least! We hiked to a 75 meter (200 feet) high water fall where Scarlett and I went swimming and Scott rappelled down the face of the waterfall. It had rained the night before so there was tons of water! We met a nice couple from New Zealand who were traveling for 9 months. She is an artist and he is a writer and wanted to see South America before they had kids. When Scott got to the bottom of the fall, after rappelling, he found Scarlett and I at photo shoot (put on by our lovely selves...we were a bit bored after we got done swimming).
We hurried back into town so that we could be off on our next adventure of the day...paragliding! We didn’t have any lunch, so we picked up some plantain chips and juice and headed up to the mountains through tobacco farms to a peak overlooking farms and a huge canyon. Scarlett and I went paraglyding first and had a great time (well I did at least)...did some twirls and down spiraling but poor Scarlett got motion sickness. It was really cool being miles up in the air and being able to see the patchwork landscape of the farmlands below and the canyons and mountains. Scott went after Scarlett and I got back and on his way back down, turned gray as a gray ghost! He got a little motion sickness as well.
We then came back to the hostel and ended up talking to an Australian couple who went on the Ciudad Perdida and told stories about how the guides would take you to the cocaine fields to see how it is processed as it is in guerrilla country. Because the guerrilla make money off the tourists they protect them but if the tour guides don’t pay them their cut, they shoot the guides.
We ended up with one more day than we had expected in this sweet town because we decided not to take the long road to Cartagena by boat and decided to take a night bus. We first went to the touristic village of Barichara, which was a 40 minute bus ride. We got out and saw the village for about 10 minutes and realized that it was a waste of time because although it was pretty it looked too polished. Everybody told us it was worth going to, but we thought that Villa de Leyva was much prettier. We went to the main church and decided to get back on the bus and go back to San Gil. We then got some lunch in a run-down restaurant and then took a taxi to reserve our tickets for our night bus ride to Cartagena. After which we miandered over to a free water hole. It was a series of shallow waterfalls. A bunch of local kids were there, which Scott ended up becoming friends with. Comes to find out the three 14-year-old boys had a crush on me and Scarlett, which is why they started talking with Scott in the first place! One of them told us we looked like models...funny.
We ended up walking the mile back to our hostel and passed by some waterfalls and beautiful landscape (as we almost got hit as every car and truck passed us - so what if we were walking on the "freeway"). We showered and then went and got pizza and bought a tres leches dessert. There was a drunk guy at the pizza place that really wanted to talk to us and buy us beer. This was, I think, the only person that we thought was annoying in Colombia.
As we waited for our bus to board, Scarlett bought us a suprise! She bought ANTS! Yes, giant ants that you can eat (gross)! They were mostly for Scott cause he kept telling us how much he wanted to try them. So he and Scarlett indulged in the tasty creatures. I decided I would just watch. I have tried a lot of weird stuff, but opted out on the ants! We then got on the bus, which first stopped in Baranquilla (the birth place of Shakira) before the final destination - Cartagena. During our bus ride, we whipped out the tres leches cake that we had bought before hand. By the time it was gone, we all ended up with stomach aches, but it was SOOO worth it! They also cranked up the AC so everyone was mummified with blankets. Scott was the best...he ended up putting his arms inside his shirt and jacket and wrapping another shirt around his head in order to prevent hypothermia. It seriously was an ice box in there! We watched a sweet movie about a illegal immigrant from LA-turned soccer star in England. And then we watched some sweet Colombian music videos. We then tried to sleep, but seeing how it was SO bloody cold, this was IMPOSSIBLE!
2 comments:
That is so awesome you've been able to travel. Looks like you've had a great time :)
so many great pictures sher!! i couldn't read all the details... but i think the pictures say enough. you look so cute!!
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