AdventureCPA

Eight happy hours on a curvy road in a big bus brings us to the North part of the "coffee triangle."  The area of Colombia known for the most coffee production.  Havent seem much of it yet, but very pretty area. Ive been in much of the US Rockies where roads are built in the valley or along rivers and every once in awhile we climb over a pass to the next valley.  Here it appears that small settlements were built high near the ridgeline....so the road follows near the ridgeline.  Lots of back and forth driving with limited passing opportunities.  But then hard to get more that 60 kph speed when you have to do a 90 degree turn every 100 yards. Manizales is a town of about 300,000 souls also built on a ridge.  Bus station is a bottom and two enclosed ski lifts (my term) will take you to the top of two separate towns...Manizales or MariaSomething.   Ride cost about US$.45.  This is also a University town so lots of young people around....

Two and a half hours from Tunja is Bogota, capital of Colombia and about Ten Million souls.  Like many big cities in the developing world it has overgrown it´s infrastructure (roads etc) but it is the economic powerhouse of Colombia.  We are in another 4th floor apartment (AIRbnb) with semi'hot water, cable TV and good Internet from the Cable TV provider.  What a choice!!! SuperBowl in English or Spanish! Among Bogota pluses are the recent emphasis on cycling.  Sundays major street are closed off for biking, walking, rumming, roller skating etc. 7AM to 2PM.  And many miles of bikelanes which are either separate from the roadway or part of expanded sidewalks.  When walking...keep off the bike path! We plan to spend 8 nights here.... Well, after 5 days in Bogota I have the following to report.  There is a garbage strike. Not that they quit making garbage...just quit picking it up.  TV has reports on it everyday with locals burning it sometim...

Three hours south of Guadalupe, Colombia is the University town of Tunja (That´s Tune HA). Tunja is a college town...said to be several in this busy city.  In fact just below our 4th floor AirBNB apartment in the Centro district is a green area with 4 cows.     I´m told they belong to the Veterinary school which seems reasonable since there also looks to be a milking barn in the field. From Tunja we visited an "authentic small colonial town" highly rated by Lonely Planet.  I would call it an overrated tourist town with over expensive restaurants and junk shops.  If you want junk souveniers I suggest the "China Mall" here in Tunja. Also did a day trip via public bus to Lago de Toto, which at 9,300 meters claims to be the highest lake in the world with a white sand beach.  I believe it.   And in town the trout lunch for a little over $US 5 was worth it!  Enjoyed this town much more that Valley de Leyva in the above paragraph.  ...

    Finally I found a small town before Lonely Planet!!!  (Or at least my 10 year old Lonely Planet Guidebook)    Guadalupe is a small town of maybe 1,000 population.  No heavy traffic, plenty of restaurants and hostels and great hiking.   Here you may see equine Horses, Motocycle Hondas or occasional Hyandi vehicles but many people walking about town and from their Finca to town.      A 40 minute ride in the back of a four wheel drive truck (Seats installed) with a soft serve cart on the tailgate (too heavy to put on top with that gasoline engine powering the air conditioner) takes us from the Main highway )Obija to Guadalupe.      School must start at 7AM, out at 12:30 for the day.  On one of our walks (about 10 miles a day) I spotted my idea house.  Here´s a picture. Looking at mountains, big porch surrounding the house etc.  Wonder if they have Internet? And a little more scenery. Thi...

    San Gil Colombia lists itself as the Adventure Capital of Colombia.  Popular options are rafting (from class 1 to 3 to Class 4 to 5), Hiking, Zip line, National Parks and more.     A few years ago someone decided there is an overgrown improved path from one mountain village to another.  Put up a few signs and tourist will come to walk downhill for about 5 miles from one small village to another.   Bus service between them and you have a beautiful, peaceful walk.  Makes one feel he is in the Tuscan countryside.     Next day we went to the new national park at the top of a pass between Bucaramanga and San Gil.  An interesting combination of  monument to the peasants of the region who started the revolution against Spain in 1812, amusement park with four wheelers going around a dirt track, swing going out over the open canyon and a gondola ride (Provided by PUMA) down to the bottom of the canyon and over to the other ...

     I believed I knew a little about countries and geography...but here is a city with 1,000,000 people that I had not heard of.      Bucaramanga is an industrial and market town in the heart of Colombia.  Growing quickly it has outrun it´s infrastructure with resulting horrific traffic, a little pollution trapped down in the Valley but friendly helpful people and many pretty plazas or parks scattered around the city.      We stayed at a Hostal for the first time during this trip near the ritzest part of the city and walked the streets seeing banks, Motocycle dealerships, Auto dealerships, very fancy dress shops and an enclosed four story Mall with central floor to ceiling atrium.  Among errands to do I needed to have a pair of pants shortened (forgot to do that before leaving Colorado) which allowed for local interaction.  One day service.....$2.50 US cost.                   ...

     Sometimes you make your own adventure....whether you wish to or not. In purchasing bus tickets from Santa Marta I wanted to use my newer credit card (sign up miles bonus) but the young clerk wasn´t use to chip credit cards (What, no pin!).  So the transaction lasted 15 minutes or so with a lot of tries.  Once complete we left for the bus....not knowing we left credit card back at ticket counter. All is fine on the bus, a fairly new Volvo with seating to compare to Air First Class.  The conductor comes back with his cell phone with someone one the phone who wishes to talk with me. My spanish is not good, in Santa Marta they talk FAST and it happens passenger behind me knows Spanish and English so he takes phone and explains that they have card and will send it on next bus to our destination so stay at terminal for 2 hours after arrival to pick it up. So far, so good.  But at 9PM second bus is in and no one knows about credit card.  Come ba...