I wasn't immediately blown away by San Gil as my bus entered the small town. The town felt worn out, and I wondered why people were speaking so fondly about it. It didn't take me many hours to reconsider, though. San Gil is in fact rather charming. To most people San Gil is known as the adventure capital of Colombia, and offers a wide range of activities such as bungee jumping, white water rafting, paragliding and cave trekking, but to be honest I didn't really come here to be adventurous. San Gil is also only a 45 minute bus ride from the colonial town of Barichara, known as one of the most beautiful towns of Colombia and this town is what brought me to San Gil. I'm happy it did.
Where I stayed in San Gil
In San Gil I stayed at Sam's VIP Hostel and like with the city it took me a little while to discover its charm. I guess the people I met made it grow on me, while also changing my mind regarding the adventure sports. Suddenly I was signed up to go paragliding with two guys I shared a dorm with, not knowing whether I'd find this to be a good decision or not. Guess you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone every once in a while, right?
Exploring San Gil
My first day in San Gil was rather lazy, as I was tired from the 11 hour night bus I took to get there from Santa Marta. I walked around the city, discovering the loveliest streets and had a nice veggie burger (yes, I live off those at the moment) at a restaurant owned by my hostel. When I at one point almost fell asleep next to the hostel swimming pool after lunch, I decided I needed to wake myself up with another walk. This took me to Parque Gallineral. The park may not be the most exciting one, but it was nice for an afternoon stroll. I even spotted both a squirrel and a few parrots. The evening was spent hanging around the hostel pool and taking my first hot water shower in Colombia. It was nothing less than amazing.
My first time paragliding
The next morning I enjoyed the complimentary breakfast at my hostel and had a chilled morning mentally preparing for going paragliding. At 1.30pm we were picked up and were first taken to an office to complete some paperwork. Then we drove for about 45 minutes to Curiti, which is were we went from.
At site we were given a quick safety briefing (in Spanish) and then we went off into the air three people at the time. It was a blast! We were only in the air for about 15 minutes, but I found this to be the perfect amount of time. When I had gotten comfortable being up there, my flying partner enjoyed himself by making spirals in the air. Some of those turns really made my stomach twist and I'm sure I let out a few screams of excitement. I will admit that it also made me a bit nauseous afterwards, but it was totally worth it. I landed on the ground really happy that I had gone through with the paragliding. Afterwards we had celebratory beers and were very pleased with our day.
Once again we had a chilled night in, simply because there aren't really that much to do in San Gil in the evenings. Especially not when you're graced with the kind of rain that we had that evening. When hunger struck we ran out to a restaurant close by called El Maná, which had really good food. Otherwise it was best to stay warm and dry for the rest of the evening.
Barichara – a colonial beauty
I had postponed my trip to Barichara until my last day in San Gil, and when I woke up this morning I was excited to get going. Two guys from my hostel wanted to come along, so after a quick breakfast we made our way to the local bus station only a few blocks away. The ride took about 45 minutes and cost 4800COP.
We had decided to do the Camino Real hike whilst in Barichara. This is a short hike to the neighbouring town, Guane, and to avoid the worst mid day heat this is how we started our day. The hike is fairly easy, but you are mostly walking on cobblestones so I would recommend wearing good shoes. I wore my trainers, which was perfect. We completed the hike in about 1,5 hours, and celebrated with local beverages, such as the very interesting "La Chicha". After walking around Guane for a while we hopped on the bus back to Barichara to explore this town a bit further as well. We had a little laugh when the cute, yellow bus turned up, but got in and enjoyed the ride. Later we realised that there were also normal buses for about half the price, but we definitely had a more enjoyable ride.
Barichara is indeed very beautiful. You can easily wander aimlessly around for an hour or two, enjoying the pretty streets and the incredibly friendly locals who will welcome you with open arms. Eventually it was time to leave, so we made our way back to the plaza where we had arrived to, and got on the bus back to San Gil.
San Gil to Bucaramanga to Medellin
As I had a night bus to Medellin this evening, I only had time for dinner and a shower before I had to get a cab to the bus station. When my bus arrived there was no seat for me because they had overbooked the bus. It was chaos for a while, and the bus company ended up paying a woman to have her ten year old son on her lap for the 2,5 hour ride. Not fun in a tiny minibus! Once we were all seated we got on the road and headed for Bucaramanga. Here I got on a bigger bus which took me all the way to Medellin.
Before coming to Colombia I was very curious about the state of the buses, but the ones I have been on, both with the company Expreso Brasilia, have exceeded all my expectations. They are clean, spacious, (overly) air conditioned and the staff seem to take safety very seriously. I know that the state of the buses will vary as I get to different countries, but so far so good. I now have at least a week in Medellin, as I'm going back to Spanish school. Hopefully my Spanish will see even more improvement, although I feel like it has already gotten better only from my first two weeks here.
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