We left Sachica after a hearty breakfast on the morning of Wednesday, June 6, and headed north. Our plan was to make our way to Cartagena using highway 45 that ran fairly close to the Venezuelan border and then down to Medellin using a different route.
About midway to our next stop in San Gil, we got pulled over by some police officers. Apparently, our violation was that our bike’s license plate number was not displayed on our helmets and the only way to avoid having the bike immobilized was to pay a fine of 400,000 COP (~180 CAD). Of course we don’t carry around that much cash so the officers settled for 100,000 COP (no receipt, obviously).
We stopped at a motorcycle store in the next town to get stickers of the bike’s plate number put on our helmets. We also found out that it is not required by law for foreigners to do so and those officers had done this before to others. Damn corruption. Note for next time: pull the “dumb foreigner” card and speak English (or Klingon).
At least we got nice views along the way
The rest of the ride to San Gil was seamless and we got to the city at around mid-afternoon. San Gil is an insanely hilly city that makes San Francisco look flat and doesn’t have much of interest for visitors who are not adventure sport enthusiasts. Since we do not fall into that category, our main purpose for stopping there for two nights was to visit Barichara, a beautiful colonial town around 30 minutes away.
Many say that Barichara is the prettiest town in Colombia. I can’t say that I agree with that sentiment, simply because Colombia is home to many gorgeous towns, but it is indeed a visual delight. Like Villa de Leyva, the town has white buildings and cobblestone streets; however, unlike the former, the cobblestones that pave Barichara’s streets are flat – a big plus when you’re on a motorcycle.
True to it’s laid-back vibe, the town’s name means “a place of rest” in the indigenous Guane language. Our day of sight-seeing was definitely a relaxed one.
On Friday, we left San Gil and headed towards our next stop in Bucaramanga. Along the way, we came across the Cañón del Chicamocha (Chicamocha Canyon), a steep-sided canyon located in the Boyacá and Santander departments of Colombia. With a maximum depth of 2,000 meters, it is slightly deeper than the Grand Canyon and covers an impressive area of around 108,000 hectares.
Since we had all our worldly belongings strapped to the bike, we did not partake in any canyon-related activities; however, we did have lunch at a simple eatery on the side of the parking lot that overlooked the canyon. We had some unbelievably delicious cazuela de mariscos (a magical buttery seafood soup dressed with a leprechaun’s clover dipped in unicorn tears blessed by Yoda) while enjoying a stunning view of the canyon.
Chicamocha Canyon
Cazuela de Mariscos
Bucaramanga
Ocaña
Riohacha
Santa Marta
Our next few stops were in unremarkable towns that got hotter and hotter with next-to-non-existent internet connections. Let’s pretend that is why the blog has been lagging behind a bit, shall we? 🙂
