Mon 22nd 2058 There is a light intermittent breeze out here which is actually very welcome. But a shower would also be welcome, as (modulo stuffiness) would be bed. So let's move.
2116 Bed.
Tue 23rd 1819 On hostel terrace, sitting uncomfortably on a sun lounger thing.
Moderately successful day of touristing.
Didn't sleep super well, kept waking up, I think mainly due to slight stuffy feeling. In the end I probably got up about 9-930 and after usual morning stuff (no shower) I sat in dining area as it was shady and had a quick look [fuck it, moved to the sole table] at guide book.
Basically - as I had half guessed from number of tour agencies and also from ads in hostel - it's adventure sport central here. We might come back to this later, but on reading this morning and looking at stuff in guide book:
- There are at least a couple of caves (cueva del indio, cueva de la vaca?) you can go down. Looking at both of them, they both involve getting wet or muddy, which would be fine except I do *not* have old clothes with me. There is also the claustrophobia aspect, though I do genuinely wonder if at "tourist level" caving it would be just within my stretched comfort zone. Still, the old clothes business pretty much kills it anyway.
- Lots of swimming holes etc. Even if we assume I am now a competent swimmer, this doesn't automatically mean I can do these things. Key thing is that I am on my own, so I either need lockers to safeguard my stuff while swimming, a tour group where the guide can do likewise (and presumably in an emergency loss of clothes situation do something to get me back to hostel) or it needs to be close enough to accom that I can walk there, maybe leaving phone at hostel, and perhaps even head out "half dressed" for swimming (eg trunks, short-sleeved T-shirt, regular shoes and socks) to minimise changing and amount of stuff available to be stolen while I am in the water. Long story short the swimming holes in guide book don't tick any of these boxes. Oh, and there's sunburn issues if not dawn/dusk, esp if as prob happens the pool requires you to shower before going in helping to wash off sun block. Some pools in deep caverns may avoid sun concerns.
- There is a big park in town, which apparently includes some big chlorinated swimming pools (you pay extra to be allowed to swim, but it isn't clear if there are lockers/changing rooms). Jumping ahead, I went over there today as my planned first morning activity, not intending to pay the swimming price but enjoy the walk and case it out. As it turned out despite no warning and no signs outside (I had to ask some people at an adjacent extreme sports booth) it's just closed today, but will be open tomorrow.
- There is a waterfall, Cascada Juan Curi. You can swim in the pool at the base but it's more of a walking/sightseeing thing. I had this pencilled in for tomorrow when I sketched out my plans this morning, but being responsive and pro-active I switched it to today on discovering park was shut, and trogged over to bus terminal. More on this below.
- There's a park a few km (probably a bit faffy to walk to, but probably doable on local bus) out of town with a couple of ziplines and a swing over a chasm sort of deal. I could maybe do this, maybe solo instead of buying a tour. I had this kind of pencilled in for day after tomorrow, but more on this below.
Incidentally a couple of mosquito buzzing noises in bed last night. I put repellent on before heading out today. I am not wearing any now sitting out here, though there is a bit of a breeze. Fingers crossed, I don't seem to have been noticeably bitten yet.
So checking guide book on phone after establishing park shut and politely turning down extreme activities (saying I was a bit old and a coward :-) ) from people I'd asked I trogged over to bus terminal. Small but unthreatening and there was an empty bus with door open parked under sign for Charala at far end. I waited outside a minute then some other tourists turned up and got on so I did same. Driver turned up later, took 10k off me, then we moved off and when we got to bus stop near hostel he got down, loads of people got on and he confirmed I'd given him 10k and wanted to go to cascada Juan Curry and gave me 2k change. All smooth, except a guy on crutches was getting on at this point and I had front right seat and half thought the driver was asking me to move for him (though there was an empty seat behind me).
Bit warm in town but I tried not to whine and it isn't utterly "omfg I'm dying" hot, just a bit sweaty.
Fingers hurting from typing so gonna have a break.
1900 Been trying to get hold of travel insurance documents. I don't seem to have an online account and because I ticked postal copies they don't seem to have e-mailed them to me. Have requested some via e-mail now.
So got off bus at JC, took the first of the two competing entrances as mentioned in guide book, after minor dithering as ticket booth closed paid 12k for a wristband and headed off down path. It's only supposed to be a 20 mins walk. Path was rocky but well made and I was finding it hard enough going in the sun and wondering if I'd completely lost physical condition since eg a year ago, though I did remind myself I'd been up that hill in VdL and that was OK.
Fingers hurting again.
1907 Just been and got a litre bottle of zero cal "Postobon Manzana" from fridge, reasonably chilled (bought it not chilled at Ara just before coming back after eating, along with zero cal litre bottle Colombiana - 2.6k each).
Anyway, the path was reasonably busy but not rammed. At the waterfall end there were some ropes to help you get up and down the rocks, and I got mixed feelings (both positive and negative) about how this was taking it up a notch, a bit like Montezuma waterfalls. Jumping ahead, while there is just enough "if you were careless you might fall seriously" stuff to make it fun, AFAICT I covered the entire site and there's nothing massively scary or difficult. I got my trousers only slightly muddy (I let it dry and am hoping to brush it off later) and I barely got my feet wet.
I did ask - though with a leading question, which I need to stop doing - and you can't get up to the very top of the falls unless you're doing the rappeling (another term for abseiling, I checked on phone just now) down - I did see a woman doing this and TBH it looks kind of scary but fun and I just might do it, I did happen to see a price list in a shop in town and they had what I think is this at 80k, which feels almost too cheap. More on this later, perhaps - basically the plan for tomorrow is to go to that park that was closed today and to chat to a few agencies about the prospect of rappelling down Juan Curi and whether you need experience or special shoes or special clothes which I don't have, and maybe do this the day after tomorrow. I just checked and my travel insurance does cover abseiling under supervision.
Anyway, you can cross over the water (it's dry season and as I say I barely got my feet wet) while holding on to a rope to stop you slipping, and you can go up some more rocks+rope to the base of the falls where there is a rather small dirty grey/brown water pool (TBH I *could* have gone in this if I'd taken my swimming stuff, as there was hardly anyone about plus a MoS lurking around, but it would have been more for the experience than anything amazing). I did stand "nearly" under the base of the falls and quite a bit of spray. It is pleasantly cool verging on cold at times down there in the canyon at the bottom of the upper fall, and I made sure to note that for comparison with how I knew I'd be feeling hot once i got on the path down again.
I did follow some path off to one side which was pleasantly pseudo-dangerous and had some nice views and was crossed by some more falls. This came to a fork which was unsignposted. I dithered and some Colombians came along eventually and I asked them. I ended up following them down one fork which took us round some more pools with more rocks+ropes and a couple of slightly iffy ladders, and ended up back at the base of the upper fall.
I then went down the path again and took the other fork but eventually realised it was the "competing" other trail which would take me down to the road a hundred metres from where "my" trail started to turned back. It was during my final visit to base of upper falls I did most of my meditative sitting and also asked the MoS about getting right to the top. Except for rappellers I didn't see anyone else at the top so I do think you can't normally get up there.
Wrt abseiling I do wonder if it's harder on the falls because of it being slippery and/or because of the spray. However, I will talk to some agencies and see what they think.
So eventually I went back down trail to road and waited about 30 mins (very patiently) and got a bus back no trouble (driver refusing money til we got into town, instead of going to terminal I got off at the bit near hostel and paid there). Photo timestamps would be definitively but I suspect the whole trip took at least 5h so it feels like a solid day's touristing.
I then went looking for somewhere to eat. In the end I dithered and entered into discussion with the chap at a small rotisserie chicken place. I felt awkward but kudos for keeping on with it, I guess. In the end I got a half chicken ("rotisserie", whatever that is - this was cheaper than the rather dry looking breaded sitting in the display case) with salted potatoes (whole new-ish potatoes, at least in size) and some chunks of probably plaintain very thoroughly cooked and ate it with a pair of plastic gloves (obviously how it's done - I have seen this before) and washed it down with 350ml of non-diet coke (coke zero was extra). The chicken was a smidge cold but very nice and did (touch wood) seem well cooked and had a sort of reddish glaze on skin. 16k for half chicken and 3k for coke! I checked price first etc, after eating asked guy again and he said 19k, I handed over a 20 and he was about to give me 1k change when some guy on street started asking for money for water and I was put off (and thus extra unlikely to give) and I pulled out 2k and handed it to the guy behind counter as a tip. I had been intending to pocket the 1k change I think he started to give me but with the distraction of the beggar I never got it, but not end of world.
I then came back to hostel and it was maybe 1630ish. I decided if bathroom was free - it was - I'd sneakily wash some tops, then go back out and see if I could get a quick coffee before dark. I did that and found a nice little bakery which I didn't note name of opposite El Padrino barber and got a choc sprinkle biscuit thing (1k) and a white coffee (2k) and both went down very well. Didn't tip there, didn't feel appropriate - TBH prob didn't need to tip at chicken place. Feeling my way and it's awkward when so much advice is moralising and "it's not much" etc (but then you get "you can't tip 10% on 1k, it's insultingly small" , so fuck knows) - if I go back to bakery another day I may tip one day.
Then came back to hostel and had shower/shave and then out here. I am not sure but I *may* have the dorm to myself at the moment, I didn't see any other bags in there. FWIW a couple of people got out of a taxi and came into hostel with me when I returned from coffee expedition but it seems mostly deserted, I am the only person on terrace and no sign of those Germans (who may have been Austrians or Swiss of course).
So I am going to have another break and then I'm going to look at maybe booking the boat trip. Abseil thing is nearer but now I have checked insurance the next step is to chat to some people tomorrow and see how trustworthy they seem to be and whether it's actually a reasonable thing for me to do, so nothing to do on that tonight.
1930 A few stars overhead despite city lights and full moon, notably good old Orion almost directly overhead.
I am a smidge concerned Barichara is going to be super expensive, *especially* over a weekend when I am likely to be going. Not worrying about this yet.
Incidentally a sign said pool at base of upper fall was 3m deep. But it appears to have a relatively shallow bit near edge, as I saw a man standing waist-deep in it helping a little girl get in or out.
1942 OK, SBA (sigh) have availability for all dates from 10th Feb on, and they seem to start roughly every 4 days. So while I do need to book this soon (so it's partly off my mind and so I can get on booking associated stuff), I can probably afford to sleep on it if I want to.
On random note my first 15ml toothpaste tube is pretty much empty. I have been sort of brushing teeth three times a day in practice a lot of the time. On related random note, found myself thinking earlier I may need to buy sunblock and realised I'm maybe gonna get shafted by the fucking 100ml limit if I buy a full-size sunblock bottle here on my flight to Panama in the near-ish future - can't be helped, but annoying.
My flight home leaves Bogota the evening of 27th March. I already have some vague "spreading myself a bit thin" feelings about doing both Colombia and Panama, but as previously waffled it is fine, I do want to "try" Panama and I also want to do this boat trip as an experience itself, and I can always visit Panama and/or Colombia again (with much more convenient flights instead of boats, and/or visiting Panama overland from Costa Rica). I do need to just do a quick check Panama isn't mask central before booking, but let me put that to one side for the moment.
I think in order to avoid feeling massively rushed on returning to Colombia (eg I'd rather not be forced to take internal flights within Colombia to get back to Bogota in time - if I *choose* to that's another thing) I probably want a minimum of 2 weeks after end of boat trip, ideally 3 or (but probably too much) 4. The trip is I believe 4 days/3 nights, so I really want the trip to start 2.5 weeks min and "ideally" 3.5 weeks before I fly home. That would suggest I want to be starting the trip approx 2nd March - they have trips on 1st and 5th March and 26th Feb. So 1st March looks like the one for me (fatty).
Looking at draft itinerary from earlier, from this point it's 3 nights (inc tonight) here, maybe 4 nights Barichara, 4 nights Mompos. So that's 7-11 days. Which would see me leaving Mompos approx 30th Jan or 3rd Feb (I may have slipped a day).
Poking at r2r, San Gil to Mompos (Mompox) looks a bit of a nightmare. TBH the natural "unhurried" route would be to go via Bucaramanga and El Banco, and thus put some time in in each of those. But even without that, if I'm leaving Mompox even as early as 30th Jan and then (making this up) getting an overnight bus to Cartagena and hopping on a flight to Panama City the next day, this is basically giving me a month in Panama. Which is about OK - the country isn't huge and I don't expect to see it all, but I expect a month is OK to (making this up) do a lazy-ish look from PC over towards Pacific coast and back - but any less starts to feel a bit ridiculous.
I had a very quick poke on web (not viewed any YT videos yet) and AFAICT there are no formal face mask requirements in Panama and no other covid stuff to deal with.
Anyway, so what this seems to be suggesting is that unless I abandon Panama (and I'm reluctant to, in part because that boat trip sounds quite an experience and while I suspect my age is fine I'm obviously not getting any younger), I perhaps need to be sucking down the need to eg fly from Bucaramanga to PC and write off points north on this trip, or at least on this leg of this trip (who knows what might feel best on the final three week stretch?).
This is a bit sucky but it's not as if I had my heart set on Mompox/El Banco and I *really* don't want to be rushing with epic bus journeys and making myself miserable.
Also even if I *did* hit the Caribbean coast of Colombia, it feels pretty obvious that at least on this trip I'm sure as hell not finding some nice quiet little beach where I could eg jog during the day and drink beer while watching the sunset and camp out cheaply for a week or so - it's all going to be Santa Marta or Cartagena type stuff given my timescales. I vaguely hope to find somewhere tranquil in Panama, but we'll see.
IIRC Bucaramanga flights did not look super great on price or time but I may just have to suck down the extra cost/inconvenience and/or accept that I need to fly via Bogota, annoying as it is to have to double back and go through two lots of security etc etc.
I'm gonna go get those lime crisps, sod it.
Feels vaguely slack being out here but it's not late and I *am* sorting out onward trip stuff.
2022 Guzzled crisps. Quite nice but didn't "need" them, this is the problem with "overstock" from shopping on previous days.
Writing all the above makes it feel like the trip is nearly over, when I'm not even two weeks in. I do half wish I'd added the 1.5ish weeks to make it the full 90 days, but I did/do want to be back to see family at Easter and it isn't a huge time loss.
I will try to make an honest assessment as to whether I do want to go to Barichara or not. It sounds nice but is it VdL-ish and not that novel? No idea.
Let's assume I do my three more nights here, four in Barichara and then do a same day (it's close-ish) Barichara-San Gil-Bucaramanga hop. Call it four nights in Bucaramanga - though I could maybe squash this, on grounds I am likely to revisit Bucaramanga if I'm ever passing through this was again. That's 11 nights, taking us to 3rd February for flight to PC. Borderline OK.
Bear in mind I am going to want to see PC, but it makes sense to do that towards end of time in Panama, when I have to be there to start the boat trip and when I will want a buffer in case of travel problems. So let's pretend I fly to PC 3rd Feb, spend that night and next night (just so I'm not ultra-rushed after flight) there before starting my "lazy" tour of Panama the day of 5th Feb. For 1st March boat trip I prob want/need to be in PC from 27th Feb (it's a leap year this year), 28th at latest. Hmm. This means my "lazy" tour has 22 nights, so just over three weeks. That is not quite as lazy as I'd like, but I think it's doable. Without checking guidebook or map, I think Panama is Costa Rica-scale, subject to bus routes you can probably get between any two point in the country in 9ish hours, and PC is central-ish and I'm probably only heading to points west of PC on this tour (given I'm heading east for the boat trip). So if we say it's almost entirely 2-4hish bus hops, my 22 nights would let me visit five-and-a-bit other towns for four nights each.
And I *have* visited PC before (albeit I expect it has changed a bit), I wouldn't *mind* exploring it a bit but at same time I don't want to get mugged immediately pre boat trip, I have "done" the canal (wouldn't mind doing it again, perhaps a full transit, but no intention of doing that on this trip), so I could potentially squeeze an extra day for my circuit if necessary etc etc.
Also if it turns out I pick a "dull" region of Panama by mistake (eg I may aim for quiet beach-ish places and it doesn't work out nicely) at least three weeks isn't going to see me utterly bored, even if there's no way to change plans midway.
I have to be honest, this is all just a little bit more regimented/rushed than I'd like, but it's somewhat inevitable given I didn't/aren't saying "I will fly to/from Panama to coincidence with start end of trip, in order to avoid having my Colombia time split up into two chunks" and the time on hand. It is also not massively regimented, I do have multi-week chunks of time to use as I see fit for a "bummel" with just the need to be at a certain point at start/end, it's just that the trip is effectively three 3-4 week-ish bummels instead of a single one.
If I ditched the boat trip I could, for example, decide I'm spending my last 4/5 weeks in Panama, book flight out for 4-5 weeks from end of trip and book flight back from Panama direct to Bogota a day or two before I'm due to fly home. That would give me two 5-ish week bummels, which is a bit more freedom, but in reality I don't think giving up the boat trip is worth that.
I could push the boat trip nearer the end of the trip and say I am going to fly from Cartagena down to Bogota, but given the vagaries of the boat trip (possibility of delays, need to negotiate the off-the-beaten track part from Capurgana/Sapzurro to Cartagena, possible desire for a day or two's R&R in C/S after boat trip) I'd probably need to allow at least a week's buffer anyway and I suspect I'd still end up feeling a bit stressed and rushed. Even if it's a little constrained, with three weeks in hand in Colombia post boat trip I could probably bumble my way down towards Bogota in a series of easy 4-5hish bus hops and spend 4ish nights in places along the way, even if I had to avoid side-trips to places not on the direct route (in the same way I might not have side-tracked to VdL if "rushing" from Bogota north). I mean, if we say 21 days, I could visit five places for four nights each - it's not the same route, but just imagining "rushing" north from Bogota up this route I'm on now, we'd have Tunja-San Gil-Bucaramanga-El Banco-Mompox-Cartagena - that's six places, so a bit tight, but it's in the right ballpark, and I have no idea exactly how the places on a "westerly" route down from Cartagena to Bogota might lie, but it feels borderline doable, and if you put a single long bus journey in or squash one place down to two nights it is feasible.
So while it's not perfect, I think this fly to Panama from Bucaramanga early Feb and get the boat back from Panama 1st March approach is doable and not overly constraining.
2056 The clouds have this cool weird fluffy-lumpy appearance, prob helps being backlit by moon. Looking up is like I'm in space over an unknown planet, looking at all the mountains and ridges and oceans (relief map sort of image), with the planet so close it almost but not quite fills the entire field of view. Tried to photograph this but it's never going to come out.
2113 Been watching sky. Wish I felt a little more relaxed. Wondering if the rappel thing is just ridiculous or not - but have to see how I feel after discussing it tomorrow.
There are borderline OK flights in the £95-130 region from Bucaramanga on roughly the right dates. These tend to go via Bogota and tend to arrive in PC early evening (after dark) which might mean I have to get a taxi from airport, but it was just a quick look at this point. Of course this is close enough prices could go up, so I do kind of need to be booking the boat trip (if I *can't* book it due to some weird glitch, that will affect my plans, eg I may go to Panama but for the last 4-5 weeks of trip, flying both ways and thus no need for big buffers) tomorrow - if I'm not too stressed about abseiling - so I can then go ahead and book the flight into Panama.
I am not exactly tired but I'm not not-tired and I may move towards bed in the next 10-15 mins.
There is paragliding round here BTW which would be very cool but my travel insurance explicitly doesn't allow it.
Looking online re rappelling it might actually have been possible for me to book today on the spot, but it's not as if I had a change of clothes etc. One review says it's not hard with a modicum of experience. I am struggling to find much but the vague suggestion is that it is safe and well managed and probably operated by the staff there rather than per tour agency (ie anyone I speak to is just reselling the same service), and I suspect (not that it would be a huge deal) I might have to make my own way out there to do it.
On that "all the same service" basis, I looked on the official JC website. It oddly says it is a 2 day activity but that must be an error. It says min age is 12 and no experience is necessary. It also costs 70k on the official website, which makes me reluctant to pay eg 80k to an agency for nothing. The website also says the price includes an insurance policy, although as I say my travel insurance does include abseiling anyway.
OK, on both my phones with different browsers, the official website lets me select a date then never shows anything to select a time or number of people. But there is a whatsapp contact and I could try that, or I could accept paying an extra 10k for the convenience of booking through an agent.
The official website is vaguely encouraging anyway, if I took a change of clothes (though in the weather here I imagine I'd dry off pretty quick) I don't see any huge problem with getting soaked - barring nasty scrapes against the fall, I don't think clothes are likely to get ruined.
The "all same service" thing combined with eg the guidebook mentioning you can do this also adds to my confidence it is a reasonably safe and professional operation.
2136 Anyway, I don't have to decide now (or first thing in the morning). I am not super tired but I think I'll move towards bed. Will send this now in case I am not actually alone in dorm.
2116 Bed.
Tue 23rd 1819 On hostel terrace, sitting uncomfortably on a sun lounger thing.
Moderately successful day of touristing.
Didn't sleep super well, kept waking up, I think mainly due to slight stuffy feeling. In the end I probably got up about 9-930 and after usual morning stuff (no shower) I sat in dining area as it was shady and had a quick look [fuck it, moved to the sole table] at guide book.
Basically - as I had half guessed from number of tour agencies and also from ads in hostel - it's adventure sport central here. We might come back to this later, but on reading this morning and looking at stuff in guide book:
- There are at least a couple of caves (cueva del indio, cueva de la vaca?) you can go down. Looking at both of them, they both involve getting wet or muddy, which would be fine except I do *not* have old clothes with me. There is also the claustrophobia aspect, though I do genuinely wonder if at "tourist level" caving it would be just within my stretched comfort zone. Still, the old clothes business pretty much kills it anyway.
- Lots of swimming holes etc. Even if we assume I am now a competent swimmer, this doesn't automatically mean I can do these things. Key thing is that I am on my own, so I either need lockers to safeguard my stuff while swimming, a tour group where the guide can do likewise (and presumably in an emergency loss of clothes situation do something to get me back to hostel) or it needs to be close enough to accom that I can walk there, maybe leaving phone at hostel, and perhaps even head out "half dressed" for swimming (eg trunks, short-sleeved T-shirt, regular shoes and socks) to minimise changing and amount of stuff available to be stolen while I am in the water. Long story short the swimming holes in guide book don't tick any of these boxes. Oh, and there's sunburn issues if not dawn/dusk, esp if as prob happens the pool requires you to shower before going in helping to wash off sun block. Some pools in deep caverns may avoid sun concerns.
- There is a big park in town, which apparently includes some big chlorinated swimming pools (you pay extra to be allowed to swim, but it isn't clear if there are lockers/changing rooms). Jumping ahead, I went over there today as my planned first morning activity, not intending to pay the swimming price but enjoy the walk and case it out. As it turned out despite no warning and no signs outside (I had to ask some people at an adjacent extreme sports booth) it's just closed today, but will be open tomorrow.
- There is a waterfall, Cascada Juan Curi. You can swim in the pool at the base but it's more of a walking/sightseeing thing. I had this pencilled in for tomorrow when I sketched out my plans this morning, but being responsive and pro-active I switched it to today on discovering park was shut, and trogged over to bus terminal. More on this below.
- There's a park a few km (probably a bit faffy to walk to, but probably doable on local bus) out of town with a couple of ziplines and a swing over a chasm sort of deal. I could maybe do this, maybe solo instead of buying a tour. I had this kind of pencilled in for day after tomorrow, but more on this below.
Incidentally a couple of mosquito buzzing noises in bed last night. I put repellent on before heading out today. I am not wearing any now sitting out here, though there is a bit of a breeze. Fingers crossed, I don't seem to have been noticeably bitten yet.
So checking guide book on phone after establishing park shut and politely turning down extreme activities (saying I was a bit old and a coward :-) ) from people I'd asked I trogged over to bus terminal. Small but unthreatening and there was an empty bus with door open parked under sign for Charala at far end. I waited outside a minute then some other tourists turned up and got on so I did same. Driver turned up later, took 10k off me, then we moved off and when we got to bus stop near hostel he got down, loads of people got on and he confirmed I'd given him 10k and wanted to go to cascada Juan Curry and gave me 2k change. All smooth, except a guy on crutches was getting on at this point and I had front right seat and half thought the driver was asking me to move for him (though there was an empty seat behind me).
Bit warm in town but I tried not to whine and it isn't utterly "omfg I'm dying" hot, just a bit sweaty.
Fingers hurting from typing so gonna have a break.
1900 Been trying to get hold of travel insurance documents. I don't seem to have an online account and because I ticked postal copies they don't seem to have e-mailed them to me. Have requested some via e-mail now.
So got off bus at JC, took the first of the two competing entrances as mentioned in guide book, after minor dithering as ticket booth closed paid 12k for a wristband and headed off down path. It's only supposed to be a 20 mins walk. Path was rocky but well made and I was finding it hard enough going in the sun and wondering if I'd completely lost physical condition since eg a year ago, though I did remind myself I'd been up that hill in VdL and that was OK.
Fingers hurting again.
1907 Just been and got a litre bottle of zero cal "Postobon Manzana" from fridge, reasonably chilled (bought it not chilled at Ara just before coming back after eating, along with zero cal litre bottle Colombiana - 2.6k each).
Anyway, the path was reasonably busy but not rammed. At the waterfall end there were some ropes to help you get up and down the rocks, and I got mixed feelings (both positive and negative) about how this was taking it up a notch, a bit like Montezuma waterfalls. Jumping ahead, while there is just enough "if you were careless you might fall seriously" stuff to make it fun, AFAICT I covered the entire site and there's nothing massively scary or difficult. I got my trousers only slightly muddy (I let it dry and am hoping to brush it off later) and I barely got my feet wet.
I did ask - though with a leading question, which I need to stop doing - and you can't get up to the very top of the falls unless you're doing the rappeling (another term for abseiling, I checked on phone just now) down - I did see a woman doing this and TBH it looks kind of scary but fun and I just might do it, I did happen to see a price list in a shop in town and they had what I think is this at 80k, which feels almost too cheap. More on this later, perhaps - basically the plan for tomorrow is to go to that park that was closed today and to chat to a few agencies about the prospect of rappelling down Juan Curi and whether you need experience or special shoes or special clothes which I don't have, and maybe do this the day after tomorrow. I just checked and my travel insurance does cover abseiling under supervision.
Anyway, you can cross over the water (it's dry season and as I say I barely got my feet wet) while holding on to a rope to stop you slipping, and you can go up some more rocks+rope to the base of the falls where there is a rather small dirty grey/brown water pool (TBH I *could* have gone in this if I'd taken my swimming stuff, as there was hardly anyone about plus a MoS lurking around, but it would have been more for the experience than anything amazing). I did stand "nearly" under the base of the falls and quite a bit of spray. It is pleasantly cool verging on cold at times down there in the canyon at the bottom of the upper fall, and I made sure to note that for comparison with how I knew I'd be feeling hot once i got on the path down again.
I did follow some path off to one side which was pleasantly pseudo-dangerous and had some nice views and was crossed by some more falls. This came to a fork which was unsignposted. I dithered and some Colombians came along eventually and I asked them. I ended up following them down one fork which took us round some more pools with more rocks+ropes and a couple of slightly iffy ladders, and ended up back at the base of the upper fall.
I then went down the path again and took the other fork but eventually realised it was the "competing" other trail which would take me down to the road a hundred metres from where "my" trail started to turned back. It was during my final visit to base of upper falls I did most of my meditative sitting and also asked the MoS about getting right to the top. Except for rappellers I didn't see anyone else at the top so I do think you can't normally get up there.
Wrt abseiling I do wonder if it's harder on the falls because of it being slippery and/or because of the spray. However, I will talk to some agencies and see what they think.
So eventually I went back down trail to road and waited about 30 mins (very patiently) and got a bus back no trouble (driver refusing money til we got into town, instead of going to terminal I got off at the bit near hostel and paid there). Photo timestamps would be definitively but I suspect the whole trip took at least 5h so it feels like a solid day's touristing.
I then went looking for somewhere to eat. In the end I dithered and entered into discussion with the chap at a small rotisserie chicken place. I felt awkward but kudos for keeping on with it, I guess. In the end I got a half chicken ("rotisserie", whatever that is - this was cheaper than the rather dry looking breaded sitting in the display case) with salted potatoes (whole new-ish potatoes, at least in size) and some chunks of probably plaintain very thoroughly cooked and ate it with a pair of plastic gloves (obviously how it's done - I have seen this before) and washed it down with 350ml of non-diet coke (coke zero was extra). The chicken was a smidge cold but very nice and did (touch wood) seem well cooked and had a sort of reddish glaze on skin. 16k for half chicken and 3k for coke! I checked price first etc, after eating asked guy again and he said 19k, I handed over a 20 and he was about to give me 1k change when some guy on street started asking for money for water and I was put off (and thus extra unlikely to give) and I pulled out 2k and handed it to the guy behind counter as a tip. I had been intending to pocket the 1k change I think he started to give me but with the distraction of the beggar I never got it, but not end of world.
I then came back to hostel and it was maybe 1630ish. I decided if bathroom was free - it was - I'd sneakily wash some tops, then go back out and see if I could get a quick coffee before dark. I did that and found a nice little bakery which I didn't note name of opposite El Padrino barber and got a choc sprinkle biscuit thing (1k) and a white coffee (2k) and both went down very well. Didn't tip there, didn't feel appropriate - TBH prob didn't need to tip at chicken place. Feeling my way and it's awkward when so much advice is moralising and "it's not much" etc (but then you get "you can't tip 10% on 1k, it's insultingly small" , so fuck knows) - if I go back to bakery another day I may tip one day.
Then came back to hostel and had shower/shave and then out here. I am not sure but I *may* have the dorm to myself at the moment, I didn't see any other bags in there. FWIW a couple of people got out of a taxi and came into hostel with me when I returned from coffee expedition but it seems mostly deserted, I am the only person on terrace and no sign of those Germans (who may have been Austrians or Swiss of course).
So I am going to have another break and then I'm going to look at maybe booking the boat trip. Abseil thing is nearer but now I have checked insurance the next step is to chat to some people tomorrow and see how trustworthy they seem to be and whether it's actually a reasonable thing for me to do, so nothing to do on that tonight.
1930 A few stars overhead despite city lights and full moon, notably good old Orion almost directly overhead.
I am a smidge concerned Barichara is going to be super expensive, *especially* over a weekend when I am likely to be going. Not worrying about this yet.
Incidentally a sign said pool at base of upper fall was 3m deep. But it appears to have a relatively shallow bit near edge, as I saw a man standing waist-deep in it helping a little girl get in or out.
1942 OK, SBA (sigh) have availability for all dates from 10th Feb on, and they seem to start roughly every 4 days. So while I do need to book this soon (so it's partly off my mind and so I can get on booking associated stuff), I can probably afford to sleep on it if I want to.
On random note my first 15ml toothpaste tube is pretty much empty. I have been sort of brushing teeth three times a day in practice a lot of the time. On related random note, found myself thinking earlier I may need to buy sunblock and realised I'm maybe gonna get shafted by the fucking 100ml limit if I buy a full-size sunblock bottle here on my flight to Panama in the near-ish future - can't be helped, but annoying.
My flight home leaves Bogota the evening of 27th March. I already have some vague "spreading myself a bit thin" feelings about doing both Colombia and Panama, but as previously waffled it is fine, I do want to "try" Panama and I also want to do this boat trip as an experience itself, and I can always visit Panama and/or Colombia again (with much more convenient flights instead of boats, and/or visiting Panama overland from Costa Rica). I do need to just do a quick check Panama isn't mask central before booking, but let me put that to one side for the moment.
I think in order to avoid feeling massively rushed on returning to Colombia (eg I'd rather not be forced to take internal flights within Colombia to get back to Bogota in time - if I *choose* to that's another thing) I probably want a minimum of 2 weeks after end of boat trip, ideally 3 or (but probably too much) 4. The trip is I believe 4 days/3 nights, so I really want the trip to start 2.5 weeks min and "ideally" 3.5 weeks before I fly home. That would suggest I want to be starting the trip approx 2nd March - they have trips on 1st and 5th March and 26th Feb. So 1st March looks like the one for me (fatty).
Looking at draft itinerary from earlier, from this point it's 3 nights (inc tonight) here, maybe 4 nights Barichara, 4 nights Mompos. So that's 7-11 days. Which would see me leaving Mompos approx 30th Jan or 3rd Feb (I may have slipped a day).
Poking at r2r, San Gil to Mompos (Mompox) looks a bit of a nightmare. TBH the natural "unhurried" route would be to go via Bucaramanga and El Banco, and thus put some time in in each of those. But even without that, if I'm leaving Mompox even as early as 30th Jan and then (making this up) getting an overnight bus to Cartagena and hopping on a flight to Panama City the next day, this is basically giving me a month in Panama. Which is about OK - the country isn't huge and I don't expect to see it all, but I expect a month is OK to (making this up) do a lazy-ish look from PC over towards Pacific coast and back - but any less starts to feel a bit ridiculous.
I had a very quick poke on web (not viewed any YT videos yet) and AFAICT there are no formal face mask requirements in Panama and no other covid stuff to deal with.
Anyway, so what this seems to be suggesting is that unless I abandon Panama (and I'm reluctant to, in part because that boat trip sounds quite an experience and while I suspect my age is fine I'm obviously not getting any younger), I perhaps need to be sucking down the need to eg fly from Bucaramanga to PC and write off points north on this trip, or at least on this leg of this trip (who knows what might feel best on the final three week stretch?).
This is a bit sucky but it's not as if I had my heart set on Mompox/El Banco and I *really* don't want to be rushing with epic bus journeys and making myself miserable.
Also even if I *did* hit the Caribbean coast of Colombia, it feels pretty obvious that at least on this trip I'm sure as hell not finding some nice quiet little beach where I could eg jog during the day and drink beer while watching the sunset and camp out cheaply for a week or so - it's all going to be Santa Marta or Cartagena type stuff given my timescales. I vaguely hope to find somewhere tranquil in Panama, but we'll see.
IIRC Bucaramanga flights did not look super great on price or time but I may just have to suck down the extra cost/inconvenience and/or accept that I need to fly via Bogota, annoying as it is to have to double back and go through two lots of security etc etc.
I'm gonna go get those lime crisps, sod it.
Feels vaguely slack being out here but it's not late and I *am* sorting out onward trip stuff.
2022 Guzzled crisps. Quite nice but didn't "need" them, this is the problem with "overstock" from shopping on previous days.
Writing all the above makes it feel like the trip is nearly over, when I'm not even two weeks in. I do half wish I'd added the 1.5ish weeks to make it the full 90 days, but I did/do want to be back to see family at Easter and it isn't a huge time loss.
I will try to make an honest assessment as to whether I do want to go to Barichara or not. It sounds nice but is it VdL-ish and not that novel? No idea.
Let's assume I do my three more nights here, four in Barichara and then do a same day (it's close-ish) Barichara-San Gil-Bucaramanga hop. Call it four nights in Bucaramanga - though I could maybe squash this, on grounds I am likely to revisit Bucaramanga if I'm ever passing through this was again. That's 11 nights, taking us to 3rd February for flight to PC. Borderline OK.
Bear in mind I am going to want to see PC, but it makes sense to do that towards end of time in Panama, when I have to be there to start the boat trip and when I will want a buffer in case of travel problems. So let's pretend I fly to PC 3rd Feb, spend that night and next night (just so I'm not ultra-rushed after flight) there before starting my "lazy" tour of Panama the day of 5th Feb. For 1st March boat trip I prob want/need to be in PC from 27th Feb (it's a leap year this year), 28th at latest. Hmm. This means my "lazy" tour has 22 nights, so just over three weeks. That is not quite as lazy as I'd like, but I think it's doable. Without checking guidebook or map, I think Panama is Costa Rica-scale, subject to bus routes you can probably get between any two point in the country in 9ish hours, and PC is central-ish and I'm probably only heading to points west of PC on this tour (given I'm heading east for the boat trip). So if we say it's almost entirely 2-4hish bus hops, my 22 nights would let me visit five-and-a-bit other towns for four nights each.
And I *have* visited PC before (albeit I expect it has changed a bit), I wouldn't *mind* exploring it a bit but at same time I don't want to get mugged immediately pre boat trip, I have "done" the canal (wouldn't mind doing it again, perhaps a full transit, but no intention of doing that on this trip), so I could potentially squeeze an extra day for my circuit if necessary etc etc.
Also if it turns out I pick a "dull" region of Panama by mistake (eg I may aim for quiet beach-ish places and it doesn't work out nicely) at least three weeks isn't going to see me utterly bored, even if there's no way to change plans midway.
I have to be honest, this is all just a little bit more regimented/rushed than I'd like, but it's somewhat inevitable given I didn't/aren't saying "I will fly to/from Panama to coincidence with start end of trip, in order to avoid having my Colombia time split up into two chunks" and the time on hand. It is also not massively regimented, I do have multi-week chunks of time to use as I see fit for a "bummel" with just the need to be at a certain point at start/end, it's just that the trip is effectively three 3-4 week-ish bummels instead of a single one.
If I ditched the boat trip I could, for example, decide I'm spending my last 4/5 weeks in Panama, book flight out for 4-5 weeks from end of trip and book flight back from Panama direct to Bogota a day or two before I'm due to fly home. That would give me two 5-ish week bummels, which is a bit more freedom, but in reality I don't think giving up the boat trip is worth that.
I could push the boat trip nearer the end of the trip and say I am going to fly from Cartagena down to Bogota, but given the vagaries of the boat trip (possibility of delays, need to negotiate the off-the-beaten track part from Capurgana/Sapzurro to Cartagena, possible desire for a day or two's R&R in C/S after boat trip) I'd probably need to allow at least a week's buffer anyway and I suspect I'd still end up feeling a bit stressed and rushed. Even if it's a little constrained, with three weeks in hand in Colombia post boat trip I could probably bumble my way down towards Bogota in a series of easy 4-5hish bus hops and spend 4ish nights in places along the way, even if I had to avoid side-trips to places not on the direct route (in the same way I might not have side-tracked to VdL if "rushing" from Bogota north). I mean, if we say 21 days, I could visit five places for four nights each - it's not the same route, but just imagining "rushing" north from Bogota up this route I'm on now, we'd have Tunja-San Gil-Bucaramanga-El Banco-Mompox-Cartagena - that's six places, so a bit tight, but it's in the right ballpark, and I have no idea exactly how the places on a "westerly" route down from Cartagena to Bogota might lie, but it feels borderline doable, and if you put a single long bus journey in or squash one place down to two nights it is feasible.
So while it's not perfect, I think this fly to Panama from Bucaramanga early Feb and get the boat back from Panama 1st March approach is doable and not overly constraining.
2056 The clouds have this cool weird fluffy-lumpy appearance, prob helps being backlit by moon. Looking up is like I'm in space over an unknown planet, looking at all the mountains and ridges and oceans (relief map sort of image), with the planet so close it almost but not quite fills the entire field of view. Tried to photograph this but it's never going to come out.
2113 Been watching sky. Wish I felt a little more relaxed. Wondering if the rappel thing is just ridiculous or not - but have to see how I feel after discussing it tomorrow.
There are borderline OK flights in the £95-130 region from Bucaramanga on roughly the right dates. These tend to go via Bogota and tend to arrive in PC early evening (after dark) which might mean I have to get a taxi from airport, but it was just a quick look at this point. Of course this is close enough prices could go up, so I do kind of need to be booking the boat trip (if I *can't* book it due to some weird glitch, that will affect my plans, eg I may go to Panama but for the last 4-5 weeks of trip, flying both ways and thus no need for big buffers) tomorrow - if I'm not too stressed about abseiling - so I can then go ahead and book the flight into Panama.
I am not exactly tired but I'm not not-tired and I may move towards bed in the next 10-15 mins.
There is paragliding round here BTW which would be very cool but my travel insurance explicitly doesn't allow it.
Looking online re rappelling it might actually have been possible for me to book today on the spot, but it's not as if I had a change of clothes etc. One review says it's not hard with a modicum of experience. I am struggling to find much but the vague suggestion is that it is safe and well managed and probably operated by the staff there rather than per tour agency (ie anyone I speak to is just reselling the same service), and I suspect (not that it would be a huge deal) I might have to make my own way out there to do it.
On that "all the same service" basis, I looked on the official JC website. It oddly says it is a 2 day activity but that must be an error. It says min age is 12 and no experience is necessary. It also costs 70k on the official website, which makes me reluctant to pay eg 80k to an agency for nothing. The website also says the price includes an insurance policy, although as I say my travel insurance does include abseiling anyway.
OK, on both my phones with different browsers, the official website lets me select a date then never shows anything to select a time or number of people. But there is a whatsapp contact and I could try that, or I could accept paying an extra 10k for the convenience of booking through an agent.
The official website is vaguely encouraging anyway, if I took a change of clothes (though in the weather here I imagine I'd dry off pretty quick) I don't see any huge problem with getting soaked - barring nasty scrapes against the fall, I don't think clothes are likely to get ruined.
The "all same service" thing combined with eg the guidebook mentioning you can do this also adds to my confidence it is a reasonably safe and professional operation.
2136 Anyway, I don't have to decide now (or first thing in the morning). I am not super tired but I think I'll move towards bed. Will send this now in case I am not actually alone in dorm.
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