Mon 20th Oct
Very very wet when we woke up, but the good news was that
by the time we had eaten breakfast, the workers had found the broken water pipe
and fixed it. So we had water ! The bad
news was that these showers really were COLD !!
More a question of splashing water on yourself than getting under the
shower !!
Back on the road, out through San Gil, this time not
getting lost, and we headed south towards Bogota. Next stop was to be a little town called
Villa de Leyva, in from Tunja, which we had heard was really nice and we also
knew had a nice camp ground – If we could find it this time !
I am not going to spend a lot of time on writing, but will
let the pics do the talking. Basically
it was an incredible drive, through mountains, over 3000 metres a lot of the
way, lots of trucks, and LOTS of Peajes or toll stations for roads that really
weren’t very good at all ! Maybe without
the tolls they would have been far worse !
But so far, from Cartagena, it has cost us some 130,000 pesos in tolls,
or about $65, and apparently this will continue all the way south. Had one lovely moment when we stopped in a
gas station to use their loo,
and, as usual, there was a restaurant
attached. While I was waiting in the
car, a little boy of about 8 came out of the restaurant and went over to a
horse grazing in the grass nearby. He
grabbed the rope and pulled the horse back to the restaurant, and then his mum
and dad came out, dad helped mum get on the horse, handed a little baby up to
mum, and then dad led the horse, with mum on it, holding the little boys hand,
as they set off home. Presumably local
farmers who had just had a nice lunch together, and after lunch the little boy
was sent over to get the horse for mum
so they could go home. Just a lovely
moment which I was only partially able to capture on camera – I do not like
pointing my camera into the faces of locals when they are just going about
their daily business.
After that, more mountains, more rain, more peaje’s – One
quite funny as a truck had broken down coming towards us, blocking the
northbound peaje lane. So they stopped
our lane for about 20 minutes and let the northbound traffic use our lane. Meanwhile the broken down truck got mobile,
and once he chugged away, the lanes went back to normal and we continued ! Further on the Renaults down here – Now lots
of Renault 4’s – The almost Citroen like cars from the ‘60’s, with even the
gear stick protruding from the dashboard.
They are everywhere down here, a lot of them beside the road with grass
growing out of them. But an amazing
number also still on the road, and all going as slowly as they did 50 years ago
!! One came through the Peaje, chugging away !!
Remember them ?
Finally turned in toward Villa de Leyva from Tunja – it
was only 3.30 pm – We might make it to our campsite in daylight for a change
!! And have time to write my blog ?!! Then after driving up this beautiful scenic
country road, and only about 20 kms from VdeL, a road block !! Found out it was roadworks, and the road
would only open at 5 pm !! Arggghhh
!! We looked at the map for
alternatives, but there were none, so we waited ! A crowd of students on the coach in front
(no Wifi unfortunately !) kept us entertained, and believe it or not, on the
dot of 5 pm. They let us through. They
were carving the side off a mountain, and the road was totally locked by
boulders that had rolled down, and they had just cleared a single lane
through. We were 3rd car
through, so once clear of the roadworks we overtook and hurried on as darkness
fell, towards VdeL. (It is dark here by 5.30 pm). Much to our glee, for once the map coordinates
we had took as directly to the track which led to the (signposted) camp site,
and when we got there we found this delightful little facility, with toilets
(HOT SHOWERS !!), gardens all laid out, and just a pretty spot. We set up camp,
had our supper, and were soon fast asleep after yet another long day.
Pics here https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0119SanGilToVillaDeLayva?authkey=Gv1sRgCJndrenV26OfEA#
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