San Gil, Colombia
Whew! We had just finished a 7 hour bus ride in a crappy little bus that had zero leg room. I thought my legs were going to fall off by the end of it. Once we arrived at our hostel we figured out a good place to eat and how to get to their famous waterfalls. He directed us to this great restaurant that had the typical Colombian lunch. This was our first taste of a typical Colombian lunch and I never went back since. For the equivalent of $4 we got a soup to start, then a salad, then rice, fried banana, meat and beans followed by a dessert. A four course meal for $4? How could I ever refuse?
After the satisfying meal we made our way to the buses to be dropped off at the trekking point to the falls. We had to pay the owner a couple bucks to go over his property towards the falls (It's common for South Americans to monetize anything that tourists do). The guy warned us that we have to watch out because we'll get super wet and he said I'll have problems with my sandals. We were like ohhhhh big deal, probably a few slippery rocks. Haha, yaaaa it was a little more than that. It was more like climbing with slippery ropes up rock walls and jumping from rock to rock across rapids. It was really fun though. Once we got to the top we found out why everybody was clammoring about this waterfall. It was pretty dang huge. You can see from the pictures I'll put up. When I went under it I thought I was close to the middle. The water felt like big beads of hail nailing me on the head. In the photo it doesn't even look like I'm in the waterfall! We jumped in the water a few times which definitely woke you up but it wasn't too cold. After screwing around for a while we decided to take an alternate route which had some great views of the mountains. Once we got back to the road we had to hike a bit to catch a bus but we finally caught one and got back to San Gil for an early night.
The next morning we woke up to hit some intense rafting. We were told it got as high as level 4 and level 5. We started off with some easy rapids and got to practice some of the rafting orders. Once we got a hang of that we started hitting some level 4 rapids. That was a pretty good start and everybody got their first soak. We got to jump in the river a few times and hit some pretty damn big rapids where people were knocked all over the boat. The guide said the first person in the water would have to buy everyone beers. Thing was, everyone was a pretty solid paddler so we weren't hit toooo hard by the rapids and we managed to keep the boat unflipped. There was one part I thought we were going to flip. We hit super hard and I thought the guy in front of me fell in but it was actually his paddle. Then, the guide decided to dig his paddle into the wedge of a rock to spin us around really hard. I was at the end of the boat so I got the worst of it. My upper body flung out but there was no way I was buying everyone beers. So I wedged my foot into the median of the boat and pretty much held on by the tips of my toes and was able to get back into the boat without falling out. Whew that was close!
After a quick lunch we hit a few more big rapids and then hit the end of the rafting trip. We all chilled and had a few beers and then headed back. Overall, the rafting trip was really fun. It was a shorter then I was used to back in Golden. It was only about 2 hours and a half. The ones in the Kicking Horse River are about 5-6 hours and more consistently crazy and it is supposed to be only level 4. I think the guys said the one in Colombia is level 5 just for the gimmicky factor to get more people to do the rafting trips. That's my theory anyways...
So we got back had dinner and headed right for the bus. Santa Marta here we come! It's beach time...
After the satisfying meal we made our way to the buses to be dropped off at the trekking point to the falls. We had to pay the owner a couple bucks to go over his property towards the falls (It's common for South Americans to monetize anything that tourists do). The guy warned us that we have to watch out because we'll get super wet and he said I'll have problems with my sandals. We were like ohhhhh big deal, probably a few slippery rocks. Haha, yaaaa it was a little more than that. It was more like climbing with slippery ropes up rock walls and jumping from rock to rock across rapids. It was really fun though. Once we got to the top we found out why everybody was clammoring about this waterfall. It was pretty dang huge. You can see from the pictures I'll put up. When I went under it I thought I was close to the middle. The water felt like big beads of hail nailing me on the head. In the photo it doesn't even look like I'm in the waterfall! We jumped in the water a few times which definitely woke you up but it wasn't too cold. After screwing around for a while we decided to take an alternate route which had some great views of the mountains. Once we got back to the road we had to hike a bit to catch a bus but we finally caught one and got back to San Gil for an early night.
The next morning we woke up to hit some intense rafting. We were told it got as high as level 4 and level 5. We started off with some easy rapids and got to practice some of the rafting orders. Once we got a hang of that we started hitting some level 4 rapids. That was a pretty good start and everybody got their first soak. We got to jump in the river a few times and hit some pretty damn big rapids where people were knocked all over the boat. The guide said the first person in the water would have to buy everyone beers. Thing was, everyone was a pretty solid paddler so we weren't hit toooo hard by the rapids and we managed to keep the boat unflipped. There was one part I thought we were going to flip. We hit super hard and I thought the guy in front of me fell in but it was actually his paddle. Then, the guide decided to dig his paddle into the wedge of a rock to spin us around really hard. I was at the end of the boat so I got the worst of it. My upper body flung out but there was no way I was buying everyone beers. So I wedged my foot into the median of the boat and pretty much held on by the tips of my toes and was able to get back into the boat without falling out. Whew that was close!
After a quick lunch we hit a few more big rapids and then hit the end of the rafting trip. We all chilled and had a few beers and then headed back. Overall, the rafting trip was really fun. It was a shorter then I was used to back in Golden. It was only about 2 hours and a half. The ones in the Kicking Horse River are about 5-6 hours and more consistently crazy and it is supposed to be only level 4. I think the guys said the one in Colombia is level 5 just for the gimmicky factor to get more people to do the rafting trips. That's my theory anyways...
So we got back had dinner and headed right for the bus. Santa Marta here we come! It's beach time...
posted by Kean @ 8:03 PM
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