We love our small colonial town´s......

Trip Start Jan 12, 2008
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Trip End Mar 19, 2009


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Where I stayed
Los Andes
(Bogota hotels)

Flag of Colombia  ,
Tuesday, April 8, 2008

We checked on buses out when we got back to Tunja but armed with little spanish it was a little hard late in the afternoon.  We needed to get a bus to Bucarmanga which is the Capital of the province of Santander.  It was a 7 hour trip so we decided to sleep in a little for sanity (and the fact that the next morning would be 12 hours to Cartagena).  Big mistake considering we wanted a big bus.  We may have dropped some kgs since we left home but we can´t comfortably fit together on one of the smaller buses that they use.  Ok for a shorter trip but not 7 hours!  
 
Eventually after being acousted by touts and speaking to everyone who wanted to know us we found a guy selling tickets for an 8.30am bus.  Not to bad.  We would be there in daylight at least.  2 hours later than expected we were pissed off as hell but on our way.  I will try to be a little less picky next time but it was the most comfortable of buses!  
 
The ride was fabulous.  The scenery in Colombia is just amasing.  I think I need to stop saying that!  Anyways, we did have one interesting stopon this route and that was for an accident.  A truck had basically overturned and was being held up by two cranes.  WE are not sure what happened to the driver but we think it may have been a negative outcome for him.  I guess that the funniest thing was that when we went past on the bus we were on the wrong side of the bus to see it.  I was looking out the window and saw two cops standing around and when I looked at them the excitedly pointed in the opposite direction for me to look at the carnage.  Aren't the police meant to try and keep people moving in the event of an accident in a 'nothing to see here - move along' sort of thing?   Interesting..  They didn' really seem to be doing much else either.
 
So.. we arrived at Bucharamanga bus terminal and legged it to Giron.  Giron is a national monument town nearby.  Again, we took the smaller town option as we were a little over bigger cities.  A cab into town, we found the only hotel there and set out to explore.  Too our surprise, Giron was much like Villa de Leyva.  Again the buildings were whitewashed.  It had more of a living breathing feel to it though and not as touristy or 'weekend getaway'ish' as Villa de Leyva.  We roamed, ate, drank and slept away the time and thoroughly enjoyed...
 
The Caribbean Sea and Cartagena await!!!
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