Thursday and Friday, Aug. 24-25, 2017--Mompox to San Gil
All the guidebooks warn about how long it takes to travel from place-to-place in this country. They also warn that the actual length of time is ALWAYS about 20% more than the scheduled/estimated length for the trip. So far, that is regularly proving to be true.
After getting up Thursday and having another nice visit with Javier over breakfast, I made one last walk around the city of Mompox. It is truly special--like walking back in time. I even saw the milk man delivering fresh milk on a push cart with a large milk can like we used back in the 40s and 50s. He was dipping milk from his can and pouring it into a container for a housewife. And there are many horse carts in the city--not for driving tourists around, but for poor laborers to move themselves and their wares about. Oh, and I saw an ice grinder in a shop where you took your block of ice you had bought and he would grind it for you. Several places I ran across a park or empty lot where a barber had a mirror hanging on a tree and was clipping people's hair. The list goes on and on. But there are modern touches to it all, also. On one of the squares, there are people set up with tables and soldering irons for repairing mobile phones. But it is the old colonial buildings lined up and down narrow streets and along the flowing river that give it the real feeling of being back in time.
My bus departed at 11:30. They had estimated I would be in San Gil at 22:00. There were many reasons it didn't work out that way. As soon as we left the city limits of Mompox, the "highway" became a very rough red clay road. We bobbled back and forth for 1 1/2 hours before we hit a paved road. Things really speeded up then, but that didn't last long. The bus needed fuel, and the gas station where they planned to get it didn't have any. We pulled over to the side of the road nearby where a man was selling bottles of fuel on the roadside. I guess they asked if he had more, because he went down the road and then came back with one more liter bottle. They put what he had in the tank and off we went again. We were supposed to LEAVE a major stop at 16:45, but we didn't get there until about 17:00, and we sat there for at least 40 minutes before leaving.
It was dark soon after we left, and we went off the good highway onto a twisting one in the mountains. We would climb and climb, and I would hope it was over and that Bacamaranga, the city were I would change buses, would be just ahead. But that climbing process occurred at least 4 times.
We finally pulled into the Bucamaranga station at 21:05. The driver was very nice. He helped me grab my suitcase and go up to the next floor of the station where I had to exchange my "open" ticket I had bought for San Gil for an assigned seat on a specific bus. Fortunately, a bus was leaving at 21:20!! If I had missed that, the next one would not have left until 23:30.
The ride was over another long, twisting road in the mountains. I've heard the scenery is beautiful and includes passing a famous canyon, but I couldn't see anything. All I could keep in my mind then was that my hotel lobby was supposed to close at midnight, so I was hoping again that each climb would be the last one and that I would see the lights of the city around the next curb. Well, it didn't work out that way. We pulled into the station at 00:05, just after midnight. I got a taxi and we headed downtown. It's just a short ride, so at 00:15 we had found the hotel (which is rather new and the driver didn't know existed because it was built inside an old building with just a regular front door outside leading down a hallway. The town was dead, but a bum was there and he rang the doorbell as I got out of the cab. I rang it again after I got there. Suddenly a phone went off in the bum's pocket. He was replying to the people inside saying it was 1 person with luggage. The owner later told me they pay him to be there at night to tell them who is there before they open the door.
I am staying at the Esmeralda del Fonce Hotel. It is new and clean, but also quite simple. All the other decent looking places were outside the old city, and I wanted to be here in the center of town. It's got everything one might need--an a/c unit that both heats and cools, although I haven't needed it at all yet; a TV with cable, but like all others in other countries now, there are usually only stations, including all the international ones, in the local language; a nice bed, good WiFi, and a nice bath with a large shower. The one problem there is that like many places in Colombia, it has only a cold-water shower. I thought there might be hot water up here in the mountains, but not in this hotel. The owners are nice and friendly, and the free breakfast is across the street in a restaurant.
I was totally exhausted after that long, winding trip. I went to bed and slept until 8:00, but I had to get up then, because breakfast service ends at 9:00. But it was better than usual. I am so tired of bland food which is all they seem to have here in Colombia. But after the lady confirmed I wanted scrambled eggs with arepas and hot chocolate, she asked if I wanted tomatoes on my eggs. I jumped at the chance, and the scrambled eggs came out scrambled with some tomatoes and onions. It added at least a bit of flavor. And the hot chocolate came with a sweet roll to dip into it.
Today was a day just to relax and explore San Gil. It is a small, colonial city built up a slanting mountainside. Because of that, it is much wider than it is long, since it is easier to walk on the streets parallel to the river than up the ones heading up the mountain. There are about 4-5 parallel streets and their connecting streets where the center of town exists. I've wondered all of those today--finding restaurants, bakeries, the central plaza, the main church, etc.
The main plaza is large and is constantly filled with people. I spent time there both this morning and late this afternoon just relaxing and watching people. This afternoon, some university students were practicing back flips and were teaching a couple of others to do them. One caught on very fast and was doing them well. The other was too scared--maybe rightfully so since it would be sad to break one's neck and die while still only a student.
I meant to eat a late afternoon snack and then go out for dinner. But my snack was so big and good that I never ate anything else. I got it from one of the more popular bakeries which is just half a block from my hotel. There were slices of pineapple-ham pizza, and I got one even though I don't normally like pineapple on my pizza. But they grow pineapple here, and it was a fresh, juicy one. That was a delicious piece of pizza that would have been like a dessert except for the salty cheese on it. I also bought a coconut cake that was ball-shaped. UMMM, it was so good. It was really two baked mounds of cake about 2 inches (5 m) in diameter. The bases were sealed together with some kind of fruit jam. Then the ball was covered in a creamy white frosting and rolled in shredded coconut. Coconut has always been one of my favorite tastes, and that ball didn't disappoint.
Speaking of coconut, one of the restaurants I passed had "coconut lemonade" on its drink list. Click here for a recipe. It sounds great to me.
I came home early to work on some travel planning and to get to bed early. I want to have breakfast around 7:00 tomorrow and have a day outing that will involve two other cities with a hike between them. There's a chance of rain in the forecast, so I'll have to check it again tomorrow, but it looks as if it is just for scattered showers in the afternoon. I hope my plans work out.
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