Off to Mompox

Tuesday and Wednesday, Aug. 23-24--Santa Marta to Mompox

I had booked a shuttle service to get me from Santa Marta to Mompox since there are no direct buses.  Only one service was referenced anywhere I looked in guidebooks or on the Internet, so I booked it.  All the references said it was a van service, that it would be a tight squeeze, that the a/c was turned up high so that it was cold, and that it didn't even stop to go to the bathroom unless they had to get more gas.  (I later learned from my hotel that there are other similar van services that I could have booked.)

I stayed in the room all morning, since checkout was at 13:00 and that was also the time the shuttle service was supposed to come for me.  Then at the front of the hotel I waited...and waited...and waited.  The young man running the front desk asked me for the number for the shuttle serviced and called them.  The lady who answered said she would call the driver wherever he was and make sure he had my name and hotel on his list of pickups.  Finally, at 13:50, a pickup truck pulled up with two Colombian men in the front seat and two American tourists in the back seat.  They loaded my luggage in the back, and I squeezed into the back seat with the American couple.  The lady was bothered by the fact that it was so cramped, but I had already known to expect that.  What made it so tight, however, wasn't the width but the narrow leg area.

Well our a/c worked, but we weren't frozen out.  I had put a sweater in my small bag to put on if I needed it.  We were fine temperature wise.   But the trip seemed to take forever because of stops that everyone in the past has claimed not to get.  We stopped at one gas station and left for another for some reason.  At the second, we used the toilets while they got gas.  (It was a hybrid vehicle running both on gasoline and natural gas, so they filled it with both.)  Then we stopped briefly for the men to get a juice drink.  Then, before they finished those, we stopped at a restaurant where they ordered food.  Before the trip was over, I think we stopped at 3 more gas stations.  At least we didn't have to worry about having to "try to hold it"!!

We came through some very heavy storms toward the end of the trip.  It was difficult for the driver to see.  And we were on a raised highway going through low countryside with no guardrails which made it a bit scary.  But the skies died up before we got to Mompox and we made it here in about the same time that others had said it took--about 5 1/2 hours.  I think that was because the highways most of the way seemed to be new ones making the trip easier and faster.

The best part of the trip was visiting with the other two passengers.  Although they are now American and have lived in Brooklyn for many years, he is originally from Northern Ireland and she is originally from Poland.  We talked about all kinds of things--traveling, the advantages being retired offers for people who like to travel, around-the-world tickets, San Antonio (which they both know), their neighborhood (which I have visited) in Brooklyn, politics, places we know in common, teaching, writing, etc.  He will retire from teaching in two years, and they will probably move to somewhere in Europe while traveling more than they do now.

The pickup driver delivered me straight to my guesthouse, Casa Mebi.  I booked it through AIRBNB.  It's a family-operated place with 3 rooms for rent.  It's not like having a room in a home; the family lives upstairs except for cooking/eating; downstairs are the guestrooms, lobby area, and entrance in addition to the kitchen/dining room.  So I go in and out without having to really walk through their home.  My room is large, clean, comfortable, has a good a/c, and has good WiFi.  The owers are nice, and one of them who is a nurse and presently a graduate student without morning classes was here to greet me and offer me breakfast which their maid cooked--the best arepas I have had on the trip along with scrambled eggs and coffee.  I'm only paying $13 per night; I couldn't believe that they offered me breakfast.

Mompox is a small, old colonial town on a river.  It was established in the middle of a low area which indigenous people developed hundreds of years ago by building canal systems--digging out land and using the soil to build up the areas between the many canals.  They built their homes on tops of the mounds where they were safe from flooding, and the canals filled during the rainy season allowing them to raise fish, and crops like rice where water is needed part of the time but not all of the time.

Anyway, today Mompox is a World Heritage Site because of its huge colonial center filled with old churches, plazas, and buildings.  It's not a big tourist area because it is difficult to reach.  But that keeps it quiet and quaint.  This morning I wandered up and down the streets looking at the old buildings, watching the people, enjoying seeing the river flow by.  There are beautiful small squares around town, and I sat at one of them and read for a while.  And I saw two very nice colonial churches and their adjoining cloisters--Santa Barbara and San Augustin.  They are just two of several beautiful colonial churches in the city.

After staying inside from the mid-afternoon heat, I went back out at 16:00 to buy my bus tickets for tomorrow.  I am only going a little more than 200 miles, but it will take 3 buses and 10 hours!  Anyway, tomorrow is moving day when I go from here to my next stop San Gil.

Near the bus station is one of the tourist sights I had not yet seen--the cemetery.  It is on the list of things to see because of a number of rather grand tombs.  Grand families have lived here.  Mompox was the major city of the country back in the early Spanish days.  Cartagena and Santa Marta were too exposed to pirates.  Even as late as the fight for independence Mompox was a major city where Bolivar lived and led battles.   

After that, I just wandered along the river and up and down the streets again to enjoy the atmosphere.  It's a beautiful and peaceful place.   For those who read or have seen the movie based on the book, Mompox is the setting for Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and the movie was filmed here.  Here is a link to the film trailer, and here is one to the entire film (in Spanish without subtitles).