 From the northern
part of Colombia, I now enters the eastern part.11. I head further south, first at the high plain I've been driven on for some time. It is still astonishing, but I find it hard to find truly new plants and motives. After 100 kilometres, the road turn into the hills or mountains - and from being a almost empty four-lane highway, it turn two-lane and filled with heavy trucks. That does make it a bit hard to stop and make photos along the road, but I try while driving. I get stopped at a police check-point, but besides from waiting a long time, I get buy unharmed.
I Despite
the historical lack, it is rather interesting. At first the marked
disappoint; only some The streets around the centre
of town are busy. Besides from the shops, here are a lot of
carts with any kind of eating and drinking, watch repair and fruits.
The hotel is in the electric-ware street, some streets have cloths,
others shoos. I fail to find the
As I make a bigger loop, I get to the remains
of the old city, around the square with chess players and alike.
Here are several churches, but I have not experienced any religious
behaviour at all! The new city have mazes of shops within the big
blocks, and in several floors.
12. I try to sneak out of Bucaramanga before anyone else - and fails. I am heading up a small mountain road, leading towards Venezuela. I had expected to have it pretty much by my self, but wrong again. The first part, from Bucaramanga's 1010 metres to around 2000 metres is hilly farmland. Then the cloud forest dominates. The
motives
are fantastic, but I could do with some sun. The clouds move
in-between the bigger trees and the ranges. The trees are covered in
bromeliads and In around
3000
metres high, the trees disappears, and huge, soft grass fields
start.
I
reach the old colonial Pamplona, and drive straight to the central
market. My plan was to grab lunch and head back, but it is a
charming town, and I have to see a bit of it. It might have deserved
a whole day, but I head back after the short Getting out is difficult: The main road is
straight through the narrow hairpin-bends, and the big trucks can't
meet. And backing up is not easy around a corner in a 18-wheeler.
I reach Bucaramanga close to five, and it is so
tempting to go back to the same, nice hotel. But it is only 125 Then it turns dark, but the traffic remain
rather intense. I reach the little Barichara around eight, and
luckily, they have a room for me at the 13.
I head 100 kilometres back towards Bucaramanga to see the narrow and deep gorge
I drown through last evening. The first part of the road is through
grass land with stone walls and red clay. The houses are big and
beautiful - like the landscape. I pass through San Gil once more,
but will skip it until tomorrow.
As the road descents into the canyon, large
Cereus and huge Agavas start to dominate. I do several long walks,
but the cacti spines are harsh! I find four species of Cereus
and two Agavas.
When the road meet the river in the button of the canyon, it narrows considerable in. Her are only room for the road with the river under, in some stretches. And the huge trucks seem to be too big to fit the gab. Then I get out on the 1000 meter plateau, and turn around. I discover another, almost as big canyon on the other side of the range. This one is green, and this is where de clouds deliver their load.
Here are not that many flowers within the
town, but the nature starts Canyon Chicamocha and lovely Barichara
14. Realising it might be Sunday, and waterfalls usually are
popular by the locals, I get an early start. Back through San
We almost run up the bad and steep road, and I
don't get to see anything we passes. Then we end up at a nice fall,
and the others change to swim suits - but can't talk them self into
the water.
I
wait for a bit, make some photos, and then I head back slowly,
exploring the rainforest. Here are several species of orchids When I look back at the Cascada de Juan Curi, I realises: It was not the top we ended at, just the part that ended in a pool you can swim in. I find a narrow trail behind the sheet, selling snacks halfway. The girl in the shop tell me in clear Spanish; I can not go up there without a guide - and then she turn around. It
The upper section of the fall is truly
amassing. I try to capture it, even on video, but its beauty eludes
me on camera. It consist of several falls in a horse-shoo-shaped
gorge.
When I give-up getting the perfect photo of the
fall, I walk slowly back, and find several interesting plants along
the trail. A minute flowering orchid among them. I head home to park the car in
Barichara, and start on,
what I thought was the local camino. It does turn suspicious narrow
quit fast, but it leads the right way, and the surroundings The
trail I follow heads over the edge and down towards the 1000 meter
lower valley - as it should. But when I reach the valley, it kind of
fades out on the barbwire fenced grass fields. Here are huge
epiphytic cacti in the small trees, and great view up the mountain.
An impressive stone wall run the entire length of the valley, it
seems. The surroundings are real green, but here are
cacti. I find at least thee different Mammillarias and some other
cacti. A wasp nest have a lot of small wasps outside, but they are
real calm. Back home, I start working in the kitchen/all
room, until the dusk's winds make it a bit chill. A half hour at my
rooms office, and it is nice again. It is just the dusk-wind that
make it chill. I pay my bill, and plan
tomorrow. It is time to start on the Central Colombia and Diary 5 |
reach the big and fairly modern city of
Bucaramanga in the early afternoon, and drive to my hotel. Here are
no parking, but paid, and I hope the hotel have. It does, and I get
a nice room with a desk fairly cheap. I have two sights around; the
marked and a mountain road. The market is 500 metres away, and I
start with it. If the city seem interesting, I might save the
mountains for tomorrow. I had hoped for a cosy imperial town, loaded
with cafés and alike, but not this time. Maybe the next! 
vegetable stands. Then I figure next floor is
fruits, then come fish and meat, wood-work, spices and herbs and
whatever on the flowering stores. It look like a fairly new parking
house that have changed branch. I try to make some photos of the
goods and their owners, and I get a lot of wide smiles. As a new,
here are huge piles of hand-made cigars.
one with restaurants, but get a
nice meal at the market's food court. 
other epiphytes. Here are quite some flowers, most
familiar - within the family. 
The farmers huts are shaggy, the farmers dressed in cowboy
hats, Wellingtons and ponchos. They do farm some onions, carrots and
leek. The few villages are poor too, and the main income is from
selling things to truck drivers and other travellers. 
look, and a bite at a
small shop in the big market.
kilometres to the cosy Barichara. It is by the Via Bogotá, and both
my GPS and I guess we can be there at dusk. I had not expected this
road to be interesting, but after spending a hour clearing Bucaramanga,
it turns out to be fantastic. Despite it is dusk, I can see the
almost vertical, several hundred metres high, almost barren
rock-wall on both sides. And some areas are a wall of large Cereus
cacti. This road deserve a closer look.
hotel. The streets within
the town are paved with big flat rocks, and it might be nice? The
morning will reveal. 
After
San
Gil, the landscape is pretty much the same, until the road turns
over an edge. This is the giant Grand Canyon of Colombia; Chicamocha.
It is real dry, as the two mountains chains it it found in-between
have taken all the moist. I try desperately to capture it, but the
mist and share size make it impossible.
The
Opuntias might be more than one species. Here are a lot of other
plants, of which I recognises quite some.
Back in
Barichara, I start to explore the
town. It is a rather large, old town. The houses are white with high
green base and red roofs. All the streets are sealed with huge
sandstone bricks, nicely
cut into squares. All shops are hidden inside the traditional
houses, even the big discount supermarket. 
at the last house, and the views are
fantastic. Here should be several trails leading into the mountains:
Tempting! 
Gil
for the forth time. And it is always a zigzag road, which everyone
else seems
to follow as well. I have to pay to park the car, and to enter the
Cascada de Juan Curi-area. But then I get a guide to lead me and
five other up the only trail, saying nothing, not even in Spanish.
and
many different bromeliads and other interesting plants like the
flowering lianas. Here are
also several species of butterflies.
is a rough
trail, but the flora is interesting. One of the liana is flowering,
and the inflorescence is up to five metres! It have fruits with huge
seeds in at the same time. Both flowers and fruits are quite similar
to Fabaceae. Here many other flowering plants, among them two
interesting Peperomias. One with perfect circular leaves, the other
with extreme long and narrow leaves for the genera.
There are a great view over the lover part of the rainforest
to the other side. The low part of this section, is the top of the
lower part, and I can look down in the pool, where someone
finally are in the icy water. 
rather big and surprisingly nice park, only a few nametags from
being a botanical garden. I see some wild Green Iguanas along the
big river, and a emerald-green lizard on the trail. When I have seen
it all - but the impressive overgrown trees,
I make a short walk in the town, and end up with a great
spaghetti-meal. It have a strawberry on top, and fries next to, but
it taste great.
and
views are great. The local "Öland rocks" have the same fossils, you
find in Sweden.
camino is sealed with large natural rocks, and NOT smooth.