Across Colombian Countryside

Our great campsite in a semi-trailer parking lot.

Look hard (center) to find our rig.  At night
we were surrounded by semis.

Two lovely churches in Medellin as seen from the metro.

Mike's college friend, Jim, who showed us around Medellin.
He took us on the metro through the valley and up the valley wall
on the cable car. 

Taken from the cable car . . . 

Colombian family on the car with us.

A lovely bridge during the day . . . 

. . . and at night.  Medellin has wonderful Christmas lights.

Karolina, with whom we visited one night, along with her father.
He was waiting for batteries for his truck which was
parked next to our camper.  

A photo Karolina took of me.

After leaving Medellin, we drove one hundred miles in five hours over torturous curves up to 8000 feet and down to 2000, through some of the most beautiful, mountainous countryside.  This alone was not unexpected.  The finca (coffee farm) that I had hoped to rest up at for a few days, was about 7 miles up a narrow, twisty road.  After about 6 miles, we were off the GPS and the turns were getting tighter, the road narrower and wet and soft on the edges.  We found a spot and pulled off.

It turns out, we weren’t allowed to stop. We had to go on to the finch (farm) campground or leave. Mike didn’t want to continue because of the road, so we drove out at almost-dark.  I felt a back wheel give a little as the dirt under that tire at the edge of the road gave way.  I gunned it and we were fine, but it made us catch our breath. . . 

We looked for a restaurant or hotel to park, but in the dark, we found only a tilted lot at a gas station on the outskirts of Manizales and happy to have that. There simply are no places in Columbia that we have found, for RVer’s to stay.

Another problem resurfaced.  Mike has a long history of back problems, and unfortunately, his back began hurting from all day of the back and forth of the road curves. Mike can’t handle the twisty roads.  Unfortunately, the shortest way out of Manizales was through more of the same. . . 

We awoke from our tilted gas station parking spot to one of the most beautiful soft, morning views of the valley and the high rises of Manizales one could ever imagine!  The wide expanse of the valley, with hills receding into the distance and tall buildings of the city center off on a hillside to the left — stunning in the early morning mist!

Overlooking Manizales

But back to the problem at hand: we had to figure out the logistics of getting out of Manizales without injuring Mike’s back further.  He wanted to find a secure parking spot for the pickup and fly out, because every direction is nothing but more twisty curves.  I just couldn’t get my head around that solution!  I finally said, “We HAVE to get out of here and back to Cartagena!”

So, I grabbed an old dishtowel, ripped it in half lengthwise, got out needle and thread and sewed it together end to end.  Mike then used this to bind his back, ready for the trip down to the river valley.

The day actually turned out glorious!  I drove an average of 12 mph for 7 hours up and over the spine of the mountain.  It was so interesting and beautiful, I wasn’t really that tired at the end.  We began at Manizales at about 7000 feet and climbed to 12,000 feet, then back down to Honda at 1500.

The road surface was wonderful, except for a few spots of construction; there was little traffic, and I could generally get vehicles behind me to pass.  The drive did not exacerbate Mike’s back situation.

But the views!  We’ve never seen anything like the ridges and canyons we were passing. We know the Grand Canyon, USA intimately, we’ve been to Copper Canyon, northern Mexico twice, and this was equal to those.

Just imagine steep canyons, top to bottom that appeared to be 40 to 45 degrees steep.  And yet, these hillside were covered with roads, homes, villages.  . .  No wonder the drug cartels could control these mountains; they are nearly inaccessible.

And all were covered in vegetation.  Green, everywhere.  Even at 12,000 feet!  Being from Colorado, with our several 14,000 peaks, we know what 12,000 feet should look like — rocks, and mosses, even snow.  Twelve thousand fee here looks like low elevation.

12,000 ft elevation in Colombia!

No brahmas here, just these lovely creatures.

We arrived in Honda at 3 pm, got a hotel room with air as the outside temp was 100 degrees.  We drank a beer, swam in the pool and went out to dinner via cab.  We decided to spend another day.  FINALLY!  A  lovely day in Colombia.

Ferns and mosses along the roadway

Headed back to the US

This one is a hard one to write.  Sometimes you just have to know when to pull the plug, and that’s what we are doing. I am sorry that we are not truly as adventurous as you all think we are!

Our apologies to our world-traveler friends, but we just don’t have what it takes to do this type of travel.  We just don’t want to drive, day after day after day.  We’ve reached our limit.  We’re, safe but not happy.  We’re heading home.

There are two reasons, and they happened simultaneously.  The previously published “No-Send Trip Report” explained many of the problems, but the last straw was not finding a place to rest for a few days.  And then Mike’s back began to give problems.  He can’t afford to chance any further trouble. 

This is not a country for RVer’s.  Backpackers, motorcyclists, destination travelers — yes.  But there are nothing but gas stations and restaurant parking lots in which to spend the night, then hit the road the next day:  just keep traveling!

We hear Ecuador may be much better in that regard.  We did our research, but could not find enough information.  I wish someone had written or said to us, “Get your rig in Cartagen, then head straight for Ecuador as quickly as possible.” 

This was a very, very expensive experiment that just didn’t work. So far, the trip has been about as interesting as going from one really BAD Wal-Mart parking lot after another, without any side trips. The scenery in between is lovely, but scenery does not a trip make.

In cities with the traffic, any side trips are difficult because of the size of this rig (Ford F350 with camper in the bed).  In the countryside all side roads are small and twisty, forcing you to stay on the main roads.

We have found almost nothing of interest to us, no mercados, no artisans works, nothing, except some of the most beautiful, exquisite green countryside we’ve ever seen.  And, the Colombian people are so wonderful!  We can’t say enough nice things about them.  I have several lovely stories about our contacts with them, but I will get to them in a later “Observations of Colombia”.