HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: I’m the truck Ambassador
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Getting stuck in a traffic jam for 2 hours and 40 minutes
WORD OF THE DAY: Truck City
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 707km in 18 hours
We know we have a MASSIVE BLOODY LONG day in the truck today. We’ve done it before as we have to re-track our steps back to Bucaramanga to then continue the journey to the Colombian capital of Bogota in a few days’ time. We knew it would be at least 17 hours if not more, and I think if you know how long the drive is you can mentally prepare, stock up and charge up everything you need to bunker down for the day. I like truck days as it gives me a chance to catch up on my blog writing. I now get around 3 hours out of my laptop these days and I can generally get 2 blogs written in 3 hours. I am always chasing my tail as the days don’t stop ticking, but if I am only 3-5 days behind I am okay with this. There have only been two instances I have been further than that behind and they both happened to be on my Ethiopia trips. The first time I was nearly 14 days behind and my last trip back visiting Z, I was around 10 days behind and I hate it. But I am currently 4 days and I will hopefully be able to smash out another 2 today. It is my labor of love and I have had 30,562 hits since March last year, so it keeps me enthused. I really can’t wait to get it all printed into book format and just re-read my adventures again.
We are leaving 5 people here in Cartagena. Blue Heather, Michelle and Andrea are flying to Bogota to get some extra time in Cartagena and to avoid 3 truck days. It’s exactly what Kate and I did from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires missing 5 massive truck days, so we know exactly why the girls are doing it. We have one person leaving the trip due to work commitments, which is a shame to miss out on the rest of the trip and we had one person MIA and hadn’t come home from the night before. This was a BIG concern as no-one had heard from him, so we just had to pack up his bag and put it into one of the girls rooms, make sure his passport wasn’t on the truck and just hope that he would surface during the day and then he could fly with the girls in 2 days’ time.
So we were up at 5.15am and on the road at 6.15am. The sun was still coming up over the port and I saw the Norwegian Pearl coming in to Harbour as we drove out. This normally wouldn’t be a big deal, seeing another cruise ship but the NCL Pearl and I have a bit of a history. The first time I saw her was transiting through the Panama Canal in 2009, I then saw her cruising out of Seattle for a cruise of Alaska in 2010, last year, 2011, I saw her in Fort Lauderdale getting ready for a cruise to the Caribbean and now I have seen her in Colombia in 2012. It’s pretty cool to have seen the same ship in so many ports. Maybe I will have to actually do a cruise on her in the future? It could be a sign? Seeing Cartagena at 6.30am in the morning was beautiful. It really is an amazing city and I could have easily spent a week in this wonderful city. With a mix of nightlife, history, beaches and old town, it has a lot to offer to just about every need. It could possibly be one of the few places that I would come back to again, and that is saying something as there aren’t too many of them on my list.
It makes a difference having 5 less people on the truck. Everyone gets a seat to themselves (not that this is an issue for me) and it just seems like a better compliment of people, and that is no disrespect for the people off the truck, it is just an observation in regards to numbers on the truck. It is good to see some people again. You find when you have these 3 night stays that everyone is off doing their own thing and tours that you go for days without seeing people from the tour. It’s not a bad thing, I think if anything it just gives people some breathing space, some PT (personal time) and then everyone is happy to see each other again and swap stories of what they got up to over the time.
New Heather called me the truck Ambassador today and I like the sounds of it. As you may know I am a waver from way back and when I am on the truck I generally don’t sleep at all and if I do it is just a 45 minute catnap here and there. So as we pass through towns and cities I make sure I have my window open so I can smile and wave to people as we pass though. It’s always nice to be……well nice as you just never know when and if we would ever need their help. A smile costs nothing and can make someone’s day, and that is my plan with my waves and smiles. Its good therapy, good for the soul and it lifts my spirits even when I am super low, a smile and a wave returned is just like a miracle drug. I just hope that they don’t think I am being condescending sitting high up in my yellow chariot as we pass waving to them.
Driving into Cartagena, we got stuck in traffic for 1.5 hours due to a bridge closure; it went from a dual carriage bridge to a single carriage, so there was a lollypop man alternating the flow of traffic over the bridge. Well we got back to the bridge today at 1.30pm. Well not to the actual bridge, but the traffic line up to cross it and the truck line went on for as far as the eye could see. There were drink, snack and ice-cream sellers walking up and down the queue selling their wares and when Mark asked how far were we from the bridge he said over 5km. It looks like we were going to be here for a while. We even turned our engine off at one stage and drivers and people were out of their cars. The traffic wasn’t moving in any hurry and to top it all off it was one of the hottest days we have had at 41C according to my thermometer. It was a warm one that was for sure. So to make the most of our time, Mark decided to have lunch on the truck, making the most of our stoppage and saving us having to stop later on and adding more time to our day. Smart cookie. We also applied the same usage of time again as we could see a petrol station 400m from the truck and Rosita wasn’t moving, so we all got out and walked to the service station for a toilet break and just as everyone had finished and bough drinks Rosita had moved enough to come in an pick us up. After 2 hours and 40 minutes we made it to the bridge and crossed over to a round of applause and cheers from us. Finally we were moving again!!! The celebration was short lived as we had only gone 20 minutes before we got stuck in another jam as the next bridge had collapsed and there was a detour through the dry river bed. I’m not sure what happens when the river will flow again, but both bridges had works on them, so they are in the process of getting fixed, but we got held up another 40 minutes to get past this. Just with traffic it added an extra 3 hours and 20 minutes. Dang, it really was going to be a long day.
We stopped for a toilet break at 6.45pm and there were a few local restaurants around so decided to make this a dinner stop as well. If we waited any further down the road we would have taken the risk of having nothing available or that they would be closed. Mark found a local place that would feed us all with a bowl of soup, chicken and rice and a drink for 9,000 (5.14AUD). You can’t go wrong with that and having only just sat down the bowls of soup started coming straight out! This is how you feed a group of 19 in 40 minutes. We had all eaten, paid and were back on the truck 45 minutes after sitting down and it was just what we needed. The soup was amazing, the chicken a little meatless but for 5 bucks and the time frame we had, it was perfect and then we were back on the road for the last 5 hour slog back to Bucaramanga.
It was funny at 11.40pm, there were a few of us awake and a truck over took us and it happened to be an Envia truck, which is the company we sent our packages with in Cartagena and Shaz made a remark ‘that our parcels just over took us’!! It was so funny to think that our packages were probably in that truck!
The last 5 hours was a tricky drive as we are now back at 1000m above sea level and back in the Colombian Andes. It was now dark with winding roads. The trucks driving at night look pretty cool with all colours of neon lights all over their cabs, flashing lights and brake lights, they look like moving disco’s they are that colorful. But I guess it has a purpose at night on the roads when there are no street lights that other vehicles can see them. We finally arrived into Bucaramanga to 12.40am. 18 hours and 25 minutes after leaving Cartagena this morning. What a mammoth day and another HIGH FIVE to Gray who loves these big drives, but even with all his bravado must be a big day for him also. We were all in good spirits considering, most of us had packed day bags for the stop, so our big backpacks didn’t need to come off the truck just to have less fuss when we got into the hostel. After finding some beds in the 2 dorms, people pretty much went straight to bed; some had showers, as we had a breakfast time of 8am and a departure time at 8.30am to make our way to Villa el Veyva.
SO THAT WAS OUR LONGEST DAY ON THE TRUCK AT 18 HOURS AND 25 MINUTES
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