HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Finally getting to our destination
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Another 16.5 hours in the truck
WORD OF THE DAY: Are we there yet?
DISTANCE TRAVELLED:
I had a god night’s sleep in the hammock, I was warm enough and half way through the night it started to rain, which was fine, I love sleeping to the sound of rain, but the annoying thing was we were outside on a terrace on the second floor and the drain pipes were running over time and the annoying sound of drip, drip, drip got a little on the nerves when you woke to turn over.
We knew we were in for a big travel day, so we departed Bucaramanga at 7.30am to what was becoming a usual ruckus of us driving through town, photos, people saying hello and lots of waving as Rosita weaved her way through the city and back in to the Colombian Andes for a few more hours. I have noticed that all the taxis in Colombia have their number plate numbers on both sides of the car, on the bonnet, on the rear of the car and also and also on the roof. The motorbikes all have their number plate numbers on their helmets and they all wear vests also with their bike number plates in reflective on their. Talk about well-regulated vehicles!
The weather for the first few hours was abysmal. There was so much water on the roads and like the roads the day before; they were in worse condition due to all the over-night rain. You could actually see bits of rock falling off the rock walls as we drove past. The water was running so fast down most of the city and as we headed out of town. There were a lot of people taking a step back as Rosita drove past so as not to get a massive splash from the massive puddles. The weather must be like this for a good part of the year with the roads in such bad nick. As mentioned before there was plenty of road works, so they are trying to fix the roads, but to me it looks a little like an uphill battle the poor buggers.
We found out at breakfast this morning that Mark has upgraded to the same hostel on out return from our 6 night beach stint at Taganga and Cartenga. We have to double back via Bucaramanga to get back on the main highway to get us to Bogota as we make our way down the coast of Colombia. The better news is that we will all get a bed next week on our return. It is a great hostel over 3 levels with a pool table, bar and a 100cm TV on the top level, all the rooms on the 2nd level and then computer and kitchen on the 1st level. And the bigger bonus was the free and fast Wi-Fi! We will be happy to swing by here on the way back that is for sure and it is far better than setting up a tent like we were supposed to do. Agatha and I have now worked out, if we get the upgrade at Zona Cafeteria this section went from 7 camping nights, down to 2 camping night now to none on this section at all. It is a little sad that I don’t one last night in a tent fort the trip, but I soon snapped out of that, I may have done enough camping from this whole Odyssey to last me a lifetime. In total I think I have done around 130 days camping including Africa as well. Out of 380+ days I’ve been away that is nearly a third of my trip that has been in a tent. Hmpfffff that’s pretty impressive considering I was not a camper when I left home, that is a pretty big effort on my part and I do have to say I enjoyed it a lot.
I’m trying to cut down on my soft drink intake. Every time we stop I find I am buying a bottle of coke, firstly because it is a cold beverage and when we stop I feel like I just have to buy..something. So the last 2 days I haven’t bought any soft drink at all and I bought some Tang to flavor my water instead. That has to be healthier than drinking 3 bottles of Coke a day right? So I have lemon and passionfruit flavored sachets in my snack bag and try and wean myself off the Coke. Zeme and I were drinking a lot of Coke on my trip in Ethiopia as well. I never drink this much soft drink back home….
We drove all day through the Andes and for the first 6 hours of today’s drive we were still in them, hitting sea level just after 2pm. The weather is dry down here and also a lot warmer as well, leaving the dodgy, landslide, foggy roads of the Andes behind us. But when you get rid of one obstacle there is always another one that presents itself and at sea level this was called traffic jams and more road works. At one point a half a bridge was closed and we were stock still for an hour with no movement what so ever. Add into the 10 other stops of 10-15 minutes as we waited for the lollypop man to let us through road works it just added more travel time to our day. I have worked out since leaving Caracas 9 days ago not including today that we have done 55 hours in the truck. That’s a lot of truck time in anyone book. By the time the trip finishes, we would have been living and breathing the truck for 5 months (minus my 1 month hiatus in Ethiopia) but we are a small exclusive group that can have that call to fame. I joined 2 weeks after the official loop began, but I still think that is a pretty amazing achievement for Kate, Sharon and Julia who completely did the whole loop of 175 days by the time we get back to Quito. Tucan only run this trip once a year, so there is small group who do the whole circumference each year. I am sort of in that group, but not technically because I started in Lima and I missed 30 days in Brazil, but its close enough for me!!
After our last toilet stop at 6.30pm we had only been back on the road for 10 minutes when we heard a big bang and Gray pulled over. At this point it was dark and after a few head torches getting switched on, the electrics on Rosita spat it yesterday so we had no lights, fridge or recharge; we waited to hear what the verdict on what happened. At this point we have been on the road for 11 hours, it was dark, and we were sitting on the side of a Colombian highway with no lights in the truck, pitch black. After 15 minutes we found out that Rosita had blown not one but two airbags and Gray was replacing them by the glow of a head torch and Mark helping him from the driver’s side as trucks and traffic passed us. Moon was waving people with his torch to tell them to slow down at the oncoming traffic which I think helped as we all waited patiently and couldn’t believe that after the day we had had so far that this was happening as well. I got off the truck to stretch my legs and went to the front of the truck and the bugs attracted to the lights were insane! I could only stand there for a minute before it got too much and I had to move to the rear of the truck where apparently the bugs don’t like the red brake lights as much. Poor Gray was under there battling the airbags and the bugs attracted to his head torch light. You’re a champ Gray and after an hour and 10 minutes we were all back on board and driving the what was the last 60km of a very very long day.
We arrived into the main town of Santa Marta at 11.00pm, 16 hours after leaving Bucaramanga this morning to be stopped at the turn off that would take us to Taganga and our 3 nights of beach bliss by the local Police telling us that there was no way that Rosita would make the twists and turns of the coast road to get us to Taganga. Are you sure? We are tired and Gray really is a good driver…. No? So after 15 minutes of talking to 2 local Policeman and 8 locals (3 drunken ones) the consensus was that Rosita would not make it to Taganga and they ordered 8 taxis to ferry us for the 15 minute drive to our hostel. So we had to get everything off that we would need for the 3 nights as we wouldn’t be seeing Rosita again as first thought for a few days. So with backpacks resting on us and squeezed into the taxis, they thought it was great and were racing each other to see who would get to the hostel first. Well that is what it seemed like as they drove like maniacs and it was quite funny and you just had to laugh or you would cry with adding this to the already 16 hour day, traffic, the Andes bad weather, 2 blown airbags and then this. Just another day of bad luck for us I’m afraid. BUT we made it safe and sound at 12.15am making this the second longest day of the WHOLE trip of 16.5 hours.
Welcome to Taganga, finally. We have decided to have a free day tomorrow (today) and then the included sightseeing trip of Tayrona National Park will be done the following day. Everybody needs this 3 night stop, we have had a nightmare week on the truck and this will be just what we need to recharge.
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