San Gil

I woke up to my stomach churning and the bus lurching over precipitous curve lines. The faint rays of dawn beyond the bus curtain window are blinding to my sleepy eyes but morning has come and I've arrived back into the highlands from a long journey. Late last night Darren, Babuette, and I left Santa Marta on an overnight bus to the mountain town of Bucaramanga. Having slept through the night I'm greeted to the rocky ridges of the sierra, cooler temperatures, and familiar mountain vistas of the Andes again. It is drier and more arid here. No longer am I south of the Equator line and having crossed that invisible line the weather patterns have reversed with the trade winds. Unlike the Eastern cordillera South in Ecuador the winds blow little rain here. Cactus and mesquite trees dot sparse red earth canyons and turkey vultures cruise high on the thermals.

Darren and Babuette easily convinced me to come having become good mates and there is rumured to be all sorts of outdoor things to do in the canyons nearby, and I am here to meet Julie too. We met each other over breakfast one morning in Taganga but the timing was bad and I was heading into the Sierra Nevada while she was heading West to Mompox. We exchanged numbers and vowed to try to meet up when I got back.

So here I am in San Gil. Tired from the bus ride there was nothing for it but an easy day. The guest house we found was wonderful with a huge kitchen and there was even a tiny pool on the rooftop! With such a luxurious kitchen we decided to cook a feast in and wandered over to haggle for produce at the local market where I snapped a picture of this nice man we bought some vegetables from. I love all the dried herbs and spices hanging in the background of his stall like magic potions and conconctions.