Sherry at the Bus Station
Our day started yesterday with a 6am wakeup call. (For anyone who knows Dave well, you KNOW that's a sacrifice). I couldn't talk Dave into taking the early bus, for which we'd have had to get up at 5am and *shudder* maybe have to skip a hot breakfast.

We had a running debate all day about whether it would be better to take the 7am bus or the 8:30 bus. We knew it was an "all day" trip. Anyway, Dave won out with his 'more civilized' time, and I held my 'I told you so' in reserve. I was just worried that (a) if anything went wrong, we had no other options til the next day and (b) we'd get in after dark.

But, in the end, everything went exactly as planned. The bus trip did take a little more time than we expected. We didn't arrive in San Augustin until 8pm (that's after dark around here). It was *supposed* to be an 'express' bus, stopping only once. But whenever there was an empty seat and there was someone on the street heading our way, we stopped and picked them up. It is common for the bus drivers to make a little extra pocket cash this way.

Nice Bus!
I punched up the trip on my GPS and it was only about 240 miles 'as the crow flies'. But it took us an hour just to get out of Bogota (and thank God it was a Saturday or the traffic would have been murder). And then our crow had to fly drunkenly down one mountain chain and back up another mountain chain, and drive straight thru the center of every small town on the way. We didn't stop for lunch, but they did let vendors on briefly at various stops to sell snacks and sodas. Fortunately we had thought ahead and had brought our own bananas, crackers, and drinks.

A Horse Wagon in Traffic
Can you believe my 7 year old eTrex GPS has many of the cities in Colombia pre-loaded? San Augustin isn't in it, but Pitalito, the last major city only about 10 miles away, is.

The bus was a 'Marco Polo' brand luxury bus with lots of legroom (more than any public transportation I've ever been on), working video system, and working his and hers bathrooms. We took the 8:30am Cootranshuila bus, as Rene from El Maco had warned us that the Taxi Verde shuttle buses were very cramped.

The scenery on the trip was really fantastic. We spent most of the time in a valley between two mountain ranges. It is mostly farming and cattle country. Unfortunately, some of the best scenery was toward dusk (and after dark), when we were winding around (going up again) overlooking the Magdalena River.

We crossed the Rio Magdalena about 6 times
Dave got some great shots out the window
The Luxury Bus only goes as far as Pitalito. We finally got THERE about 7pm. Then we had to find the 'collectivo' bus to San Augustin. We laughed when they pointed us to what was basically a large 4 passenger jeep/pickup truck. The back had a cover on it and benches inside. We crammed the driver and 5 pax up front, and threw the luggage and another 3 passengers in the back. By this time, all we wanted to do was get to our destination.

Our "All Terrain" Bus
After a 45 minute ride on rough roads and winding mountain trails (made even scarier by the darkness, on a road with no streetlights, reflectors, painted lines, or side rails), we arrived in the town of San Augustin. When we arrived at the normal drop-off point, we asked the driver if he would take us all the way to the hotel... another 1.5 km out of town. This turned out to be a good decision!

Walking that far with heavy backpacks on a flat road in the daylight would have been a pain, but it was dark dark, and up hill, and for the last 1/4 mile, muddy. But in just a couple of minutes we were there.

Dave had called ahead on the cell phone to tell them we'd be coming in late and hungry, and could they still serve us dinner that late. Rene, the proprieter of El Maco, was very accommodating. He met us at the door, showed us to our Chalet, got our dinner on order, processed us in paperwork-wise, and handed us off to the group of travelers hanging out. The bar works on an honor system (grab a beer from the fridge and mark it on your sheet).

The group that was hanging out last night consisted of 3 Irish girls headed tomorrow across the border for Ecuador, 1 Irish guy headed for Cali, a couple from Oregon, hanging out in South American for a year, and the young couple from Canada we'd met at the Platypus a couple of days ago. All of them looked to be in their 20's. I can't imagine what they think of us 'old folks'. But we dust off our 'we're sailing around the world story' and they're pretty impressed. It's also good to know, when you're that young, that life doesn't stop at 30.

Anyway, we're here, without incident. We are doing a 'jeep tour' of the archeological sites today, and have plans for a half-day horseback ride and a whitewater rafting trip in the next couple of days.

Labels: Colombia Inland