(Written on 2/8/18, posted on 5/1/18)
Well, right now I can tell you what the truck stops in Colombia are like. Dusty, some wifi, some toilet seats, there might be toilet paper in the bathrooms, small snack shops….it’s an interesting place to spend the night. For instance, this morning I witnessed white flabby neck cows getting unloaded and a horse getting loaded on a farm that borders the gas station. I’m really fascinated with these white flabby necked cows, they have the cutest donkey-like droopy ears!
Back to the road though, We’re “speeding” north to spend time with Todd’s parents, so our campsites have been more out of necessity rather than interest. The roads make many turns as they climb up and down the mountainous region, but well paved (yes!!!). We’ve passed gorgeously green scenery. However we are averaging 30 mph for 6 hours a day, we are moving slowly! Lots of hills covered in coffee, huge trees, and bushy steep mountainsides.
There are lots of gas stations that will gladly have you for the night, some even have showers for $1, cold of course because no one in their right mind needs a hot shower at low elevation Colombia. Protecting yourself from the sun is a big deal in the lowlands. Enter the “ruana.”
Right after crossing into Colombia there is the incredible Cathedral of Las Lajas.
We’ve been gifted with some high altitude sections for the trip north. After our 5th day of driving we stayed at the volunteer firefighter’s parking lot in Santa Rosa de Osos. Not a glamorous parking lot, but the altitude of 8,000 feet (2,500 meters) was amazing, we got to sleep under our down comforter. I’m also grateful we were at high altitude because Todd got a stomach bug and needed to get up several times at night. You don’t want to be sick (ever), but especially not at low elevation without A/C. Thankfully he’s feeling MUCH better 24 hours later. We’ve only gotten stomach bugs (some more serious and longer than others) about 4 times, over the 17 months we’ve been traveling, that seems close to the American average…so go travel! (and find some activated charcoal, I swear by that stuff now).
Our first drive-by impressions of Colombia are nothing like we expected. Each country has a different level of economic development and it has interesting effects for our Overlanding experience. We heard from other travelers that Colombia is beautiful, has warm people, and the roads are not the best. Well, we now understand that it’s the windiness of the roads that makes them hard to traverse. Colombia is more developed economically than we had imagined.
In our experience, we’ve found it harder to find wild campsites in areas with high populations and high economic development (Mendoza, Santiago, Ecuador). So although these are great roads, we end up paying more for camping in such places. The developed nations also have large supermarkets, which are a bit of a thrill for us because we can shop more efficiently and usually have wifi…sometimes you just want to veg out on wifi and download more Netflix shows.
The Colombian cities we have seen are very colonial and full of history but LOTS of industry as well. For some reason we thought that the influence of all of the troubles stopped economic development, seems the government rebounded very quickly after this period of terror. We’re excited for the impressions to come once we slow down our pace.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Popayan, Colombia’s politician-producing powerhouse. Apparently, many Colombian politicians come from this city. It also has several beautiful churches and universities.
We loved the food too.
We rushed north, driving Colombia from south to north, to meet Todd’s parents in Cartagena, from February 21st to February 28th, 2018.
Can’t wait to see Colombia. Very nice pictures and the bar music was a nice touch! How does one use activated charcoal to avoid stomach bugs? Is this a water filter? I installed some kind of fancy General Ecology brand water filter on my rig, so I hope that helps 🙂
So activated charcoal is just to help settle your stomach once you get a bug. It doesn’t get rid of it just makes you more comfortable. Its just a tablet that you take. I’m a skeptic about those things, but fully on board with the charcoal (or carbon down here).
It seems like there are as many strategies for dealing with drinking water as there are overlanders. Ask on the FB group and you’ll start a good discussion. I don’t know enough to say if your approach will be good, but I can tell you our strategy.
We fill our freshwater tanks and add some bleach (2 drops per liter, or check this site out for more https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/healthlinkbc-files/disinfecting-drinking-water). Bleach makes the water ok to drink except for maybe killing parasites. You need a higher dose for that, I think. Parasites, like girardia, is much harder to get rid of but more rare. But we don’t drink this water because it tastes funky and don’t like the idea of drinking that much chlorine. We do brush our teeth and like that we don’t have to worry about a little water on our dishes. Instead we buy water in the 5 gallon jugs when possible. Unless people tell us the water is ok to drink. Chile and Argentina is ok in most all areas. A lot of Colombia is fine. Maybe this approach is a bit risking of us. Our general philosophy is to look for the exchangeable jugs but if they are not available than we figure people drink the tap water and after confirmation we drink away. My two cents.
Thanks! I think I got the water thing figured out now. Travel well!
So much to see in Colombia!
We just scratched the surface in Cartagena and Santa Marta!
The Cathedral Las Lajas is beautiful. Why is it called the Cathedral of Slabs?
Loved the dingy bar.
And, ah, the arepos!
🙂 Yes, we’re still discovering all that Colombia is hiding between its 3 mountain ranges! And we haven’t even gone to the Amazon here…but you can’t see everything. Perhaps its called the “Cathedral of Slabs” because of the huge chunks of rock used to build its walls and the bridge spanning the canyon. Something for the Junior Woodchuck’s Manual.
Alex, forgot to ask, are you glad you brought the down comforter? That would certainly simplify packing (compresses really small), if it’s something that’s useful. I’m baffled as to what to bring, especially since I have full gear from -40 in Alaska to summer in Florida 🙂 My rig can handle cold weather and I have a good furnace, so I’m thinking I’ll bring some winter(ish) stuff. Please let me know about the comforter or anything else that really stands out as something to bring or something you wish you’d brought (I don’t wear binikis though 🙂 lol). Have fun. John
Absolutely bring that comforter!
I got a “summer” comforter, but we’ve been quite comfortable 😉 with it. We’ve found that we use ALL ranges of clothing. You don’t need much, but bring the full range.
When on the Salar in Bolivia we slept with wool hats, long john underwear, and a thick sleeping bag over our comforter. This is the coldest temperature we experienced on the trip, but not unbearable. We like to think we have good insulation in our van too (Rattle Trap, Reflectix, Thinsulate, wainscotting), but having an extra thick layer for comfortable sleeping is a great idea.
We used our comforter steadily through Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia. Once we got to Peru we began to intermittently store our thin comforter in a vacuum sealed bag. This has continued through Ecuador and Colombia. I think if we were to drive through Central America that comforter would never see the light of day!