Colombia Part II

Suesca
Off we went on another caravan journey with Max with the destination of Suesca, a climbing spot that we had heard was the best in Colombia. The owner of the hostel where we were staying gave us backroad directions to get there and it felt as though we were in rural Colombia seeing life in the mountains. It was gorgeous! When we finally got to Suesca we stopped for some amazing pizza and then looked around for somewhere to stay. We finally found the only hostel, El Vivac, in town and they said we could camp in their yard. Typical with a climbing community the owners were really hospitable and had lots of information for us so we parked and packed up to go for a climb. After following the train tracks for awhile we arrived at the wall. The most notable feature was a giant statue of the Virgin Mary watching from one of the overhanging roofs. We chose a climb to the right and played around for the next few hours. So good to be back on the rock again. The next morning we met Katty (the first Colombian woman to scale Everest) and Francesco who offered to show us around the rock. We spent another awesome day climbing and then met Carolina, an Argentinean at the end of the day who offered to take us around to find a free place to camp. Perfect! The next day we gave our surf board that we’d been lugging around since Mexico to the family who owned the hostel and moved over to Juan Carlos’s place....paradise!! We camped on his lot with a full frontal view of the rock, had access to running water and a bathroom. What more could we ask for!! Then we went for a climb up to a zone with more sport climbing and thoroughly pumped ourselves out. Good day!

Bogota
It was now the weekend so Max, Carolina and the two of us decided to hit up Bogota, the country’s capital. We’d heard that the drivers there were the worst in the world so we opted for a bus ride into town and wandered around the craziness for awhile. Then we stumbled upon the Candeleria district and were enchanted. We’d planned to meet up with a friend of Max’s, Wilman, a local from Bogota that Max had met in Mexico so he came and picked us up in his little sports car and proceeded to give us a whirlwind tour of all the highlights in Bogota. We’d spend about 5 minutes in each location and then be whisked off to another hot spot. It was madness, but a great way to see Bogota. The city is huge and has absolutely everything you could ever want including a super cool student scene with back alleys and street performers. Then we started drinking beers in front of a few different supermercados, meeting other locals and chatting the night away. The next day we started with an incredible typical breakfast of Tamales and hot chocolate and then went to a juice stand to sample some more of the fruits that Colombia has to offer. Everyday we discover a new fruit!! Then we went to the famous gold museum to see some ancient artefacts. We were especially interested in the finds from La Ciudad Perdida. Then we went for an awesome lunch of the usual...an absolutely amazing soup, meat, chorizo, plantains, rice, avocado, and this time a surprise blood sausage intestine thing that wasn’t too bad. Then stuffed to the brim we wandered around the huge park before heading back to the apartment to lame out and watch a movie. It’s a treat to chill out on a couch what can I say, hehehe. The next morning we needed some time to ourselves to we took the bus into the Candeleria district to do some wandering around and loved every minute of it. Carolina was having troubles getting an extension on her visa so we opted to take the bus back to Suesca early to avoid rush hour. Big thanks to Wilman and his daughter for showing us Bogota. It was so nice having local guides for such a big city and to feel so welcome into someone’s house.

Back to Suesca
We ended up spending another three nights in Suesca and had a hard time leaving when we did. Juan Carlos was so hospitable and his property was amazing!! Probably the best view in all of Suesca and super close to the sport climbing. He’s also a well known climbing shoe repairer so Karen took advantage of this to finally get an edge on her shoes, woohoo!! Three more days of climbing and we were spent. It reminded us a lot of climbing in Wyoming as we were the only ones there and it was so peaceful. We spent one more day lounging and exploring the town and then finally pushed on to El Penol.

Rio Claro and El Penol
It’s a two day drive to El Penol so we started off early, but decided we should check out the salt cathedral in Zipaquira on the way. The first church collapsed due to rain so another giant salt mine was used to construct an underground cathedral. It was huge, with cool lighting and music. It wasn’t quite what we were expecting, but it was definitely an interesting tour testing our knowledge of Spanish. An hour and a half later we were back on the road to El Penol. The roads here are insanely mountainous and curvy so it took us over 5 hours to go just over 100km before we stopped at a hillside refugio to camp for the night. The next day we made it to our original destination of Rio Claro and decided to stop for a few hours to cool off and enjoy the “agua dulce” (sweet water ie fresh water). It ended up being an amazing park with a jungle trail and cool caves. We even saw a huge fluorescent green snake. We finally pulled ourselves away from the refreshing water and drove the rest of the way to El Penol. We had made friends in Suesca with Yon the only climber in the region and he’d said that it would be okay to camp in his yard. He lives on the site of old El Penol which was flooded to make a reservoir. You can still see the Steeple of the original church sticking out of the water. We arrived just after lunch so we went into Guatape to use the internet and do some shopping and then returned and let ourselves in. It turned out that Yon was in the city, but his mom and dogs were there and they welcomed us in with open arms. LOVE COLOMBIANS!!! We spent the night getting to know the dogs and Socorro and then went to sleep with the view of El Penol in the van window. Ever since we entered Colombia Pete has had the idea of climbing El Penol and it was about to become a reality, hehe. We woke up early and took off with grey skies to the base. Welcome to the Squamish chief of Colombia. A huge granite slab with a few routes put up by Yon. We selected a few that looked doable and started climbing. On the second route the rain started, but Pete continued on while Karen got soaked at the bottom. Then it was Karen’s turn. Written by Karen: When I got near the top of this awesome climb Pete told me there was a surprise in one of the cracks. Since the climbs are really only done by Yon and a few weekend warriors there are a lot of spider’s and insects in all of the holds so I thought he’d found some massive spider or something gross so I refused to go any higher. Pete finally convinced me to take a look and there deep in the crack was a shiny object. I still didn’t know what to think of it and thought that it must have been something Pete had found on the climb, but then I pulled it out and it was a ring. Still not realizing what was happening I heard Pete say “will you marry me” I thought he was joking, but then I looked down and there he was on one knee, thankfully still belaying me. I asked if he was serious and he said of course he was serious and that it was our “five year anniversary, five months into the trip and it was Valentine’s Day. What a better time to do it” and so I started laughing and shouted “Of course I will, I’d love to be your wife, now get me down!!” It’s finally done...we’re getting married and we’re both really excited!!! Now we just have to figure out where and when...maybe a welcome home/wedding party this summer. Any ideas? It started to pour so we decided to pack it in and go back to the van. Then we went to town to call the folks, get haircuts and check out the military song and dance show. Afterwards we returned to the house and spent the night chatting with Socorro about Colombia.

The next day we went back up to the rock and spent the whole day slab climbing. When we returned to the van we ate some dinner and Yon arrived. He wanted to kayak out to “his island” for the sunset and a bonfire so we cleaned up and hit the water. Since he was taking the dogs we had to do two trips,I waited while Karen, Yon and the dogs paddled off. When Yon returned for the second trip the dogs swam all theway back to the mainland and followed him home. Then on the way back to the island Mujercita, one of his dogs, followed us back and swam all the way back to the Island, crazy dog. We had a fire and sat around, talked and enjoyed the silence of nature. The following morning Yon took us climbing, we started on an easy climb then moved on to a three pitch traverse that ended at a hammock that was hanging 70 feet off the ground under a giant roof. Even though we were safely backed up we were a little nervous not knowing if this hammock could hold the weight of three people, good thing we are all skinny. We enjoyed the scenery and took some photos before rappelling down. Back at Yon’s place we all went for a refreshing swim in the reservoir and relaxed for the rest of the day. The next day everyone including the dogs piled into the van and drove down to San Rafeal, where we went swimming at a secret swimming hole, ate fresh fruit off the trees and then went for some lunch at a local restaurant. It was a great day with Yon and his mom. They are so warm and welcoming that we felt like we were old friends.

Loving Colombia! Not sure if we are ever going to be able to leave...

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