San Gil, Colombia

After nearly two weeks of living with Alejandro, and finally getting to paddle the Upper Acequias again, it was time to leave Venezuela. After spending a day on a couple of buses (and an encounter with a member of the Nation Guard, which left me BsF. 50 out of pocket), I found myself in the uninspiring border town of San Antonio del Tachira. Having read fairly damming reports of the bus station on the Colombian side of the border, I was up early hoping to cross the border and get on a bus as quickly as possible, hoping to avoid spending too much time in "one of the worst bus stations in Colombia." Passport stamped, and a small minibus heading in the right direction found, I was on my way up to the mountains, and the small adventure sports destination of San Gil.

The steep and narrow streets of San Gil.

San Gil boasts a wide range of adventure sports, from paragliding to canyoning and of course rafting. The Rio Suarez is billed as one of the best IV+ rafting runs around, so naturally my first port of call was to find a rafting company and try to tag along on the next trip. Unfortunately for me, all of the best raft guides are currently in Costa Rica at the rafting World Cup, and there are no commercial trips on the Suarez until they return leaving me a hydrospeed and raft trip on the Rio Fonce to tag along with (a grade 2/3 run into the centre of San Gil).

Along the riverbank near the centre of town is the Parque National Gallinereal - described as one of the most beautiful places in Colombia, it's a large botanical garden spread across several acres with colourful plants, and trees covered in silver fronds. There's even a couple of parrots (unfortunately, not wild parrots...).

A short bus ride from San Gil are the small villages of Barichara and Guane - perfectly restored/preserved colonial villages with cobbled streets and whitewashed buildings.

I received a message one evening from one of the few guides left in town, telling me of the possibility of going to the Suarez the next day. Unfortunately that night it rained and they felt the river was too high, so instead we headed to the Rio Mogatico - a nice enough 3/3+ run with a few grade 4 rapids and one 5. I'm afraid i didn't really stop to take any photos...

There has been talk of possibly being able to paddle the Chicamocha canyon one day - from what I've gathered, it's fairly easy but incredibly scenic and would save me having to go and visit the national park to see it!

I've now got about a week left before I leave San Gil, so fingers crossed we managed to get a bit more paddling done, and I might give paragliding a go too if I get a chance...