Colombia - Bucaramanga and Girón

Bucaramanga

After visiting many smaller towns, it was time for a proper city again. Bucaramanga, a city of millions, although that is probably referring to the metropolitan area. The core has at most 500,000 inhabitants. I stayed in the upscale neighborhood, and of course, there were many nice cafes, restaurants, and parks. But the old town is also worth seeing. There were historical buildings, squares, and churches to visit. And actually, there were several museums, but they were all closed for me. Casa de Bolívar - closed for renovations. Parque del Agua - closed for maintenance work. Museo Arte Moderno - closed for the preparation of the next exhibition. It was actually inaugurated the next day. However, the works were initially all spread out on the floor before being hung on the wall later. It was interesting to see. At least I found the tourist office. It was hidden on the 5th floor of a construction site. They were surprised that someone actually made it to them. But then they gave me good advice on how to continue my journey through the villages towards San Gil. I wasn't sure about the connections there. So it was definitely worth it. After three days, I had enough of city life and drove half an hour further to Girón.

Girón

Just a stone's throw from Bucaramanga, but a completely different world. The tranquil Girón is the starting point of my tour through the eastern highlands and its villages. This is also the last time for some time that I see paved roads. Girón is small but fine and has - like most villages here - a beautiful colonial core. The next stop was San Vicente de Chucurí. It was one of the birthplaces of the paramilitary movement. The city itself is not very beautiful, but in the surrounding area, there is the Cueva de los Aviones to visit. In principle, you always walk up the river and waterfalls and also pass through a few caves. The whole thing was pretty wet, so I didn't take any photos there. But there are a few shaky shots of the family who were also on the tour.

And then I was already in the highlands. From now on, it went on bumpy, dusty dirt roads. The buses usually only go once a day in the various directions but then stop about every two minutes to unload a sack of rice, a few chickens, or a person. The route to Zapatoca took 5 hours, even though it was only about 50km. When we left San Vicente, the bus was absolutely overcrowded. At first, I had to stand, but after half an hour, we had dropped enough cargo, and I could enjoy the rest of the journey sitting down.