We took our first night bus from Santa Marta to San Gil. Luckily we experienced the last few hours by daylight because the scenery along the hills and valleys was incredible. We arrived in San Gil after around 13 hours and checked in at the hostel. After lunch and a nap we walked to a viewpoint and then relaxed for the rest of the evening. San Gil is a lovely little place and is best known among tourists for the different offers in adventure sports such as paragliding and downhill biking.
On the first day we went on a little hike from Guane to Barichare. Guane can easily be reached by bus and once you find the right trail to Barichara you can’t get lost anymore. It is a beautiful hike along hills and fields and for the first time we felt like we were experiencing the real Colombia.
After around two hours we reached the so-called most beautiful town of Colombia. And we were not disappointed. Barichara is well known among the locals because a lot of their famous telenovelas, the Latin-American soap operas, are filmed there. And it was easy to see why this would be the case. The area is amazing and the town is a lot more authentic than what we saw at the coast. The roads and the white houses are neat and the town square has a welcoming atmosphere where you can sit in one of the many cafes while tourists get dropped off and picked up by busses.
Day two in San Gil was all about a downhill-bike tour. A friend we met in Panama suggested this tour to us and it was the main reason why we even came to San Gil. Equipped with the gear, two guides and a jeep we explored the same area again that we already visited the day before. What a great experience and what a unique way to travel through this beautiful landscape! Depending on your level you can ride on different trails. And if you get tired you can get on the jeep anytime. This tour by the Colombian Bike Junkies was not cheap but it was worth it. This was definitely one of our highlights of this trip.
Later on that same day we jumped on the night bus to Medellin, THE party city of Colombia.
