The one about the road trip

1/4/23

Day one of the mega road trip to the beach! Vamos! We got up early early (en la madrugada) and hit the empty roads with Cali salsa tunes blaring. The roads were a whole lot more sketchy than I was expecting, particularly the drivers on the roads! It was a little reminiscent of the journey I took with my mum from Manali to Manikaran (an incredible place), but a place where everyone, including our bus driver overtook on sharp, blind bends with steep drops on one side! This got my adrenaline going on every corner, which meant it was less stressful, just to try and sleep through it. Our first food (and loo) break was around 11am after 6 hours of travelling! Crazzzzy! Lucky that I have a bladder of steel from nursing! 🤣 At this point, we decided we would stop for lunch in Medellin.

Two or so hours later, we arrived in Medellin and Fleur, and Alex got empanadas, and I got a full almuerzos menu with soup, juice, and the classic, meat, rice and plantain main. At lunch, we booked a hotel another couple of hours away on the edge of a cute looking colonial town. Then we headed onwards, rolling through Medellin’s traffic at snails’ pace before getting out on the country roads once more. We arrived in said small town around 6pm to find it was pretty chilly. We checked into our hotel, with all four of us in one room, and decided we were not going out again thay day. We ordered takeaway to the room and ate in front of Netflix. I had chocolate brownie with ice cream, but others had more disappointing choices like nachos, which were not baked, nor did they come with real guacamole or cheese as promised, but instead with substitute fake sauces instead! I slept between 10 and 11pm as we had another early start in the morning.

2/4/23

We ended up leaving the hotel at around 06.10 and tried but failed to find a panaderia to pick up breakfast goods. Luckily, Fleur had come super prepared with a huge bag of snacks, including bread rolls and squirty jam! Squirty jam in a roll it was! We stopped for a coffee stop before lunchtime, where it took three times for the coffee to be drinkable! The first one was more coffee than milk, so i asked for a black coffee instead. Sadly, the black coffee came with a generous (disgusting) amount of sugar mixed in. Third time round, I got a strong cup without sugar, which wasn’t bad at all!

Of course, the crazy driving from everyone on the roads continued, while the roads did not, in fact, always continue! We saw a couple fall off a moped with small tyres for trying to go up onto the road from an off-road section and misjudging it. Thankfully, they were okay. They brushed themselves off and carried on. Aiii aii!

We stopped very late for lunch with less than two hours left to get to the beach! The excitement for the beach was building along with the hunger and frustration at being in the car so long! We tried a traditional roadside place for lunch, but they didn’t have a solid vegetarian option for Giorgia, so we headed in search of somewhere else. Sadly, the only other obvious place on town was a steak house! Giorgia gave up on ever finding food, and we ate a crazy amount of meat (with scraps for the stray dogs), alongside potatoes, yuca, and some other unknown carb!

After lunch, we did the last two hours to the town of El Rincon del Mar, checked into our hostels, and headed to the beach for a sunset swim and cocktails. We chilled, chatted, and enjoyed the sunset before we showered and got dinner on the beach. We could hear live music in the distance and headed towards it, but when we found it, it was a Latin music event but with no one dancing! Everyone was just standing around the edge of the arena with drinks – what was the point of that?! We headed back to Alex’ hostel on the beach and chilled and had some interesting conversations. Then we headed to bed. I could not imagine getting back in the car for the trip back!!

3/4/23

A full day to do nothing. Boy, was it going to be GLORIOUS! Us girls had a yummy hostel breakfast worh lots of fresh fruit before going to meet Alex on the beach. First, we made an hour round trip by car to the nearest ATM and supermarket for snacks and drinks with the intention of then walking to the far end of the beach, which was even more deserted. However, when we returned hot and bothered, we didn’t fancy the walk, so spent the rest of the day lounging, sunning ourselves, swimming, drinking beers, snacking, and watching sunset. After sunset, we got dressed for dinner and then went out for pizza before having drinks and playing uno on the beach. The pizza was surprisingly delicious and fairly Italian, considering we were in the middle of nowhere and the owner was not Italian, but French! A scrummy evening!

4/4/23

Originally, we had planned to head to Cartagena today, but having spent a full day beach side, of course, we wanted more. We had another scrummy hostel breakfast this time with guacamole and then headed straight to the beach. I did moved minimally throughout the day but did go for a bit of a swim and importantly managed to sort my car insurance for next year! An adult chore done! I had a scrummy piece of fish for lunch and then had a massage before returning to my book.

I treated myself to a sunset cocktail with Fleur while Giorgia and Alex were enthusiastically playing volleyball. Chica Marcella came to find us and we chatted awhile before getting ready and having dinner and limonade de coco (coconut lemonade) together. My lemonade was more expensive than my dinner, but I think that just reflects how insanely good the lemonade is!! We said our goodbyes to Marcella and headed to bed as the next day was moving day for us all, with Giorgia heading to Cartagena and the rest of us back to Cali!

5/4/23

Ai ai aiii! How was it time for the return journey already?! We headed off at the crack of dawn (before dawn actually) and dropped Giorgia off in a nearby town where she could get the bus to Cartagena. We said pur goodbyes and waited. The place where the bus stopped was a random petrol station with only men hanging around. We didn’t like it, so we waited until women started to appear. Giorgia didn’t want to hold us up and wanted us to leave. A short while later, a collective came, and Giorgia began her journey, and we continued on ours. Alex had been briefed on my requirements for the drive back as agreed with Fleur! I had only two requirements (very reasonable, I thought!), one was to make regular stops for food, and the loo and the other was to not overtake on blind corners. (Having experienced nursing on neuro intensive care, my mind is very vivid in its imagination of road accidents, which is something I prefer to avoid!)

After two hours or so, we stopped for breakfast. All was well. The tunes were playing, and spirits were high. We hit Medellin for lunch around 3pm and decided we could afford to stay there the night. After lunch, we found a hostel and checked in, before heading out in El Poblado for a mooch. It was super nice but could’ve been anywhere in the world, Digbeth, London, Berlin, you name it! There were many bars and restaurants near the river with plenty of fairly lights and a nice general buzz about the place. We got drinks and chatted before heading back to the hostel. I played guitar on the terrace while Fleur and Alex played Connect 4 while listening. We headed to bed around 10/11pm as our final early start was ahead of us!

6/4/23

The final stretch! After crawling out of Medellin, somehow stuck in traffic despite it being pre 06.00, we hit the road, enjoying mad views of the mountains as we snaked along the mountainside roads. It was super pretty! We stopped for an arena breakfast with eggs after an hour or so in the same place we had our first stop on day one! Crazy! Alex was a hard-core driver and somehow didn’t tire of driving for so many hours for so many days! (My hips would be shot!) We had another snack stop on route before smashing out the final bit to return to Cali before 3pm! A strong effort.

We pulled up outside La Vaina on the Thursday before Easter, a public holiday in Colombia, only for some passersby to point at our front wheel! As we pulled in, we had cut the tyre on a metal grid jutting out from the pavement. Typical! We took our backpacks into the hostel and had a coffee and then went to find Alex, who was missing. Turned out he had already changed the tyre for a spare and was ready to head to the repair shop before returning the car. Since it was a holiday, many of the repair shops were closed, but we found one eventually who was able to repair the old tyre and put it back on the car. I was keen to return the car so we could chill, but Alex, being a bit of a particular soul, wanted to wash the car before returning it to the hire place. Off we went, searching for rhe one car wash olace rhat was open on Easter weekend! (There’s always someone that wants the cash!) We found a self-service one, which had a timer and I ended up being the chief of time and assistant washer while Alex scrubbed the car with a brush. Alex, the perfectionist, was not good at keeping to the times of the machine or me (a nurse with strict timings), which led to much screeching and laughter! I nearly caught Alex in the water jet a few times too – whoops! After two rounds of water jets and scrubbing (even the tyres), the car was f8nally sufficently clean to be returned to the cqr hire place. As we arrived in the car park of the car hire place, a man from the hire place was leaving. He told us that the place was cl9sed until the morning since it was a holiday. Ai ai aiiii! We could drive another 40 minutes or so and drip 8t at the airport, but then we’d be stuck at the airport, way out of town. After much faffing and annoyance at the rental staff for not telling the right thing and then not being apologetic or helpful about it, we decided the best thing to do was ditch the xar in the car park and come backnin the morning to give back the keys and officially hand it over. Luckily, the car renral place was beside a mall, because after all the stress, I needed sugar. Fleur needed an ATM anyway, so I headed off to get a much needed oreo mcflurry. It was glorious and improved my mood immensely! Afterwards, we got a taxi back to La Vaina and chilled. EL Rincon, a salsa night was a step too much for tonight! Sleep was the better option!!