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It was time to head again to the most beautiful village of Colombia: Barichara! With my friend Theresa we took the last bus at 11:50pm from the terminal in Bogota so that we wouldn’t arrive to early to San Gil. After 6,5 hours we arrived in rainy San Gil. The bus dropped us off on the street and we walked a couple of blocks to the bus terminal in order to take the bus to Barichara! After another 45minutes ride we arrived at our final destination! Our hotel for tonight was the beautiful Hicasua hotel which is just 4 blocks from the main square! They welcomed us with a delicious breakfast and a very friendly woman serving us!! As it was still pretty early we decided to do something for our tan and relaxed a little bit in the beautiful installations of the hotel and took a swim in the pool! This was way comfortable as the bus and therefore we just fell asleep for a couple hours enjoying the sunshine!
At noon we decided to go for a nice walk around town! Every time I come back to Barichara – now it is my 3rd time, I must say I just think it is the most beautiful charming little village of Colombia. I think it would be the perfect place to write a book or make a film! We walked around town visiting the little shops which most likely sell all different kinds of art work! Then we walked up the hill to the little church and from up there you also have an amazing view of the town and its beautiful surroundings!
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The next day was going to start very early for us as we went back to San Gil to go for a biking tour. At 8am we met our guides in a cafe. There we had breakfast together and discussed the tour! Unfortunately it had rained the whole night and it still hadn’t stopped. Therefore we decided to wait a little bit and started the tour later one even though it kept on drizzling but then we decided that we probably wouldn’t be able to do the whole tour which normally takes the whole day biking for about 45km.
They got our bikes and the 4×4 which took us off the road in direction of Barichara! Just in front of some hill we got on the bikes! First of all they explained us very well all the equipment and what is important for downhill biking – how we actually should ride the bike! This was really great and gave us much confidence as it was our first downhill biking experience we were a little nervous and even more with these muddy conditions as it has rained the whole time! But with all the explanations of our great guides we felt safe and excited to start this adventure! The equipment was very good: an amazing mountain bike, helmet, gloves, protection for knees and elbows and a small bagpack for a bottle of water and the camera!
So now we were ready to go – first I had a very good control of my brakes as I was afraid of going down the hill too fast but very quickly I got the feeling and was going faster and faster not using the brakes anymore – it was an amazing feeling and just sooo much fun! Our guide accompanied us the whole time and while riding he gave us tips how to control the bike and also took some pictures of us! Furthermore the landrover always accompanied us! It would have been possible any time to get on the jeep again if we didn’t want to ride the bike anymore!
Most of the time we went downhill but then came a part where we needed to go uphill which actually wouldn’t have been that hard but due to the rain we completely got stuck in the mud! With a stick we were trying to get off all the mud from the wheels – it actually was pretty funny. Then we continued our ride in the beautiful countryside and at one point we also got a great view of Barichara! Finally we reached the market place and everyone stared at us as we looked like we had done some mudfighting. As the weather hadn’t gotten better unfortunately we decided to end the tour here. We got all the mud we could off ourselves and then had some nice coffee before heading back to San Gil!
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Then they explained us a little bit where the normal tour would continue – actually the participants get on the jeep again and they drive a little bit to another point from where they start biking again! Here they pass a tobacco farm and ride on to the Chicamocha National Park! The first part of the tour is already great but the second part sounded also fantastic and I am very sure to be back for the whole downhill biking experience – I really loved it! Back in San Gil we had a refreshing beer on the terrace of Sam’s VIP hostel (very recommendable!) where Theresa stayed another night and finally took a shower to get all the dirt off!
Afterwards we had a delicious lunch in one of the local restaurant before it was time to head back to Bogota! There is just so much to do in the surroundings of San Gil and Barichara and I already know that I will be back to explore even more!