We rolled into Manizales hoping to set up camp at a popular coffee finca called La Hacienda Venecia.  The property was lovely.  A big hacienda with a wrap around deck, rolling grass fields, perfectly clean bathrooms complete with liquid soap and towels, library-themed rooms, and the most amazing kitchen complete with granite countertops.  Yes!  Unfortunately they did not want our sweaty, dust-covered, unkempt persons camping on their property.  Fair enough.

You see Colombian police everywhere on the side of the road. Every couple of long driving days we end up being pulled over. Normally they ask us where we’re going and where we are from. Sometimes they ask us for documents, but many times they just ask how we’re doing, shake our hands, and let us continue along our way. I guess we look like nice Canadian kids.

What is the best part about touristy towns/cities? The food and drink! 

We rolled into Sogamoso looking for a little rest and relaxation after our time hiking in El Cocuy.  We camped at Finca San Pedro and it was exactly what we were looking for. 

The town of El Cocuy is where we prepped for our visit to El Cocuy National Park.  There is more to this town than first meets the eye.  When we first showed up, our main focus was checking in at the hotel, getting secure parking sorted out, and walking for more than 5 minutes without being out of breath.  We were essentially arriving from being at sea level (we were at the coast two days earlier), and El Cocuy is situated at 9,000 feet, which became painfully obvious when everything we did resulted in being out of breath.

From the Colombian coast our plan was to head south, and then east to El Cocuy National Park.  We needed to get some kilometres under our belts for no other reason but hitting the open road.  We had felt trapped by the shipping process and we were finally free in South America.  Little did we know that these first few days were a preview of the long driving days to come in Colombia.

From the mountainous coffee region of La Tagua we headed north to the coastal town of Taganga.  The small tourist town lies in a beautiful bay full of fishing boats and people of all ages looking to take a dip in the cool waters to attempt to lower their body temperature due to the intense heat.

Panama City, where a 5 km drive takes two hours.  The stop and go traffic in 34C temperatures wasn’t really easy on us or on the truck. This time it showed the truck’s weak link when we finally made it out of traffic, hit a hill, and I heard the engine revs climb as the clutch slipped like mad in second gear.

Eventually it was time to free our truck from the shipping container.  Once again, the process was relatively straightforward.  All we had to do was follow the to-do list provided by our shipping agent Tea.  Unfortunately, there are always things that don’t go as planned…