Panamericana south

Our goal was to escape the Caribbean heat and make it to the Cordillieres mountains for cool nights and pleasant days. Today we made it all the way to Bucamaranga, where we had found a larger grocery store to shop for the next few days (if you eat more then local fruits or fried dulce rings, handed to you at every speedbump, its not easy to go shopping) . Since there is never any parking in colombian cities, i droped Susanne off and promised to drive cicles and pick her up again. But then i saw the sign for the underground parking (with big notices to observe height limits of 2.40 meters. Anyhow , i parked found my wife , we shopped happily . But on the way out i hit a fire sprinkler ( and yes we are right around 2.40m high) , which caused the whole garage to flood . We were stopped and asked to wait for security. hours passed , we met friendly people trying to help us , but the el jefe (the boss) didnt show. We had long difficult discussions in spanish without understanding a lot . one of the guys took his motorbike to the hardware store to get an estimate for the broken fire sprinkler. As it was getting dark we started to worry about finding our selected overlander suggested camping spot. At last they let us go with a hefty deposit and promise to return after the weekend . It was dark when we left ( against overlander #1 rule" never drive at night " ) . Plus it was a big city with an unimaginable kaos of traffic . Then it stared raining ,and our planned restaurant- camping turned out to not exist after several tries. So we drove further out of the city and finally found a restaurant , balneario with camping spots . They charged us double for 1. being the only guests 2. arriving after dark. 3. arriving in the rain . But we are so happy to pop the roof and make ourselves a simple dinner in our own four walls!Read more