Mompos

Our offline map on Maps.me was showing some hotels near the river and we planned to walk around and find a suitable place for a suitable price, but as soon as the cold from the ac in the bus started wearing off, we could feel the extreme heat. Instead of all of us walking around in the heat with all our bags, we decided that Maria and Hristo would leave their bags with me near the Santa Barbara Church and look around.
While waiting for them, I too searched around on booking.com to find something suitable. After about 15 min later when Hristo and Maria came back, we figured they too had seen the hostels that were on booking.com but the prices were cheaper if we booked through booking.com. So, we did our booking online at Pueblito Magico for 75,000 COP for the 3 of us in a dormitory and then walked the 20 mts to the hostel.
Here, again we had issues with our booking. When we reached there, we were told that there were no beds available in the dormitory and that the only accommodation available was a private room with an attached bathroom, that would cost us 125,000 COP for the 3 of us. We were not happy about this and showed them the booking to which they replied that it takes a while to update on booking.com. We had already made up our minds to stay only one night in Mompox as it was too hot here, so we didn't want to spend any more time looking for a place.
After a bit of haggling, we negotiated the stay for 100,000 COP for the night.
Based on our prior research, we had figured that the only things to do and see in Mompox could be done in one day - half a day to go around the town and half a day to go to the lake Pijino nearby. It was almost 3 pm by the time we resolved the issue of stay. While we were checking in, we saw a board offering the boat trip to the lake Pijino at 3 pm. On inquiring, we found that there was only one trip to the lake per day and that too only in the afternoon. Not wanting to stay till late evening the next day, we asked if we could join the trip for the day. The person at the reception called the tour operator and told us that it was possible but that we would need to hurry as they are already ready to go and were waiting for us.
We rushed into our room and started unpacking to get our needed things together for the boat trip, that's when the attempt of theft happened!!!
I was in the toilet outside of the room to fill my water bottle. Hristo was in the room and was going to the bathroom attached to the room when this guy at the reception came in to call us for the boat tour. He came and stood inside the room near the beds. Hristo told him he'll wash his face and come and started entering the bathroom. As soon as he turned to go to the bathroom, the guy put his hand inside one of the day bags that was on one of the beds. Fortunately, Maria, who was in the bathroom washing her face came out and saw his hand in the bag. He immediately withdrew his hand from the bag. She called out at him but he acted as if he was straightening the bed sheet and didn't understand anything she was saying. He still didn't leave the room, while Maria continued shouting at him. Neither Hristo nor I figured what was happening since we had not seen it happen and were rushing to get ready. By this time, the lady owner of the hostel came and Maria told her to make sure that nothing gets stolen from our room which we had to leave unlocked so they could put in the extra bed. We couldn't understand why Maria was saying all this. It was only when we were on the boat and had the time to listen when Maria told about the incident in detail. Luckily, we always carried our expensive things in the day bag, with us, so we weren't too bothered of any theft after we had left.Meer informatie