Saturday 5th December

Packed, had breakfast & left Ocaña by minibus at 10am for the drive to Bucaramanga. d*** got the front seat, as we retraced our route to Aquachica, on the plains below, so he took many photos but most will probably have to be discarded. The driver was an older & wiser man than our 2 previous ones, so he didn't practise too many suicidal overtaking moves but he still had the Colombian music playing at max volume for most of the ride. On the way we were held up by roadworks & at one, a big contingent of heavily armed police overtook us in a range of vehicles, including 2 in the back of a ute wearing bandoleers of bullets & headscarves, a la Isis. The police presence was quite big in places with road blocks but we weren’t flagged down.
We arrived in Bucaramanga at about 3.30 having again climbed from the plain into the foothills of the Andes. The initial impression is of a bustling but unattractive, working city & we were not at all impressed with our rooms at the hotel, which are pokey & have toilets without seats.
As we later discovered the traffic noise is terrible as it is on a climbing, one way, street. Our room had a curtained window, which to our horror, overlooked the hotel garage & had no glass, giving us the dual benefits of noise & fumes. Tomorrow we will move on to Giron, a much smaller place nearby.
The receptionist told us of a place to eat a few blocks away but we didn’t make it & settled instead for coffees at a cafe in the centre. Here we were told that it was the wrong quarter for food etc but suggesting a place further out. We followed that advice & took a cab to a restaurant specialising in hamburgers & meats of various kinds. Jenny ordered chicken, Jane had a junior burger & d*** ordered some beef belly. Out it came & we were quite amazed, as Jenny’s chicken would have fed us all comfortably & Dick’s meat was also very generous. Only Jane had made the correct choice on portion size. We went home with half of Jenny’s excellent
chicken in a bag for breakfast tomorrow.
We live & learn!!