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Nothing much to report for yesterday, I had a pretty lazy day: I phoned or skyped family :-), looked through my photos, uploaded photos to Facebook, chatted with friends on FB, had a nice lunch at la Mana restaurant again, sat in San Gil's square 'parque la Libertad'.....
On to today- Woke up at 7 so I could get the bus early to get to Barichara- got the 8am bus, having picked up a couple of things from a bakery for breakfast. The road by the market area was packed, it's either like that every morning early or just because it was Sunday, I'm not sure. There were loads of trucks with produce in that people were selling and people going in buying stuff to put in their trucks. You can't see the market from the street; it is accessed through archways. In the area there are also some of these little shops where people seem to gather and have a drink, perhaps before they head home after having done their trading/made their purchases. I went to get a fruit juice and got my first bit of slight 'hassle' today, some guy, who was drinking beer in this little shop at 7.45am! Didn't understand most of what he said but I understood "have you got a boyfriend?" lol I of course replied "si" (yes) and made my exit! So, I arrived in Barichara before 9 which had been my plan and I headed straight up to the start of 'el Camino Real' to start the walk. On the way though it was hard to resist taking photographs, Barichara, as I had heard, is a very pretty town.Described in the LP as being "like a film set, boasting pristinely renovated 300 year old whitewashed buildings and stone streets".I wanted to start the walk before it got too hot so once I'd put my suncream on and admired the view, I set off. El Camino Real is an ancient stone-paved road which the indigenous people would have used to use. It has been rebuilt over the years and is now a National Monument. It is a 9km/5.6 mile walk and is described as not being strenuous - it was a good walk for my level of fitness as most of the walk is on the flat or downhill with occasional uphill bits. What I found hard (and tiring)about it was 1) the heat and 2) the stoney path as you had to constantly watch where you were walking to avoid tripping up.It crossed my mind that if I was to fall I could wait for hours before someone passed! I was on my own the whole time I was on the trail, with just the sounds of birds and insects in the trees, the sound of lizards rustling in the bushes, the occasional sound of a motorbike when I was near a road (you cross over two during the walk), the occasional goat, a dog barking, the radio at 3 houses not on but near the trail….it really was very peaceful with excellent views. However it was also very hot! I was fine for the first half an hour but by 10 o clock I would have happily got under my cold shower! After an hour and a half I found myself wishing for shade as the trail is generally quite open so you are exposed to the direct sunlight and then I remembered I had my umbrella with me (in case of rain in the afternoon which you often get in this area) so I decided to do as I'd seen some locals do and use it for shade from the sun! Luckily this made the final half hour of the walk more bearable and I arrived at Guane two hours after starting which is what it had said in the guidebook. Guane is described as being "the land that time forgot". It is lovely village with similar buildings to Barichara. The first thing I did was get a cold drink, which was a huge glass of mora juice (bit like blackberries) with plenty of ice! It was just what I needed! After that I had a little walk round the plaza and took some photos before getting the bus back to Barichara- what had taken me 2 hours to walk took just over 15 minutes by bus! I saw the French couple, Constance and Guillaume on the bus, they too had done the walk, but had set off later than me. When we got back to Barichara we went for lunch together, which was nice. After that I went for a wander round and took some more photos of this beautiful, quiet town. Despite the 2 coaches of Colombian tourists it didn't feel at all busy, just very peaceful. I would have liked to stay longer to walk around some more but I had a really bad headache which despite painkillers and having eaten and drunk was not going anywhere so I had to leave earlier than planned. I ended up sleeping the 40 minutes back to San Gil and then luckily felt a bit better. Tomorrow I'm off to Curití again to go to the school J
PS. Had a guanabana juice with my tea- decided I should start trying some of the different fruits they have here! Was nice, very fruity!
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