San Cipriano This little town (settlement?) is about two and a half hours from Cali. To get there from the hostel: Taxi at 9:30 AM from hostel to La Portada--a roadside spot where I wait for a bus to go past and pick me up. ($3) Bus from La Portada through the mountains toward Buenaventura; after about two hours, stop off at Zaragoza--just a place on the side of the highway with a suspension bridge to walk over the river. Arrived at 11:30 AM. ($8) Now the best part: I walk over the river on the bouncy suspension bridge until I arrive at the train tracks. I hire a local to take me on his hand-made moto-witch to San Cipriano. I ride on a bench on the moto-witch into town. This is where I wonder what Tatiana and Beverly would think. It seems safe enough, but I am going pretty fast down a single track, and there are many times when we have to stop because another moto-witch is coming just as fast toward us from the opposite direction. Someone has to get off their cart and take it off the tracks to let the other moto-witch past. ($5) Why is it called a moto-witch? The moto part was invented nine years ago by a Paisa (aaahh, those Paisas; so entrepreneurial and innovative) who attached a motorcycle to a train cart to power the cart down the track. Before then, everyone moved their own train cart down the track using human power by pushing on a large lever made from a broom stick. Because of the broom stick, the carts were always called witches and the name stuck. They still call them witches today. Once I arrive to San Cipriano right around 12 noon, I have two activities: hike to waterfalls and go tubing down the river. Right away as I start walking into town a tall guy comes up and introduces himself as Diego and sticks right there with me as a I walk into town. We reach the town entrance where I have to pay a small fee to enter the reserve. Diego isnt going anywhere. He offers to take me on the hike to the falls and tube down the river with me for $22,000 ($11). Inner tube included. As we start on the hike he stops and picks up a banana and a small slice of cake for me and pays the lady at the store. So thats included too, I guess. We didnt take very long to hike to the falls and go tubing--we did everything over the course of just two hours. But it was plenty of time to create an unforgettable memory. I was Diegos only customer that day, and we had the entire hike, waterfalls and river all to ourselves. The water was perfectly clear! Diego said that during peak times, the river would be full of people and it would be hard just to find a place to yourself in the water. While we were tubing it started raining, but I didnt care if it was raining at that point; I was floating on a river already soaking wet. After we got out, it was time for lunch, so Diego took me to a restaurant where I had a pretty good set plate lunch at 2:30 PM. ($3.50) Finally after an hour it was time to catch the moto-witch ride on down to Cordoba to get the bus, or mini-van, or informal taxi back to Cali. ($3) At the curve in the road where the bus stop is located, a mini-van came past with a sign in the front window, CALI. Diego got me onto that mini-van at around 4 PM and we headed two hours back to town. ($12) By the time we got back to Cali it was dark at 6:30 PM. The van was going to the bus terminal, but that was out of my way; I asked the driver to drop me off on the busy street that we were on so I could get a taxi. Pretty quickly I got a taxi back to the hostel. ($2.50) Full day excursion, 9:30 AM to 7:00 PM, total: $48. Worth it!
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 03:36:13 +0000
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