Bocas

 

We departed from the Boulevard del Rio Hotel after breakfast and the delivery of washing. On a trip like this it is difficult to understand the simple pleasure of getting ones washing done and once again facing a bag full of clean, fresh clothes. A choice of clean clothes tonight, what a simple joy!

 

The road out of Cali was very straightforward and we soon found ourselves driving at pace through the sugar beet fields of this part of Columbia. It must be an enormous source of wealth as acre after acre of thick sugar beet grows across the entire valley. We had some 270km to cover today to Bocas and the first 210km was faultless. We stopped for fuel, a cup of coffee and of course the inevitable police photo opportunity. Otherwise we ploughed on, driven by the simple promise of a cool pool and a cold beer at our resort hotel at Bocas, the Hotel Real Dinastia.

 

60km from Bocas we ground to a halt. By then we were driving up the valley besides the Cauca river. The river is in full spate, flowing at about 30mph and full to the brim with filthy water, running off the hills after the recent rainfall. Unfortunately during the savage rains in January much of the road up this valley was washed away and ever since the Colombians have been rebuilding. It is an enormous job and they seem to be progressing with a grim, remorseless determination. We queued for about an hour at three different points along the road seems like chicken feed!

 

The hotel Real Dinastia is one of those resort type establishments but it is clean, has a pool and cold beer and is feeding us. I think that it’s trying to sell off timeshare cottages on the estate, which given the heat of the summer might be quite an attractive proposition to people based 70km up the road in Medellin.

     

 

Tonight we turned our attention to how we are going to complete our South American journey to Cartagena. It should be straightforward, from Medellin travelling up the E25. However when we search for such a route Waze  diverts us a considerable way east of west. We have a real dilemma with the added complication of getting Didier to the airport on Monday to catch a connecting flight to Bogata. We have quite a long distance tomorrow with uncertain road conditions so we keep our fingers crossed.