A note on
wildlife in Colombia: Be forewarned, if you get squirmy about bugs, skip this blog
entry.
We made our
way out of Cali Thursday morning in what was a rather uneventful departure. We
figured we could make it to Popayan in two days but we weren’t sure where we
would stop Thursday night. We made it to a town about 60km from Popayan – the
perfect distance for a hilly ride the next day.
Once we
realized our only option for accommodation was a dilapidated camp-like rancho, we
paid our $20 000COP (about $12) and hunkered down. We decided to forgo
showering in the rather filthy cob-web latent stall, and instead took a dip in
the clean pool. (We knew this because there was a pool guy and the smell of
chlorine wafted strongly from the clear aqua water.)
Feeling
refreshed, we returned to our room where the first little bugger was sighted scurrying
along the floor. Rob handled the situation aptly by squashing it with his shoe.
The crunch a cockroach exudes when hammered with a Patagonia approach shoe is
so disturbing, it makes me shiver just thinking about it - EEEWWWW!
Although we
had already decided to sleep in our sleeping bags, we immediately realized the
severity of the bug situation and turned our sights towards our clean roach-free
tent. I even mended the tent to ensure our safety. We locked our bikes in our room, got cozy in the tent and slept like babies.
We awoke at
the crack of dawn Friday morning, packed our bags and thanked our wise
decision-making skills...
That is until
we realized our grave oversight – we did not securely fasten our plethora of
bags.
Initially
ignorant of our mistake, we made our routine stop for our morning refresco. When Rob opened his handlebar
bag, we discovered a family of cockroaches of varying sizes had taken up
residence (insert shiver). Here I am checking mine.
When we
finally arrived in Popayan - 15km further than the road signs indicated - we
knew we/Rob had a difficult job ahead of us/him – going through ALL of our
things in search of a cockroach colony.
We splayed all
our things in the courtyard of a lovely Popayan hostel as Rob frantically hit
and swatted ALL of them. We know this for sure, since we went through
everything thoroughly at my insistence. We then did laundry and washed
everything until it was gleaming.
In the end, we
were transporting approximately 30 roaches that were hiding in everything from
our bike tools to our cooking stove.
We even
changed hostels in case one got away. (Just kidding)
In the end we
did change hostels, not because of bugs, but because of a young group of
Colombians who were partying like it was 1999 - Which doesn’t bode well with a
48-year-old who needs his beauty rest;)
On a less
squirmy note, we are now in a beautiful (all white) colonial town in the midst
of a torrential rain storm. Luckily we have a lovely romantic room overlooking
the square, (the view is the second pic below), complete with a chandelier, 12 foot ceilings and a bowl of flowers!
Although there is no electricity because of the storm, we have cold beer and...Doritos! Now that my
friends is a romantic combination if I have ever heard one.
Plus we
believe we are cockroach free – which really is the only thing on my mind these
days!
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