On Monday, December 7th I gave up the carpark of the hotel without displeasure to reach in Bogota the carpark carrera 3 20 whose coordinates were given to me by Francoise & Alain. I stationed my truck beside their Sprinter. On the way I made supply in food in Exito et approximately eight kilometers before Bogota. I had found on Internet an address of Mercedes-Benz close to the autopista norte calle 134 to buy no-available spare parts in Cartagena; alas the garage did not exist any more. The website of Mercedes-Benz Latina is not up-to-date! I was at 2720 meters of altitude given GPS, my heart behaves very well. At rest the tension is of 10.0/6.4 and the pulse beat to 62.
|
On December 8th is the festival of the Immaculate Conception it is one bank holiday. Consequently I tried my chance for the visit of the museums. by taxi I left for the historical center Bogota with Plaza de Bolivar, Parque Santander and La Candelaria around whose the museums are grouped. Alas only Museo del Oro and Iglesia de Santa Clara were open. My disappointment was large because Museo Botero and Casa de Moneda were closed. I attended the religious office in Iglesia de San Francisco, dating back to 1556, adjacent with Parque Santander. Then I walked on towards Plaza de Bolivar whose buildings are a patchwork without character, except obviously Alcadia of French style from the beginning of the 20th century. The cathedral had a religious office in great pageantry and women were short-dressed what attracted me a quotation by Jules Renard. The church Santa Clara was transformed into museum. It exhibits more than hundred paintings and statues from 17 and 18th century. I completed the visit of the historical center with the second level of Museo del Oro. Back to the carpark I took the funicular to go up to Cerro of Montserrat at 3170 meters of altitude then the cable car to go down where I walked slowly. I was back to my truck extremely vexed around 14:30.
|
| Alcadia, Hôtel-de-Ville, Mayor's office, French style |
Wednesday, December 9th was a driving long in the mountain culminating at +3200 meters of altitude. I traversed 366 km in ten hours due to long lines of trucks in the mountainous serpentine. The cost of tolls was prohibitory, 57400 pesos, approximately 18€. I stopped at a gas station Terpel at approximately 90 km away from Cali. With happiness the gas station has a WiFi connection.
Thursday, December 10th was a day of easily deceived. I wished to go to San Agustin in the mountains where there is a campground, yes that exists in Colombia. I had organized the road with QuoVadis. It was Ok. But I programmed the GPS with the coordinates of the camp-site. In Popayan GPS made me continue the road towards Pasto to take on the left in Rosas a road in the mountains. I followed its indications servilely. But at the end of 25 km the progression seemed to me erroneous. I stopped and questioned a motorcyclist who followed me. It was affirmative, it was not the right direction! It was 15:00. I returned back to take again the ruta #25. looking at a waste ground in a village I settled for the bivouac. Mala pata.
On Friday, December 11th I moved towards Ipiales, the border between Colombia and Ecuador. The road curves in a landscape of splendid mountains that the files of trucks made it possible to admire quietly while waiting to be able to pass. I arrived at Ipiales around 13:00 at the Terpel gas station. But I due to wait 14:00 to fill the tank with diesel fuel, less expensive in Colombia, because the office was closed to pay with my credit card. While waiting I lunched on the spot. Then I vainly sought a carpark kept for the night, all those which I visited refused to me to spend the night in my truck. Annoyed I continued my road to cross the border.
I left Colombia at 2785 meters high. look at the border crossing.
