San Gil is a town known as the adventure sport capital of Colombia, so naturally, we were drawn to this town. When we arrived, we were surprised to see how steep the roads were! It was impressive how so many vehicles could manage such a steep climb!
We stayed in a great AirBnB that the kids absolutely loved because they had a large two person jacuzzi with colourful lights! It has never been easier to persuade our children to clean themselves!
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| The kids spent a lot of time in the jacuzzi! |
Our host was extremely accommodating too. We had arrived a bit late and most tourism companies were closed for the night, so he called and invited a man representing an adventure company to our place the night we arrived so we could book some activities for the next day. He even convinced the adventure company to give a group rate! Sweet!
The next day, we went mountain biking and rafting. So far, it had been very difficult to find a company that had a bike to fit Adeline, but this company seemed confident that they had one for her. When they arrived with the bikes, we were a bit unsure, looking from bike to bike, without a clear decision which one would be for her. They all looked pretty much the same size! But sure enough, with a few modifications, we made one fit her, and she rocked it once she got used to it!
We had a steady climb at the beginning and then had a solid downhill that Charlie loved! He zipped way ahead of us, and our guide had to race after him. She complimented him on his need for speed! Along the way we spied a few animals, from goats to iguanas. We followed trails that skirted a river most of the way, and at one point of time, our guide took us to a place where the sound of the river echoed off the rocks, but made it sound like there was a waterfall rushing behind them. Pretty cool.
Before we knew it, our ride was over and we were heading down to the river for our rafting!
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| It was great to get back on our bikes! |
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| It was a fairly easy ride, but Charlie loved the downhill! |
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| Adeline was happy to kick back and relax after the bike ride. |
Our rafting ride was on the Rio Fonce, and the kids were pretty impressed with the rapids! They were mostly class 2 and 3, similar to the rapids when we went rafting in Pucón, Chile, but somehow, these were a little more exciting. Our guide was doing two jobs at the same time; steering and photographing!
Multitasking isn’t always the most effective way to get things done, which we found out, as one time we got a bit hung up on some rocks and almost tipped the boat! Another time, we got a bit stuck in some rapids, but we made it out and it made it very exciting! Unfortunately, our guide’s GoPro did not make it out alright. The case opened and water got in. Oops! We never got to see any of the pictures that he took.
The rafting was a lot of fun, but when we got closer to the city, it got a bit stinky. We heard that the community dumps its sewage into the river, so we were pretty careful not to step in the water as we were getting out.
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| We loved our second time rafting! |
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| At one point, we got out of the raft and swam in the water! |
Our second adventure day was just as exciting as the first, however more practice learning Spanish may have proved useful as we really didn’t have a clear idea of what we were about to do until we were in the actual situation. We were told that we were going to go trekking to a waterfall and do some climbing. Sounded great! What we really did was climb down a ravine and went through some obstacles down a river. It definitely wasn’t the wet season as the waterfall didn’t have a big flow, but it was still beautiful all the same. The first obstacle was jumping off of a platform, about 5 metres high, into some water between some boulders.
Definitely a daring way to start the adventure. Next, we scrambled across some wires, from which our guide bounced and wiggled and tried relentlessly (but unsuccessfully) to shake David.
Then we got to rappel! This was Charlie, Adeline and David’s first exposure to rappelling.
Normally, we would expect to have some thorough explanations of safety and how to properly rappel (perhaps the language barrier interfered), but we didn’t get many explanations at all. While we love the opportunity to climb and rappel, we still don’t know a lot about it.
What we do know is that you control your speed down releasing the rope you are holding onto. What we think we know is that there should be some sort of backup in case you let go of the rope by accident. What we are pretty sure about is that there really wasn’t a backup at all. Hopefully we were wrong… We got to rappel two at a time, so Charlie and Amanda rappelled together and David and Adeline rappelled together.
Being able to rappel with the kids eased our nerves a bit. We just stayed a little ahead of the kids in case they got into trouble with their ropes. The first drop was about 10 metres, a great way to get started. The second drop was probably about 30 metres and most of it was a free rappel, it was over a ledge and there wasn’t anything to put our feet on, or push off against. It was right next to a waterfall and it was beautiful! All in all, it was lots of fun and very beautiful. On the safety scale…for a parent…it might have be safer if our Spanish was better….
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| Jumping right into our adventure! |
Then we got to rappel! This was Charlie, Adeline and David’s first exposure to rappelling.
Normally, we would expect to have some thorough explanations of safety and how to properly rappel (perhaps the language barrier interfered), but we didn’t get many explanations at all. While we love the opportunity to climb and rappel, we still don’t know a lot about it.
What we do know is that you control your speed down releasing the rope you are holding onto. What we think we know is that there should be some sort of backup in case you let go of the rope by accident. What we are pretty sure about is that there really wasn’t a backup at all. Hopefully we were wrong… We got to rappel two at a time, so Charlie and Amanda rappelled together and David and Adeline rappelled together.
Being able to rappel with the kids eased our nerves a bit. We just stayed a little ahead of the kids in case they got into trouble with their ropes. The first drop was about 10 metres, a great way to get started. The second drop was probably about 30 metres and most of it was a free rappel, it was over a ledge and there wasn’t anything to put our feet on, or push off against. It was right next to a waterfall and it was beautiful! All in all, it was lots of fun and very beautiful. On the safety scale…for a parent…it might have be safer if our Spanish was better….
We thought that the rappelling was the last of our adventures and it was time to hit the jacuzzi again, but alas, we were led to another site. Now it was all guess work. We guessed that we would be going zip lining. We were right about this, but first, we were led to a huge apparatus. There wasn’t anyone else there and there were no pictures or description of what it could be, so I (Amanda) went first to figure things out.
After putting on the harness and strapped into a seat (everything looked and felt very secure which helped in the confusion about what we were about to do), a wire was attached to the back of the seat and pulled backwards about 20 feet back and quite high into the air.
Only up at this point did I come to the realization that this must be a giant swing. The people at the bottom shouted out “Listo?” (Are you ready?), and after my excited “Si”, the wire was released and I swung high in the air back and forth until the attendant managed to slow me down and finally stop so everyone else could have a turn.
Having to be the sacrificial penguin that gets pushed into the water first to test for predators obviously worked for the kids. While they are usually quite tentative about new situations, they both hopped into the swing with no restrictions!
After putting on the harness and strapped into a seat (everything looked and felt very secure which helped in the confusion about what we were about to do), a wire was attached to the back of the seat and pulled backwards about 20 feet back and quite high into the air.
Having to be the sacrificial penguin that gets pushed into the water first to test for predators obviously worked for the kids. While they are usually quite tentative about new situations, they both hopped into the swing with no restrictions!
Lastly was the zip line! It was different from any other zip line we have seen before. It was probably also the longest zip line (300 meters) we have ever seen and we were responsible for slowing ourselves at the end with hand brakes on bicycle handlebars.
What they were able to communicate to us was don’t touch the brakes until we saw red, at which point, squeeze the brakes hard! Before we started, we saw a sign saying that it was for people aged 13 and older. For Adeline and Charlie, they needed to ride tandem with a guide. That suited us fine. Again, we got to go two at a time, so Charlie and Adeline went with their guides first and then David and I got to go. It was definitely exciting jumping off and zipping over the deep ravine we had just rappelled in, but the responsibility of being in charge of our safe ending was a bit nerve wracking. We were constantly scanning the wire for any indicator for the red that would tell us to start braking. We were getting closer and closer and there was no red! Finally, just before we arrived at the landing platform, the guide who had gone before us held up a red stop sign, and we braked. I braked a bit too hard and too fast so I never made it to the landing platform. I had to grab the wire overhead and pull myself the rest of the way. We took another zipline back, and this time, knowing to look for a person to tell us when to brake, we did much better and we both landed on the landing platform.
Charlie, perhaps worried a bit like me, didn’t finish on the landing platform either time. Good thing he was with a guide to help pull him along the wire the rest of the way!
What they were able to communicate to us was don’t touch the brakes until we saw red, at which point, squeeze the brakes hard! Before we started, we saw a sign saying that it was for people aged 13 and older. For Adeline and Charlie, they needed to ride tandem with a guide. That suited us fine. Again, we got to go two at a time, so Charlie and Adeline went with their guides first and then David and I got to go. It was definitely exciting jumping off and zipping over the deep ravine we had just rappelled in, but the responsibility of being in charge of our safe ending was a bit nerve wracking. We were constantly scanning the wire for any indicator for the red that would tell us to start braking. We were getting closer and closer and there was no red! Finally, just before we arrived at the landing platform, the guide who had gone before us held up a red stop sign, and we braked. I braked a bit too hard and too fast so I never made it to the landing platform. I had to grab the wire overhead and pull myself the rest of the way. We took another zipline back, and this time, knowing to look for a person to tell us when to brake, we did much better and we both landed on the landing platform.
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| Charlie and his guide got stuck both ways! |
We had a great time exploring the adventure opportunities in San Gil, but we were definitely happy to be done. While it was certainly a fun time, the language barrier made things a bit nerve wracking.
Our last day in San Gil, we wandered the streets and went to an interesting park called El Gallineral Natural Park while we waited for our bus.
It was a beautiful park with lots of big trees with “barba de viejo” (old man’s beard). We also saw lots of squirrels and some parrots. It was a nice relaxing way to spend the afternoon.
It was a beautiful park with lots of big trees with “barba de viejo” (old man’s beard). We also saw lots of squirrels and some parrots. It was a nice relaxing way to spend the afternoon.
As we wandered back to the town centre, there happened to be some folk dancers performing! We all enjoyed watching the traditional dancers and were disappointed we had to leave to catch our bus!
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