June 8, 2018 – June 12, 2018

We needed to fill our propane tank, and we had seen on iOverlander (we seriously use this app daily) that there were two places in the town of San Gil that other travellers had had good luck with getting their North American style tanks filled. San Gil was on our way….perfect. We tried both places, and they both refused to fill our tanks….we were not 100 percent sure why, but Derek thought that maybe they had said that the pressure levels and the fittings were different, making it impossible. We still had a bit of gas, so we decided to head on to camp and see if we had enough fuel to make coffee and dinner for the next few days.

After some high stress driving through some very small streets, first in San Gil and then Barichara, we arrived at Guaimaro Camp. We had read good things about this location, and the reviews were spot on. The camp is run by a young couple from Holland, Joep and Julia, and they welcomed us onto their land with big smiles. We set up our truck in a large grassy field, next to a Canadian couple we had not met before, but who must have been just a few steps ahead of us for most of the trip. It was fun to compare notes with them and we hope our paths will cross again.

We headed up to the house to get some information about the camp, like where the toilets were, what the wifi code was, did the shower have hot water. And what a house it was!  Joep and Julia have built the most unique, beautiful home. Julia is an architect and she and Joep have combined their love of nature and traditional Colombian building into the design, which is a renovation of old existing buildings that had been used to dry tobacco. There is a great open air kitchen/living area, a separate building for their sleeping quarters and a separate building for a guest bed and bath, with an amazing outdoor shower that is available for the use of the camping guests. The three buildings are tied together with more outdoor living space, walkways, stepping stones, hammocks and gardens visited by humming birds and butterflies….muy tranquillo (very peaceful). Oh, and they make bread which you can order the night before and pick up the next morning, hot from the oven!

The next day we walked from the camp along an old trail to the town of Barichara. There, we sat in the town plaza and had a cup of coffee, did a bit of shopping, and wandered the streets. One of the attractions of the town of Barichara is an old cobblestone trail that connects it to the neighbouring town of Guane. The trail is called El Camino Real and many people walk the trail to Guane, have lunch, then take a taxi back to Barichara. The trail happens to cross the road very near to Joep and Julia’s, so we returned to camp by using the beginning of this trail, making a loop out of our hike.

The next day we made our way back to El Camino Real to walk the remainder of the trail to the town of Guane. It was a weekend, and there were many tourists enjoying the hike. And it was really hot. Every time we came to shade we would stop to cool down and to give Piper and ourselves some water.

Guane is a nice little town that really benefits from having this trail. We walked around, sat in the plaza, then decided to have some lunch. We had been approached when we first arrived in town by a restaurant owner trying to drum up business, and so we decided we would go back there for a bite.

We entered down a short stone hallway and walked into a courtyard.  There was a small garden in the middle and chairs and tables around the outside. It was dark, and sparsely decorated, with stone grey walls and tile flooring. The mismatched tables looked like they could have been one or two hundred years old and the leather seats on the wooden chairs had obviously seen many a patron.

The server came to our table and listed off what was available for lunch that day. I didn’t really catch much of it, and so when Derek said that he would have “la cobra” (goat), I said, “Para mi tambien” (for me also).

In a few moments a bowl of soup arrived at the table, a clear broth with meat, some non meat animal parts (like tendon and bone), carrot, onion and potato. Perfect, we thought, as we were not really that hungry. The soup was tasty and it went well with the cold beer we had ordered. But, as it turned out, we hadn’t ordered just soup. Along came the waitress with two huge plates of barbequed goat, cassava, rice and salad. And it was really good! I couldn’t finish my plate, but Derek and Piper were able to make sure that no meat was left behind, and we all got up from the table feeling absolutely stuffed.

We took a different route home to camp by walking through the town and then following a trail up and up and up to a dirt road, that conveniently took us right to the gate of our camp.

We had told Joep about our difficulties with our propane tank and he offered to make a phone call to someone he knew that was a bit of an expert on propane. In the meantime, Derek got our tank out of the camper and we were able to confirm that the fitting was identical to the propane tanks that Joep and Julia used…that was good news. As we were leaving Joep was able to tell us that his friend thought there should be no issue with filling our tank. Perhaps the fact that our tank looks different from the ones that the workers know made them think it was not possible, or maybe they didn’t feel like the extra work, who knows.

We packed up and said our goodbyes and headed back to San Gil, armed with the knowledge that at least the propane fitting was not a problem, but, alas, no luck. The first place we revisited said that they didn’t have a filling station, that they were just a bottle exchange (why didn’t they tell us that on the first visit?), and the second was securely locked up. We decided to risk running out of propane (we need it for cooking, and, if we cannot plug the camper into an electrical outlet, we need it for the fridge) and continue on.