Tubing in San Cipriano

This weekend was by far one of the best weekends yet, solely because of a wonderfully planned day trip to San Cipirano.  Thank to some great planning by our friends Kristin and Kelsi, the day went off without a hitch.  We all met in San Fernando early in the morning around 6:30 (well 6:45 because I made David and I late, oops), got in a big white van and started our 2.5 hour trip.  Normally, people get on a public bus that heads to Buenaventura on the coast, but since there were 11 of us, it was best to get our own transportation, which was only $50.000 round trip (about $25 USD).  The drive was VERY curvy, so I made sure to have some Dramamine on had, which I only had to use for the ride home. 

When we arrived in San Cipriano, our van was kindly greeted by men and boys pounding on the sides of the van and chasing the van until we finally stopped.  No worries, they were just getting our attention to let us know they would be taking money for the brujas (see below).  We knew going into it they were try to scam the 11 gringos, but in the end, Kristin got them down to $6.000 a person each way, not too bad.  Now what is a bruja you ask?  Well, imagine a wooden platform with wheels that rides along abandon railroad tracks.  Now add on top some wooden benches, be sure NOT so secure them too well, the shaking and fear of falling off adds to the fun.  You have more than 4-5 people?  No problem, just rope tie another platform/picnic bench thing on and hope it doesn´t disconnect along the way.  But how do you get this wooden board/picnic bench device moving?  With a moto of course!  Prop the front tire of the moto onto the the platform and place the slightly flattened rear tire onto the right rail track.  And viola!  Now you have yourself a bruja (brujita).

Yep.  I´m serious.  This is what we had to ride from where our van parked, to the actual little village where we rented our tubes, got in the river and had lunch.  It was a treat.  To add to the fun, there is only one track, so when a brujita comes from the other direction one has to get off the track (moto, platforms, people and all) and let the other pass.  From what I could tell, who has to get off is usually determined through a staring contest.  Luckily our driver was a very good starer and very intimidating, so we only had to get off once.

In all honesty, it was a fun little ride, except when we had to go over bridges.  I hate bridges.  When we got off our brujita, we had a short walk to the place where we rented tubes, and paid $1.500 each to get into the park area.  Once we got there, they took our lunch orders so it would be ready when we were done, packed up the cooler, sun screened up, waited for the boys to get themselves ready for an extra 10 minutes and then started our 30-45 minute hike to where we could get into the river.  Along the way we made a little doggy friend who someone later named Sirius because he looked like his anamagous from Harry Potter (I have clearly found the perfect group of people to hang out with here).  He followed us the WHOLE way down, it was pretty cute and after a while I even stopped worrying that he might bite me and give me rabies.

Tubing was lots of fun.  We stopped along the way to hang out, jump off things and chat.  It was however a little bit more work than I imagined as there were quite a few areas with small rapids or giant trees obstructing the way that were nearly impossible to avoid, but fun nonetheless.  It was a beautiful day and we had the perfect amount of time on the river.  Near the end, we found a rope swing for jumping into the water.  Some (most) people were very good at it, like David, but I think the BLACK bruises on my inner thigh from the knots are a sign that I did not have good form.  I can only imagine what my jump looked like since I have no upper body strength whatsoever.  Luckily no one caught it on camera. 

I don't know if this was excitement or fear for what obstacles might lie ahead

Gorgeous day

David jumping

After our tubing, we walked back to the little tienda/restaurant place and changed and had a traditional Colombia lunch with Sancocho, rice, patacones (plantains) and I had some delicious camarones (little shrimp), but there was also a choice of fresh fish, chicken and I think some other seafood.  At 4 we made our way back to the brujita for our return trip, hoped in the van and made our way back to Cali.  It was a wonderful day trip that seemed perfectly executed, something I feel I won't always be able to say about plans we make here, or life in general. 

Last, big thanks to Sam and Kelsi for all the photos.  I need to invest in a waterproof camera, or some really good Tupperware in case anyone is wondering what to get me for my birthday or Christmas!