Tonight we are rough camping on a farm. We are set up about 30m from a babbling river. The banks are high enough above the river to give us some comfort, should the river flood during the night. While it’s a glorious afternoon there are serious cumulus clouds gathering from the west. Two big Dogwood trees are providing some shade from the scorching sun. It’s 29 deg with 64% humidity.
We haven’t traveled far from our accommodation last night as by 10am we were ascending 675 steps up the side of the rock, Piedra del Penol which rises 200m from it’s base. Guatepe town is 1890m above sea level. Amazingly we managed it with only a few stops to rest. Not bad for a 74 years and 364 days, old.
Birthday girl, tomorrow…:) Going back down the stairway wasn’t so easy. Hard on the knees.
Views from the top are spectacular. The area is made up of flooded valleys for hydro power generation storage. The project was completed in 1970.
Our accommodation last night was the left side of the large partially completed concrete hotel development in the bottom left corner.
While stopping in Guatepe to get provisions and renew Jen’s phone’s data, some interesting shots.
A cobbler working away at the roadside.
Our destination tomorrow is Barichara, 600k’s away, due east, just below Bucaramanga. Our camp tonight is approximately 26ks. from Guatepe, along a torturous road. Travel in Colombia, and I’m sure other mountainous countries following, is going to be slow going.
A hiccup?
A minor emergency this morning. The one and only ignition fob that is vital to start Poki, had somehow got damaged and would not let her start. When opening it up it was clear a wire had broken. Fortunately with a little bending, we managed to repair it…whew!
Salmon steaks for dinner and with lightning flashing in the hills, we could be in for an interesting night,
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Jen&Den if I am reading your blog correctly ? Today I can send you Birthday Greetings Jenny !
If not I got the day wrong !
Glad to see you getting back into FULL EXPLORER MODE . It’s certainly very enjoyable and exciting travelling views from my Sofa in Chiswick !
Can’t wait for the next Chapters .
AlexG😎
Yes Alex you got it right…not sure she will remember it as a happy birthday, but remember it she will…more in today’s blog…:)
I would work on getting a backup fob bro, Murphy’s law and all that. Interesting loking country. Very well done to both of you on climbing that big stone. Many happy returns of tomorrow to the young shiela, hope she has a day off. Yeah right.
Hi Kelvin, yes, been down the fob duplicate route, but it seems it’s from ‘yesterday,’ and now no longer. Fixable though. Loseable too!!! Did you note the camera attached to belt?…:)
Jen say’s thanks for your kind wish. She will tell you about it tonight.
Oh ‘little brother’ sounds fine and looking forward to home. Relief. 🙂
Happy birthday Jen. So it was breakfast in bed then?
Hi Ash, Jen says thanks for the birthday wish but I wished you hadn’t shown me up…:)
Great to hear from you and say Hi! to Gil.
Wishing you a Happy Birthday Jen, hope it’s been a good one x
Hi Bridget. Thank you for your birthday greetings. It’s been a day to remember, but not for the usual celebratory reasons. All will be revealed when I write the blog later this evening. We’re going to a restaurant for dinner now, as I refuse to cook. xx
Count not the candles, but see the light they give. Count not the years, but the life you live.
Happy birthday Jen xx
Hi Mel. Like the quote 🙂 It’s been a memorable day, but for unexpected reasons. Having to evacuate our campsite in the early hours of the morning. Spending nearly 4 hours to drive 50 miles on tracks through the mountains, surrounded by jungle. X