Visiting San Cipriano, Colombia.

San Cipriano, Colombia.
I would like to really, really recommend you this little place called San Cipriano, located in the mountains on the way to Port of Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca State, Colombia. Yes! South America, tropical jungle and a weather that was awesome, not too hot, not too humid, just perfect for an adventure and exploring the beauty of this paradise. I visited this lovely place and stayed at a lady’s ‘finca’, a country side house. This particular house was built by herself out of recycled materials she found over the years, and the result a lovely wooden two story house with 8 bedrooms, a lovely balcony facing a magnificent mountains chain in which that little town called San Cipriano is embedded.

The lady was a very good host, she was the boss in her house which was packed, her relatives, sons, grandchildren, daughters in law, were visiting her for the weekend. So I met a lot of people just right there in the house. Me and my companions cooked in the house, she allowed us to use the kitchen, very nice of her. They had firewood and electrical systems to cook. Nothing tastes like food surrounded by nature, for some reason. We had good bedrooms, good beds, and mosquito nettings in all our beds, I was actually surprised but they explained to me that there was a lot of mosquitos and next day my blood would be all sucked up by them if they didn’t have the nettings. Next day I had a conversation with one of the lady’s sons in which he explained to me how he got infected by malaria a couple of years ago there. I was like, oh oh, what if one of those little creatures bite me! But then he said that the chances were not really that big, people don’t get infected all the time, it was just a matter of luck I guess.

We had a good night, very pleasant to me despite the fact that they warned us about the noisy trucks coming down road in the middle of the night. I didn’t hear any, I guess I was too tired and the just fell asleep right away.

Next day we had a nice breakfast and headed to the famous San Cipriano. We drove for twenty minutes and got to a little house that welcomes all visitors with a number of indications from a worker and of course, the entrance fare. We got our tickets to enter and got to the back of the ticket booth house where there is this long and inviting yellow pedestrian suspension bridge crossing the Dagua river. We had fun and make jokes all the way to the other side of the river. And when we got there is when we realized how surreal the famous ‘brujitas’ transportation system really is. I was in shock, trying to figure out how those little four wheel platforms vehicles empowered by a motorcycle work. It took me a while but then I got it! The front wheel of the motorcycle is actually useless, its just suspended on the platform while the rear wheel provides the actual motion of the whole vehicle. The rest of the wheels are just to slde the car over the railroad.

When the ‘brujita’ got in action we all started to scream of excitement, it’s just awesome, the wind hits your face, and you feel all the smells of the tropical jungle as you cross tunnels build under the mountains, this could be sometimes scary, since none of those tunnels have lights and some can be considerably long. I was relaxed, its just so relaxing the sensation of travelling on those little cars. No sit belts, no doors, really fun! A couple of times we run into another of these vehicles coming in the opposite direction, same railroad…., hmmm then what?? Well, I asked the driver that question : Now what?? He said, well, whoever has passengers, meaning tourist, have the right to stay on the railroad, the other vehicle has to get out of the railroad and yield. This is possible because this vehicles are really not that heavy, they consist of a wood board, a very rustic bench also made out of wood for people to sit, and the motorcycle, the actual size of the car is the size of a twin bed.

So finally we got there! And San Cipriano is a town consisting of basicly one main ‘street’. No traffic lights because threre are no cars, no motorcycles, no vehicles. Lots of wooden houses and vendors. Many restaurants offering river shrimp, fish, cocadas (a meal made out of sugar cane and coconut), coconut water, etc. Lots of noise and music, and , yes, lots of tourist who are mostly backpackers, people who like adventure, and don’t mind for luxurious hotels, instead many of them stay in one of the many ‘hotels’ there are available. These hotels are houses with very basic accommodations. Some are very unique, like a two story house with no walls on the second floor , instead people just open their tents and sleep there, yes, that’s right a tent on the second floor, you read that right!

We walked for a while and as soon as you start walking you get to see the river, the purity of the water is out of this world, it changes colors at times, it’s so inviting that you don’t feel like walking anymore, just jumping in the water! Well we certainly did! And as soon as we did, it started to rain very hard. Well, we just covered our with towels to protect cellphones and stuff like that and kept on swimming. I recommend you to take some good swimming shoes, you might not get cut by the rocks but they are certainly a pain in the neck. And talking about stones, you can get a beautiful one and take it home as a souvenir, for your garden, for a friend, etc, or like Colombians do, they actually use it in the kitchen to pound foods. My grandma always had one and there is a ‘piedra de rio’ in almost every kitchen in Colombia I believe.

Despite the rain we had lots of fun, you can do river tubing in the rapids if you will, it’s a very very eco friendly experience that will fulfill your spirit and connect you to nature.

All the way back home it was pouring, we stopped at one of the little restaurants to have some coffee, it was really good under the rain, we were soaked. We kept on walking towards our surreal transportation system. And we took it, yes , under the heavy rain and it was really nice!

All of a sudden under a tunnel there were some people walking in the darkness of it. The driver stops and my companions, all women got terrified! They thought, we were getting robed or raped or something under the darkest and longest tunnel ever!, well I wasn’t afraid, I just asked what’s going on? And the driver said there is a family I’d rather pick them up. So he did and we and that family all together headed to the ‘brujita’s station’.

Next day we went to a diferent river, this time a magnificent water fall was the delight, at least to see, because the strength of the water was such that it was impossible to swim under the fall. But we did in other parts of the river, not without having to walk a lot in order to get there, but it was definitely worth it! What a paradise! Check out my pictures and videos.

Besides these wonderful experiences we had lots of fun at the ‘finca’ in it’s great spring water pool, built by the hostess out of river stones and a hose that brings water from some spring water source up in the mountain chain.

Life is good amigos! Keep being grateful for this magnificent planet we all share!

Much love and talk to you soon!

Ulises Caloz.

San Cipriano, Valle del Cauca, Colombia.