Our first destination today was the town of Giron said by our guide book to be noteworthy for its cobbled streets and white washed Spanish colonial buildings, and its beautiful central square. Our first effort to turn off the highway into Giron was less than successful, we turned into a nice cobbled one-way street the wrong way. Needless to say the street was narrow and took us about a dozen back and forward moves to get turned around while the local drivers encouraged us by sounding their horns, and squeezing around us while we tried to turn. Our second effort to turn in Giron ended in another nicely cobbled street, but a dead end. This time Nina asked a pair of moto (small motor cycles) riders where the entrance was and rather than explain one volunteered to lead us there. Well, the correct turn was a sharp 330° corner that we could only negotiate with a K turn. But the fun was not over. This town was founded in the early 1600, well before motor homes were thought of and the streets are narrow - at one point we passed between a pedestrian and a moto rider and both of them had to duck so as not to be hit in the head by our side mirrors.

A few adventures later we found a parking spot in a side street so that we could stroll around the town, find an internet cafe, and get some coffee and cake. The guide book was right, it is a nice town that looks like a place where people work and live, rather than renovated purely as a tourist attraction.

From Giron we skirted the city of Bucaramanga to join highway 45A, and were very proud of the fact that we didn't get lost once even though we did not have a map.

Immediately south of Bucaramunga the road climbed steeply to about 5000 ft and then dropped down into the bottom, and start of Chicamocha Canyon. The canyon was a surprise as there was a complete change in vegetation from lush tropical plants to very dry conditions, almost desert, with various types of cactus everywhere and it was hot with temps in the high 90°F. The canyon was very narrow, and the road was descending whereas we had expected to be climbing. But eventually the valley broadened out and the road started to climb, and climb and climb. It was spectacular, with many switch backs as it climbed out of the valley. Along the way we passed a fascinating Madonna monument (the mother of Jesus, not the music star), that seemed to span both the traditional and techno-modern very well. For the traditionalists there were shelves on which to burn candles as offerings, for the modernists, there was a place to lay a car head lamp next to a statue of the Madonna; yep - you got it - head lamps. Look in the photos.

At the top of the grade we came upon Parque Nacional de Chicamocho. A new complex that is more like an adventure center than a national park as we know them. Two zip line rides, synthetic ice rink, dodgem cars on a dirt track, a number of cafes and restaurants, and a cable car that is apparently 6.5 km long and travels down to the river and up the other side of the valley to another tourist complex. However the crowning glory - if I can call it that - of the park is a massive sculpture of a ship with 35 larger than life figures depicting various aspects of an 1871 rebellion and in its center an explosion of rocks.

During the course of the evening we had a long conversations with one of the local guides, he practicing his English and giving us Spanish lessons. Plus we talked to a number of Colombian groups about the Tiger and where we have been/are going.