Aguachica, Colombia, South America

I didn’t sleep as well as I was hoping I was going to last night. I think it’s because I knew I had a 4am wakeup call and I was nervous to miss it, so I kept waking up every 45 minutes to check the time. I got ready and Melissa picked me up at the hotel and we went to her Grandma’s house to meet everyone. I met her cousins, Juan Carlos and Paola, her Aunt Leo, her Grandma, Luz Mery, and Vanessa.

We hit the road at about 5:30am and Juan drove Melissa’s car with Paola, Melissa and me. It was probably a good thing that we left so early because we avoided most of the traffic in Bogota. We did come to a point on a country road where there had been an accident though, so we were stuck in the road for about 45 minutes before we could move. This was also the part of the day when it started to heat up. And at this point we hadn’t really even gotten very far north, so it just became very evident how hot it’s going to be in the coming days.

We stopped a few times on the way to get some things to eat and drink, but for the most part we drove straight through to Aguachica. We were expecting it to take about seven hours to get there from Bogota, it ended up taking over 12 hours. We were all pretty exhausted when we got to Hotel Esoraques at 7pm. Melissa sorted out the three rooms at the hotel and then we all had dinner in front of the hotel.

After dinner Melissa, Vanessa, Juan, Paola and I took a walk down the main street in Aguachica to find a supermarket where we could get some ice cream. Even though it was night time so it had cooled off dramatically, it was still pretty hot, around 25*C (80*F). Now we’re back at the hotel and I’m sharing a room with Juan. It looks like this is going to be the arrangement for the next week while the family is all together. Since Colombia is still a very conservative Catholic country, Melissa and I shouldn’t be staying in the same room until we’re married. So that’s different from what I’m used to…

It’s only 10pm but we’re going to bed now because we have a 3am wakeup call tomorrow. We are trying to hit the road REALLY early so we can get up to the resort at a decent time and still have a nice day there. Sounds like a good idea now, but I might not be saying that when my alarm goes off at 2:45am.