La Bonanza is an oasis of a campground owned by a couple who grew up in Morocco, had three kids and ten years ago set off to drive around South America.
They made waves at home when they left Morocco, and now their children are grown and their home and RV campground is for sake if you’re interested. We aren’t - we’re nomads but we like landing in these kinds of places. It made a great change from bouncing down the road from hell at dusk!
The road out of the mountains though paved was still have torn up by endless roadworks. It was a tremendous drag stopping every ten minutes.
Snacks for sale. When the vendor eventually stopped talking to her neighbor I got a cheese empanada to go with my coffee. Road works are food depots too which isn’t always good!
We go, they stop and talk. The stops tended to be lengthy which made them more annoying.
We got to Popayan known as the “white city.” The old town we found was just a small part of a vast modern industrial city. When we paused to get our bearings and we let Rusty wander around we had a nasty encounter. Some crazy guy in his sixties, well dressed and not smelling of alcohol (I got in his face) walked across the street picked up a eucalyptus branch and was about to lay into Rusty who was sniffing and hadn’t even noticed him when I rushed up and stopped him. He backed up and I was relentless snarling insults at him in his face. Eventually he went back across the street to the bus stop and I got Rusty safely aboard GANNET2 with a couple of final insults exchanged. I have no idea what prompted that but the incident settled us. We left town.
Eventually we will drive back this way in the road to Ecuador and we may give Popayan a second chance.
We stopped at a supermarket on the outskirts to buy the usual supplies and Colombia the cheerful reasserted itself thank god. The campground was forty minutes away and we were glad to land in the haven.
Kiki and Anwar are the perfect hosts and with their experience they have created the perfect campground offering everything overlanders want.
Covered spaces to hang out, cold drinks, books and comfortable armchairs.
110 volt and 220 volt electrical outlets, potable water and even a dump station. And it’s all done with style.
Rusty loves roaming the garden and the woods.
This is as you might imagine a popular stop especially at $15 a night.
Rusty doesn’t even mind playing with the campground dog a big goofy German shepherd.
Here you are, retired, drinking coffee listening to the afternoon rain a daily occurrence, and reading about Webb Chiles surviving at sea…This could be you:
Mind you, that can be done with a lot less struggle than it’s taken for us to get here! But this is the reward.
They have WiFi of variable strength but Starlink has lots of clear sky.
There’s a big washing machine in the laundry so we did our rugs towels and seat covers and Rusty’s bed cover. Oh and our clothes too in a second load.
Moroccan tagine for lunch.
Lamb and plums and sweet potato, perfectly delicious with left overs and no need for dinner after this lot.
We did chores, cleaning the fridge, checking tire pressure, washing and cleaning and walking Rusty. A day in the life at Bonanza.
