Neiva to Santa Marta, Colombia and back

[Pinto2424]

Well, we had business to attend to in Santa Marta and the local airlines are still figuring out their strike so we took the truck. 750 miles and 20 hours there and 750 miles and 20 hours back. We averaged about 16 miles to the gallon doing 40 miles per hour...which is the average speed limit on most of the roads by the way. Of course everyone else was passing us, but honestly it was a great drive, only having to downshift into second on a few of the hills. La Tortuga (the turtle, as named by our granddaughter as it is hard shelled, green and slow) only suffered a flat tire and I was surprised the tires actually had inner tubes...had not seen that in a long time. Anyway, for about $15 USD, the local shop popped in a new tube, changed the tire, rotated the other tires and we were off. I really am getting attached to La Tortuga. She is a little cranky in towns as 1st gear is to slow and 2nd is to fast, but we'll figure that out as well. The only down side to taking the truck, is we pretty much got stopped at every police checkpoint and as the local police stated, it was odd seeing a gringo driving a patrol! Be safe all!

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[Esteban]

Beautiful pictures and great way to start your Patrol ownership.

Little by little you'll gain confidence on the way the Patrol performs, and will be able to push it to higher limits. These Patrols can easily sustain 60 mph without any problems, and if needed pushing to 70 should pose no problems.

The 16 mpg tells me that you've been driving very smoothly. I'm always around 13.5 to 14 mpg.

Keep posting your trips!

[RiverPatrol]

Great way to get to know your Patrol, and a very nice trip. Thanks for sharing!