And on to Colombia....again

As we pulled out of San Augustin the other night, the bus came to a complete stop and I thought, oh no--here it is--maybe I shouldn´t have done the night bus after all! The southern part of Colombia is mostly controlled by guerillas and I know they do bus checks just like the military does. I thought for sure they were going to get on board and see what was going on, but alas, the stop I was feeling a bit fearful of? That´s right...the first traffic light I had seen in what felt like weeks. But anyway, on with our story.

So at this point, the real burning question is: What exactly is it that the Colombians have against the toilet seat? The chances of finding one in any given bathroom are roughly 50% and I have to say even Ecuador has better odds than that! And what is up with the fact that there is no toliet paper? Don´t you people use it?Strange the things that occupy my mind these days.

Anyway, I had a bunch of notes about things I wanted to post on here that of course I forgot in my hotel room--which has two fans blowing and that means the papers are probably all over the floor by now. I have traded in the cold Andean nights for a bit of hot and humid air (just to show solidarity with you folks who are sweating through the US summer) here in Cartegena on the coast of Colombia.

I returned to Colombia a little over a week ago when I found out I am going to be able to do the internship at the Black Sheep Inn in Ecuador. I was due to head to Peru, but needed to reschedule all that so I could return home and grace you folks with my presence for a couple of weeks and let you all take me out to dinner. So the best flight I could find was leaving out of Bogota and figured that since I missed most of Colombia last time, now was as good of a time as ever to return.

This time around I came in via the land border north of Quito by about 5 hours. Of course, with my great idea to try and not pay anymore ATM fees, I came in with about 5 US dollars, which is bad because there were no ATM´s to be found--well, working ATM´s that is. There are none at the border and I had just enough pesos to get myself into town via collectivo and then walk around the town (which is kind of shady) to try to find a working ATM. The Colombians are so great because they are always so friendly and telling you to take care. They will also drop whatever they are doing to accompany you somewhere if you are alone (like in a state park or something) just to walk and talk with you.

I was riding from Quito next to a guy from Peru and you people think my bus schedule is outrageous--check this out. He was going to be travelling for about 30-35 days. All by bus. He had left Lima and gone to northern Peru for a couple of days, then on to Guayaquil, the Ecuador coast and then to Quito. He was going up into Colombia and on to Cali that day (about 10 hours more than the 5 hours we had just done) and then over to Bogota, into Venuzuela, down to Brazil and back to Peru. Anyone that has logged any bus time with me here knows that he was probably looking to spend a good 2 weeks of his time (day and night) into the transport of it all because these distances are massive and for the most part, every one of these trips he was taking was between 12-20 hours just to get from place to place! I hope it was worth it for him, as I am thinking when he returns, all he will really have to tell his friends is what bus is better to go where, etc, than about what he may have seen! Yikes!

So enough of that and back to me. :)

Some of the great things I have seen so far in the last weeks....a bus that went, literally, 10 kilometers an hour from Popyan to San Augustin, with so many bumps in the road that I repeatedly smacked the side of my face against the support of the back window (this is my fault, I choose a really shit bus and my travel buddy says he gets to choose next time as I clearly cannot be trusted). More on him and his opinions of my decision making abilities later!

Other snipets from my memory: horse carts sharing the streets with cars, people go around mostly either barefoot or in those rockin rubber boots, chickens (all over south america!) roam free everywhere and I must say they are rather tasty for getting to live such a carefree life!, crazy geese, Manuel the coke cooker with the funny smile (more on him later as well), indications of bus times--If they tell you 5 hours, it will be 7-8, busses and cars only pass each other on curves in the road it seems, and of course, the 4 person family on the moped--along with dad´s briefcase on someone´s knee!

And the ever important--just like in Ecuador--need for small bills. Everything is done with cash, but there are no ATM´s anywhere, and everyone wants small bills, and no one has change for anything. And if you are lucky enough to get money from the bank or ATM, they will of course only give you 50´s. While in San Augustin, a few of us realized we were going to need money. Of course the only ATM in town wasn´t working, and another girl and myself were able to do a Visa cash advance (after about an hour or two of waiting in line), but the guy with us had to get a bus and go into Pitalito (about an hour) in order to get money from his mastercard and the whole ordeal for him took about 4 hours! So important now to think of wher I am going and when and then get money accordingly!

And the people are so sweet--feel like I was involved in a little bit of a soap opera in San Augustin with the tour guide, which I won´t get into now, but anytime I walked through town, local people that I met would always come up and say hi. My last day there, one of the vendors in the market gave my friend a banana to give to me as a gift--isn´t that sweet! Think I got more gifts in that town than anywhere else...but again, a story for a different time. For now, I think I am going to talk myself into going out into the heat and then tomorrow I am heading off to a beach town to put in a bit of time chilling before getting on another long ass bus back to Bogota and you people.

Coming in our next post: the dates and times I am available in NYC for you folks to take me out, and what my prefered food choices might be. Since there are choices, it will take me about 5 days to make any--so look for that info next time! And don´t forget that my birthday is coming up!

Saludos,
S