Colombia Crossing, Postage Dramas
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
1
113
221
Trip End
Ongoing
Bogota,
Colombia
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
On Sunday Sophia and Roberto drove us in their car to the bus station on the highway outside Otavalo, we had slept in and were hoping to make it across the border and far up into Colombia.
Through itīs turbulent history, Colombia has been soaked with blood in many civil wars and has endured the continentīs largest and fiercest guerilla insurgency. The country is also the worldīs largest producer of cocaine. Violence occurs more frequently than in the surrounding countries we have already visited but we are willing to stay safe and get amogst Colombiaīs amazing natural beauty and cultural diversity. So far we are most impressed with what we have seen.
We took a local bus from Otavalo to Tulcan, Ecuadorīs border town and lugged our baggage (we have 7 pieces thanks to the market purchases and were unable to post large packages from Ecuador) out of Ecuador and into Colombia. We didnīt get a tourist visa and we are sure we need one so we may have trouble getting back out of the country
maracuya for breakfast
. Money changers harassed us in a friendly way, there was no searches for drugs and weapons as expected and a giant anti-narcotraffiking billboard greeted us at the border. Never again with the baggage, itīs way too hard to keep an eye on it and taxis donīt want us. We were going to go to Popayan but decided to travel all the way to Bogota, the capital instead and make some travel time up. This travel involved taking a night bus, slightly riskier for safety but we considered that we would be travelling such long distances anyway and all buses would go into the night. Nadine spent the best part of an hour trying to get the tickets. We were forced to change some US Dollars into Colombian pesos at a bad exchange rate because there were no ATMs at the bus terminal. What a stitch up. There were six food stores at the bus terminal and as usual, nothing we would consider edible on sale. Being a semi-vegatarian is difficult here.Once on the road with Fronteras bus company we immediately fell in love with the mountains of Colombia and enjoyed the views from the bus. The bus meandered along roads perched high with huge cliff drop-offs next to us. The scenery was spectacular and the landscape very green and lush. As we expected, the military boarded the bus in the middle of the night, woke up all the men on board the bus and took them outside. Most of the soldiers were very young, all were heavily armed and waved their weapons in our faces as they paced up and down the bus aisles
money for jesus shrine at the servo
. One guy stayed on board, asked the women questions, shone a flashlight around the back and searched some bags. We were mostly left alone and were only asked if we spoke Spanish, to which we replied that we didnīt and the conversation was ended. Nice one. The men were searched then let back on the bus. There was one lady with a green and red parrot stashed in her handbag, it looked fairly doped out and she stuffed itīs head further into the bag as the bus was searched. The womanīs husband was fidgeting, wearing tracksuit pants inside out with two odd shoes and carrying a rather feminine handbag. If anyone was narco-traffiking, it was these two suspects. We woke in the morning surrounded by mountains and enjoyed the views all the way to Bogota. We saw snippets of Colombian life. We saw cocaine baronīs mansions, trees dripping with grandfathers beard fronds, maize fields, snowy white geese, nurseries, stores that sold rocking chairs, wicker chairs, little wooden bird houses, wine, chicha (local sugarcane brew) and bamboo furniture, fields of lillies, a dome shaped temple with a mandala and sun painted on the sides, curanderos (shamanīs houses), sand bagged bunkers with military guys inside, old army helicopters and planes, shrines, little restaurants with gaucho style meats racks and many other signs of daily life in the mountains.
We checked in to The Platypus Hostel in Bogota and did the mission to the post office to mail our market goods to Australia. The process was going to a grocery store to buy a cardboard box, buying a roll of brown paper and tape from a stationary store, wrapping the box and taping up all the writing on the grocery box, addressing them, getting two photocopies of our passport, filling in five forms, signing others and giving fingerprints then getting chatted up by the armed security guard at the front door. Hopefully the parcels arrive, these ones are special and will be well worth the effort if they make it home. One is the painting and the other contains the mask with the horns. The mask may seem a little dubious to Australian customs. Tomorrow we explore the city.
