Cali cartel and the bargaining gringos of Buga

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Trip Start Jul 06, 2005 Previous
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  Armenia, Colombia
Thursday, September 1, 2005

WOW. No really, WOW. Colombia is a truly amazing place - the people and culture, the physical beauty of the country and the near total lack of other tourists are sure to spoil me for future travels in the years to come. BUT, back to th beginning I suppose before I get to far in...

Getting Here

Without a bed anymore at the hostel (new volunteers needed a place to sleep I suppose) they kindly let us camp out in the office, desperately trying to figure out how to replace all the music we (I and Mathias) had accidentally wiped from Mark´s iPod - oh come on, whats 5000 songs to a music nut? We did sort this out without any bloodshed, and come 3 am we were headed for the Colombian border with only the very vaguest of plans.

As daylight encroached we found the way blocked by a bus across the roadway, only after going around could we see this was due to a massive head on collision, one bus sent careening into a grove of trees and virtually destroyed, the other into a brickwall/gate with the wall seemingly taking the worst of it. Right; how much longer is this ride? A fairly uneventful trip further to the border and before we could think too hard about how dreaded this was supposed to be we were across - exit stamp, entry stamp, be on your way

01 - The Basilica in Quito

. It´s harder to cross into the freaking US these days! Anyway, still a LONG way to go to try to beat darkness, crossing occasionally guerrilla contested territory, and find somewhere to sleep. Maybe the scoreboard style fatality statistics in the first Colombian bus station (seen above) should have tipped us off that all was not destined to go smoothly.

Essential the six hour journey turned into eight, we ended up doing the last two (read most dodgy) hours in the dark, some chica was sick and her little sick-baggy exploded nicely beside and under my backpack sometime during the journey and we were involved in a never ending game of "stop reclining your seat and crushing my legs" with the couple in front of us - oh, and we got off on the far, far edge if town because no-one told us they don´t actually stop there. Migth say it was a VERY pleasant surprise when Popayan, first port of call, turned out to be a very comfortable feeling, nice little town.

Colombia

Popayan is a beautiful whitewashed colonial town, not a whole heck of a lot to do but certainly pretty to look at. Ended up dividing our time between wandering, sitting in the internet cafe (something about a hairbrained scheme to fly to Toronto for an FAC interview, boot around the east coast for a bit, then continue the South America sojourn), and a REALLY cool little cafe where we overdosed on caffiene and I, in this state, decided that I wasn´t interrupting this incredible journey for a 30 in 400 shot at a job I may or may not want

03 - Bus Accident Scoreboard

. Next stop, Cali...

Cali is a pretty cool city - you know, now that they´ve settled that whole Cali drug cartel business. They lay claim to being the salsa capital of South America and the home to the most beautiful women in Colombia, which apparently by definition also means all of South America. I have found NO reason to doubt either claim. Although not exactly set up for much tourism the people are friendly, the city is just alive with energy and the nightlife is rockin´. First night out was a bit of a bust, dozens of bars but mostly empty on a friday (some big party out of town), but saturday was NUTS. Found some little house bar thanks to some crazies staying at our hostel (the only other two people) and partied until the wee, wee hours. Only there for the two nights and then took off on a whim for a little town called San Cipriano - this became an experience we´ll certainly never forget.

San Cipriano is a town of about 400, no road access whatsoever. You get dropped off on the side of a road in the middle of NOWHERE, with a suspension bridge leading across the river beside the road and there´s just these local kids who immediately start pressing on prices to get you to San Cipriano. You see, on the other side of this crazy bridge are railway tracks, but no train - the only original way to access the town. Now, someone very ingenious figured out how to piece together a little 2-3 person sized wooden platform, fit it to the tracks, and these kids propel you down the tracks with just a wooden pole and their shoe for a brake

05 - Crazy cart into the jungle

. You just push off straight into the deep Colombian jungle, following a picturesque river along the old railway - hitting seriously 60-70 km/hr on the downhills with nothing between you and flying into the jungle but, well nothing really, just the damn little wooden cart and the kid with the stick! WAY TOO MUCH FUN.

7 KM from the nearest road, we pull into San Cipriano - essentially a little shanty town - mind you a very welcoming one - that feels way, way removed from the outside world. Did I mention this territory is occasionally contested by guerrillas? Anyway, once there we just tried to soak up the atmosphere, went for a bit of a hike into the jungle on a trail out of town and a swim in the river, and then headed out of town the next day. The way out was a little different; same wooden platform, but now pushed along by a motorbike strapped on with the drive wheel on the track - full tilt all the way on this potential rail riding disaster we were back off through the jungle to...civilization? Well, a dirt road anyway, and a waiting van for a long ride to the nearest bus station. Hard to do it justice but really an unforgettable little place - for those that have read "One Hundred years of Solitude", I imagine the little town felt/looked something like this in the beginning.

Coffee Country

Nearest bus station was in the decidedly dodgy Pacific port town of Buenaventura, where even the bus station employees told us, paraphrasing here a bit, GET OUT NOW

06 - Floating in the jungle

. So we did, setting out for the next stop, Armenia, our current location, but apparently via Buga. Buga? Umm, ok, and we´re off. The next leg lets us see the major military presence in the area with soldiers posted regularly for a solid two hour stretch until we climbed back out of the jungle and into the highlands again a few hours later. Cleverly, we show up in Buga with just enough money for...well, nothing really, and have to make a 6 block dash in the fading daylight and try to find a bank that will actually dispense some freaking cash. With said fading light and previously heartfelt warnings recieved about the dangers of both Buga and Armenia bus stations at night, we decided to crash in Buga for the evening. Somehow, in the first hotel we try, we manage to not only score a room with private bath and cable (ENGLISH CABLE!), but by standing there looking stupid the chica at the desk manages to bargain herself down to a nearly half price rate - nice!

Next morning, with a daylight view of surpisingly pleasant looking Buga, we set out for coffee country proper, arriving in...surprisingly unpleasant looking Armenia. Oh well, the people are still really nice, and the surrounding countryside is unbelievably gorgeous. We´re staying in a nice enough cheap hotel, of course we were a little more enthused when we found the terrace - a concrete deck overlooking a nearby park, but complete with blacklight and spinning lighted discoball! Where the hell are we? Seemed a little much seeing as we´re the only people staying here, but cried out for us to have a drink so we did, disco ball sadly turning in the background

Disco baby, disco

. Today, we were off to the Parque del Cafe, a fairly surreal combination between an amusement park, a museum and stunningly laid out park/garden (complete with bamboo bat cave that you are NOT apparently supposed to wander into), all overlooking the entire valley of coffee, papaya and banana farms, the city itself far in the distance, and a long row of mountains as a backdrop along the entire horizon. Not bad, as we sip our Colombian coffee on the terrace, catch up in our journals and soak up some sun, not bad at all I suppose. Walked the 5 K back to town just to see the countryside, and spent the night wandering the town sampling as many street vendor snacks as we could handle.

Off to Medellin tomorrow - somehow feel I´m not doing this country justice here but trust me, it´s amazing, its as safe as anywhere else down here, and for the most part you feel like you have it all to yourself as a traveller. Peace and love from the road,

Shawn_in_Colombia

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Incoming! Clear the tracks!	Journals and Coffee in Popayan	Sweet, sweet ride out of San Cipriano	Take me home daddy
Warning in the Hostel room

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