It's dark and cold when my alarm goes off, so early I'm disoriented. I drag myself out of bed, getting ready quickly, and by 4:30 all of us are waiting by the door, suitcases in hand, ready for the taxi to beep.
The city is quiet at this hour and there's barely any traffic. We get to the transport terminal quickly, it's not quite 5am. I buy 5 tickets to San Gil, leaving at 6am. The bus ride should take 6 hours.
6 am- waiting for our bus to leave and already burnt from Monday at the park.
Wed. 10:30 am
Our first sign that this trip might take a bit over 6 hours is when we end up in completely stopped traffic. Everyone is out of their cars milling around. We get off the bus to stretch and see what's going on. As far as we can see down the mountain, cars are stopped. There's road work below and they have one lane of the 2 lane road closed. Eventually, they stop traffic coming up the mountain and we race to get back on the bus as the traffic ahead of us starts moving. As Jen steps on the bus, we're already in motion before she even makes it back to her seat.
The stopped traffic went around the curve and down the hill
Wed. 12:00 pm
I'm drifting off to sleep when I hear a sudden startling bang. For a moment I'm startled thinking a shot was fired outside my house. Then I realize I'm on a bus and I look out the window in time to see something flying off across the road. We stop, pull over and pick up whatever the missing piece is. The driver and several helpful, or maybe just curious, passengers try to put it back together. Whatever they've done doesn't seem to be too successful since when we pull onto the road again there is a dangerous rattling sound and we're only traveling around 20 kilometers an hour. At this point we'll never get there, I think.
Our driver with the missing part
Wed. 1:00 pm
We rattle along for a few minutes until we pull to a stop again at the entrance to a little town, "Socorro", it's optimistically called, a word meaning help, aid, relief. We're stopped outside a mechanics, and pretty soon they're tinkering with the broken part and the wheels again. The bus becomes sweltering and we get off. We chat with the little girl who's sitting next to Rae Ann, "this is the best day of my life!" she tells me. "why?" I ask, thinking how I definitely wouldn't count it as the best day of my life. "I made American friends!" she answers, enthusiastically. I smile at her enthusiasm, glad that at least someone is enjoying the inconvenience.
The cathedral of Socorro in the distance
The bus driver wanders off, the mechanic disappears under the bus, and then reappears muttering something that doesn't sound hopeful. We're getting hotter by the minute, still in jeans and sneakers for the Bogotá cole, but it's HOT here. We walk across the street to a snack shop with the name written in English, "The Beer Store". We order cold sodas and sit on the pavement, wondering if we'll even make it to San Gil tonight.
Still waiting in Socorro
Wed. 2:30 pm
Finally, Ingrid has the brilliant idea to ask someone how far to San Gil. Turns out it's just a 1/2 hour away by bus. We flag down a taxi and, for $2.50, convince him to load the 5 of us and our suitcases in to take us to the bus terminal downtown. Once we're there we find a bus to San Gil and 5 minutes and $1.50 each later, we're headed off just as it begins to rain.
Wed. 4:00
After nearly 12 hours of traveling, and a bit of wandering through some (thankfully warm) drizzle, we finally arrive at our hostel. First order of business- changing into shorts and flip flops. We flop down on the beds, exhausted for a bit, as we plan our next move.
Wed. 6:00 pm
We head off downtown, looking for the plaza. It isn't difficult to find. I get a call on the way there from a tour guide they recommended at our hotel. She meets us in front of the cathedral to tell us our options. "How about rafting tomorrow at 9?" she asks, "they'll pick you up outside the hotel." It sounds good to us, so with plans to talk tomorrow about other adventures, we wander a bit more, looking for a good place to eat. We finally find what seems to be the most popular spot for female police officers in San Gil as there's a whole table of them when we sit down. The restaurant has seating in a courtyard with hammocks hung around the edges. We relax, enjoying the warmth after too many days in cold, rainy Bogotá. We can hear fireworks in the distance. Eventually our food comes and once we're done eating, we go back to the hotel, tired from a long day of travel. Exploring can wait until tomorrow.
2 comments:
Ok, Annie, I just read this today, but if I had really read it on the 4th when you wrote it, I'd be waiting a really long time for the next installment :)
I saw the pictures from the rest of the trip - what fun!
I didn't really write it on the 4th, just posted it to the 4th. ;)
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