The Muddy-Pants Diaries

15 September 2005 (Thursday) – Bogotá to Popayan, Colombia

Yesterday when I bought the bus ticket to Popayan, the lady at the ticket office had told me that for the bus leaving at 12:30pm, we would arrive at 1pm. Huh??? More than 24 hours??, I asked her incredulously, a few times. And each time, she confirmed it. Wow, Colombia is big, but NOT that big, I was sure. But since she had repeatedly confirmed it, I guess it was best that I bought the ticket for the earliest bus.

But this morning, we had a huge debate at Herman’s house. Everyone disagreed with the journey time. They said it should take about 16 hours. Perhaps, it was 1am, but the lady told me 1pm… If so, I would really prefer to have my ticket changed as I do not fancy arriving in a town at 1am!! Hello, please rob me! Herman calculated the time for me. He concluded that it would arrive at around 5am, so I could just hang out at a cafe for 2 hours or so and then, head to town. Alright, so perhaps there was no need to change the ticket.

Gosh, it was so hard to say goodbye to Herman and his family. When I said ‘goodbye’ to his abuelita, she hugged me tightly and gave me a big kiss, telling me, “Como te quiero… como te quiero…” (How I love you… how I love you…). I had tears welling up in my eyes. Felipe, sweet good-natured Felipe, who had been wonderful company and so terribly helpful that day showing me around… Herman’s mother who was constantly so worried for my safety, a generous woman with a heart of gold… And Herman, as well, who had been great by giving up his room for me to sleep in, who had been funny, interesting, intelligent, and who did not kill me with his motorbike…

As I was getting into the bus for Popayan, I asked the guys from the bus company what time we would arrive. One said 14 hours, one said 12 hours. Argh!! What a mistake that woman made at the ticket office! So, I would be arriving between 1am to 3am. How was I supposed to wake up in time to get off? Well, deed was done. So, I decided to appreciate the view on the ride to Popayan instead.

We passed through many fincas that cultivated lovely flowers. Yes, I had heard that Colombia exported flowers around the world. Lovely views of the gardens and flower plantations. Later, there were more lovely views of the mountains and valleys as we hugged the sides of the mountains and headed up and down.

The police came onboard at one point and announced that all of us ought to get off and surrender our identity cards. One of the police radioed back, giving the names on each of the identity cards. I guess this was to check for known felons or guerillas or whatever. I waved my passport at the police, but they were not interested, they just gestured that I could return to the bus.

At around 8pm, the bus stopped, switching off its engine totally. There seemed a long queue in front of us. The guy sitting next to me got off the bus to investigate. He later returned and announced there had been an accident. So, we could be here waiting for a while. An accident. Gosh, the curvy roads in the mountains are actually well-paved, but still dangerous because it is heavily used by huge, gigantic trucks transporting a lot of cargoes, and travelling very slowly. So, cars always want to overtake these trucks. Even trucks and huge buses want to overtake one another all the time. One blind sharp bend, and you could have a headlong collision easily.

Some police activities arrived finally to manage the situation. And after about 2 hours, those on the down-going lane – that was us – moved off first. The up-going lane had to wait for all of us to be cleared first. From the top, at times, we could see the snaky queue of carlights down to the bottom of the mountains.

I dozed off and woke up at 1am, when we arrived in Cali. The guy next to me who was also going to Popayan, told me Popayan would be in 2 hours’ time. Back to sleep, as I felt assured that he would wake me up.

14 September 2005 (Wednesday) – Bogotá, Colombia

I asked Herman about the photograph I saw at the Museo Nacional over breakfast this morning. He was surprised, and no, it was not his photo, but most likely, it belonged to his father who is a professional photographer. Ah… yes, here, they like to give the name of the father to one of their sons. OK, otherwise, I could say that I know someone ‘famous’. Hmmm… if the footage of me did get aired on national TV next week, Herman would be able to say that HE knows someone ‘famous’, ahem…

I did some planning for the next part of my trip and figured I should leave Bogotá tomorrow. As the bus terminal was on the way to where Herman was heading, he would give me a lift there to buy a ticket. I went from being on a motorbike nearly the first time last Saturday, to expertly hopping on the motorbike by today. Well, hopping on is one thing…

As he sped through the city, he even tried to tell me which was this avenue, and which was that. I told him it did not make any difference what avenues they were if my eyes were closed!! Gosh!

He gave me some directions on how to take a local bus back to the centre later. I had to look out for ‘Centro’, ‘Germania’, or last choice ‘Cra 7’. However, he also warned me certain avenues and streets are dangerous so I have to be careful, put on my kungfu face and walk to the busier streets. Later, I hopped on a bus with a sign for ‘Germania’. As it travelled through the city, I had absolutely no idea where it was heading. I was not really worried as the streets are all numbered here like Calle 5, 6, 7, etc… and Carrera 7, 8, 9, etc… I should be able to navigate from anywhere. True enough, when the bus passed Cra 7 which I had walked along yesterday, I recognized it and jumped off the bus at once.

I visited the Museo del Oro, which had a very good exhibition of the gold and potteries used by the pre-columbiano cultures. How fine and intricate the gold works were!!! The works done then to the gold pieces were using methodologies known to modern goldsmiths as well. Amazing. It was a very interesting little museum, best experienced after Museo Nacional.

Later, I was also lucky enough to catch the funeral parade of their ex-President Turbay, who died yesterday. The funeral parade slowly drove down Carrera 7 from Plaza de Bolivar and the crowd looked on solemnly.

 

By evening, I headed to the north of the city to collect my photos which I had sent for development 2 days ago, and I was to wait for Herman somewhere there as we were going out tonight. Here, he told me, it was safe for me to walk around in the night. Finally!!!

When we met up at close to 8pm, I told him to give his mother a call, just in case they were worried sick that I still had not appeared at home yet. Indeed, they had been thorougly worried, both his mother and his abuelita. They were reassuring each other that I should be OK, claiming that I am an intelligent girl and should be able to navigate around the city. Oh, my lovely dears!!! How I adore them!!!

And this time, I bought gloves from some street vendor to protect my hands while on the motorbike! We stopped by a little shop that sells empanadas. OK, empanadas are probably found all over South America, but the best thing about this place is the number of sauces available for one to try with each mouthful, like twenty!… some were really very spicy!

Anyway, we met up with Jaime and another friend, Katharine, and had a great time in a little cafe, looking through Herman’s photos and chatting about all the gross food the Chinese are known to eat. Another wonder I had to introduce is arequipe which is dulce de leche, as I had called it in Argentina and Chile. I just love this, I had tried it when Lina bought us ice-creams from Crepes & Waffles. Now, I just had to order the crepe of arequipe again. Yes, I do care about becoming yet another Botero’s fat people, but, oh well…

Anyway, Herman had just returned from Peru not so long ago and had done ice-trekking near the Huaraz region for more than 2 weeks. He and his friends climbed up to over 5000m and 6000m peaks, with NO ropes, using just ice-picks to yank themselves up the ice-cliffs!! I was absolutely stunned, thoroughly speechless by his hair-raising expeditions! He is an adrenalin junkie!! And then I remembered my sorry life is in his hands later tonight, as I still have to make it home on his motorbike!

But, gosh… the experiences he had had were indescribable… thoroughly memorable… to yank yourself up ice-cliffs for 9 damn hours, without any damn ropes… to be up there at the summit, half-dead but all alone, and gazing with awe at all the magnificent majestic mountains around you… to be so high as to see the Pacific Ocean across the Andes… to soak in all the amazing colours cast by the sun on the snow and ice… and to know how bloody insignificant we all are.

Wow!!! Never in my entire life, could I do such things. But having met him, at least, I got a chance to see some of the views through his photos and learn something about this type of treks. Again, it is thanks to Hospitality Club that I could get in touch with such an interesting person like him.

Oh gosh, on the way back home… it was past midnight, the streets were quite empty… and so, naturally, Herman sped through the city like a possessed man, disregarding my screams. My eyes were closed nearly the entire ride. By the time we reached home, my legs were shaking, I could hardly move and I had tears running down my cheeks. I did not know if I ought to kill him for nearly killing me or thank him for NOT killing me. Sheesh…

13 September 2005 (Tuesday) - Bogotá, Colombia Today would be my first day let loose in Bogotá by myself. Herman himself kept saying to me, "Gosh, Trisha... you are in the most violent city of the most violent country! You will ... [Continue reading this entry]

12 September 2005 (Monday) - Bogotá, Colombia Felipe, Herman's brother, offered to show me around today. Great! As Herman's family lives quite a distance from the centre, I had to learn how to take the bus to the centre and back. Bogotá ... [Continue reading this entry]

11 September 2005 (Sunday) - Bogotá, Colombia Lina had suggested yesterday that we head to Zipaquira, a town about 1 hour away, where there is a Catedral de Sal (Salt Cathedral). Sounds interesting! I had been to the salt mines ... [Continue reading this entry]

10 September 2005 (Saturday) - Bogotá, Colombia Although I had replied to Lina, my Hospitality Club host from Bogotá, on the date and estimated time of arrival, I still caught her by surprise when I called her from the ... [Continue reading this entry]