a weekend in Medellin

Ok so I guess I left off in Bogota........ nice city, friendly people, cool little neighbourhood, but not one of my favourites by any means. Could have been Sarah Klapak's influence, but apparently bad weather severely affects my impression of a place haha.

Anyhow, I checked out on Thursday morning, and it was raining pretty much nonstop so most of the day we spent inside the hostel playing cards, one of my least favourite things, but a veritable travel necessity. Suddenly though, this really bizarre American guy bursts in and announces that he has inside information as to where President Uribe is speaking that afternoon, and could someone with a camera go with him to take pictures?? A few of us jump up and he leads us on this ridiculous winding manhunt around the streets of Bogota, asking directions from all the extra security posted on streetcorners, until finally we get to the university where the conference thing is. We are nearly in, past security, until they realize that we don't have student cards or invitations or anything. So then he starts spinning this tale about how he's a professor from the states, and we're all his journalism students, doing a project on latin american politics, and could we please get in?.... they send us around to another door, and after a lot of negotiations with the military etc., they decide that we can't get in, so instead we have to pose for our "almost saw uribe" picture out on the steps in the rain. Hilarious though, so not a total waste.

And then I went to the bus station to get on a night bus to Armenia, in the heart of the Zona Cafetera, the coffee plantation region of Colombia. I only wanted to store my bag there for the day, go to this national park they have set up for it, and then continue on to Medellin. Unfortunately I did not plan on having one of the wildest and most bizarre bus experiences of my life......

Started when I went to sit down and realized that someone had already taken my seat-- the rest of the bus was pretty much filled up by then save one empty one at the back. I was trying to say that it didn't matter to me, but right then the other straggler passenger gets on and starts questioning the bus driver, how his ticket says seat 21, but there is no seat 21.... apparently that means he was supposed to sit up by the driver in the captain's chair, but he puts up a fuss, saying he has sensitive eyes and the headlights are going to bother him, etc. I'm confused by all the commotion, so am still sort of hovering in the aisle, but eventually give up and just go to sit down.......apparently my hesitation made everyone on the bus think that we were together though, a crucial fact that will factor in later.......

So cramped and uncomfortable bus, blasting AC so much that I actually have my sleeping bag pulled up completely over my head. Didn't really fall asleep at all until around 2 or 3 am, when all of a sudden, the aforementioned crazy guy starts standing up and screaming at the driver that it has been 3 hours and it is a legal requirement to stop the bus for a break. The driver tried to reason that we were going to a station in 30 minutes to change busses, but the guy was inconsolable, flailing in the aisle, screaming at the top of his lungs, threatening the driver, until finally we just stop so that he can get off. By that point all of us are wide awake, so a few other people trickle off to get something to eat, but then after 10 minutes everyone is back on board, ready to get going again. except crazy guy. An hour goes by and he is still nowhere to be found. Everyone else starts getting more than antsy, saying we should just leave him behind, arguing with the driver who claims he would get fired if he leaves a passenger behind. It starts getting more and more heated, expletives and wild gesticulations flying everywhere, and I thought there was going to be some sort of coup, with a stray passenger taking over the wheel and driving us away. But then, because of all the commotion, a military policeman gets on board and starts trying to calm everyone down. A group of people then try to get him to agree to arrest either the driver or the missing man, so we can all get on our way......... and then out of nowhere he just arrives, as though nothing happened, and all is forgiven. We pull away, no questions asked.

Get all the way to the outskirts of the zona cafetera, a mere 30 km from armenia, when suddenly we hit traffic. It's not clear why at first, but we are in stop and go traffic on the side of a hill/mountain for over 7 hours, during which time we move exactly 9.4 km.

Which means that my day in armenia is shot, it's raining at 3pm when we finally arrives, and I am in far from the best of moods, and so I give up on seeing the coffee park and get on another bus straight to Medellin, where I am now. It's a pretty cool place, much more relaxed than bogota, and a bit nicer weather, though still rainy. The hostel is nice, and in a really posh area, so the neighbourhood is beautiful. Probably sticking around till Tuesday, and then going to San gil for some adventure sporting (nothing too dangerous I promise mom haha)

Love you!!

xo