Bogota, Buses, and Body Suits

We got a bonus day in Columbia. After going to a late church service at one of the largest Wesleyan churches in the world, we took a taxi all the way across the city only to find out that our bus had been canceled.

 

We definitely didn't mind spending another day in Columbia, but if we knew ahead of time that we were spending an extra night, we definitely would have left our stuff at the hostel, went to an early service, and enjoyed the city. As it was, we didn't find out about the cancellation until 6pm, so the day was pretty much shot.

 

The good news is that they had already given our room away in the hostel, so they gave us a really cool place with a private bath, private kitchen, hammock, loft, and cable tv. I couldn't have picked a better day to have cable because I got to watch both the Phillies and Eagles on tv. Most of the people down here are Yankees fans, or as they call them down here, the New Jork Jankees. Haha. The only downside was that the internet went out in the evening and never came back, so I couldn't post a blog.

 

So, we woke up at 5:15 am and took a taxi across the city, where the driver decided to rip us off on the price (we knew the cost because we had just taken a taxi the other way the day before).  I was pretty mad, but being in a foreign country I let it go.

 

Of course the bus was late in the morning, but we were all in a good mood. After 14 hours of delays and a lot of extra cost from taxi rides and an extra night in the hostel, we were on the bus. There was another inch or two of leg room compared to the Tica Bus, which made a huge difference.  I read a little and dozed a little and really enjoyed the Colombian countryside. To be honest, I thought it was the best bus ride we've had.  I had been reading about this route on other people's blogs and they acted like it was so miserable, but I loved it.

 

We had a few little issues along the way. Just as I had fallen asleep about 4 hours into the trip, the bus driver decided that the entire bus wanted to listen to mariachi music at about 110 decibels. It was ear drum piercing. I finally wound up putting my headphones on and wrapping my jacket around my head to block out the noise. Thank you Katy Perry, David Crowder, and Clark Howard  for saving me from the mariachi madness.

 

The local police decided to pull the bus over and search all of our bags. It actually wasn't bad at all. I felt like they were very respectful of our things. I'm surprised they didn't wear gloves for their own safety, but they were great. It's obvious that the police have done a lot to crack down on drugs. I'm pretty sure the only person to offer us cocaine was an American.

 

After being on the bus for 11 hours they stopped for dinner in the middle of nowhere. I think there's a rule where tour buses in both the US and around the world must stop at an overpriced restaurant where the bus driver eats free, we all pay far too much, and Diet Coke is not served.

 

The bus was pretty empty until we hit Cali, Columbia at about 11pm, where we picked up a ton more people. The chill atmosphere that we had worked so hard to cultivate (by showing episodes of How I Met Your Mother  on the laptop in the aisle) was totally gone.

 

We crossed into Ecuador at about 6am and spent about 2 hours doing immigration stuff at both sides of the border. It was another one of those places where you walk from one country to another and the bus picks you up on the other side.  We had no problems at all. In fact, it was the first time I've gone into a country other than the Mexico border zone without having to fill out immigration papers.

 

After about an hour (9am) we stopped at a restaurant for breakfast. We all ordered the simplest thing on the menu...carne asada and baked potatoes and the weirdest looking beans I've ever seen. The four of us ate for $18, which was great. Other than the beans and it being a little salty (and no Diet Coke :) the food was wonderful. I've had a lot of warnings that I'm not going to like Ecuadorian food, but so far so good.

 

We are at the 25 hour and 31 minute mark of the trip and so far so good.

 

If you've stuck with my blog this long, you've earned some more random info.

 

For those that sent me comments and emails about "only" having 9 stamps on my passport, I have been to 17 countries where they didn't stamp it and to Mexico over 100x where they didn't stamp it, and contrary to what Texans say, when I went to Texas to visit Keri, they didn't even ASK to see my passport. And I have 10 stamps, by the way.

 

The malls and stores in Columbia (and to a lesser extent in Central America) all feel it's necessary to put girls in their brand name outfits throughout the stores. So if you go into the toilet paper aisle, you'll be met with a girl in a fairy costume telling you why her tp is best. Gillett razors had girls in skin tight outfits shaving guys. We pried Jordan away before he paid his $2.

 

You can tell that you're not in America because they really get ticked if you want to make a substitution on your meal. I'm sorry that I don't want lulu juice, but I should be able to buy a different drink. One of the other weird things is that 2 people can order the same food and get different things. When Cory and I ordered ribs, he got baby back and I got normal pork ribs. Jordan and Elias both got arepas and Jordan's were cooked and Elias' were raw --and the waitress did her best to assure us that it was supposed to be that way.

 

We are getting dangerously low on How I Met Your Mother episodes. We're into season 5. That is terr (wait for it) ible.

 

Elias has been really bold with asking for pics. He decided that he wanted a pic with some Columbian soldiers. Always having our amigo's back, the 3 Americanos walked in the other direction. So, after asking for a photo, the military made him get out his passport. Haha. Oh Elias. After checking his ID, they posed for pics with all of us. I guess all our pretending that we didn't know him didn't work.

 

I made sure to tell the pastor of the Wesleyan church in Bogota that Philip who works at Disney said hi. It was a great church. I'd love to go back.

 

I'll end with showers.  The shower heads in Central and South America (if they have hot water) usually have the heater built right into the shower head. I thought this was brilliant until I actually used one. They almost never have hot water with any pressure. You either get a dribble of warm water or a spray of cold water.  Plus, as you'll see in the pic, they look kind of dangerous.