MANIZALES AND OUR FRIGHTENING ENCOUNTER WITH A CAR CRASH, CADAVER AND THE REALISATION THAT THE BUS DRIVERS TRULY FEEL NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR PASSENGERS!
The bus journey to Manizales was fairly uneventful...as usual I sat there listening to my iPod, trying to convince myself that I was asleep, when in fact I was going out of my mind with the boredom of staring at the inside of my eyelids and listening to little kids scream! We were caught in some pretty horrendous, slow moving traffic which only served to prolong our agony. The root of the problem soon became clear when we witnessed the remnants of a horrific crash between two huge trucks, which had spread across the road! As we gawped out the window, people around us began to question whether "hay muertos" (are there any deaths?!) Their question was soon answered when a body laying on the grass slowly came into view....it was laid out with one if not both of its arms missing...a tough reality to swallow! As people crossed themselves and our bus pulled into the clear part of the road, I soon remembered how dangerous the bus journeys that I have since become immune to, really are!
I realised that the reason for such a high number of bus crashes in South America would be because the bus drivers dont feel a shred of responsibility for their passengers. Our bus driver obviously had nothing on his mind bar speeding up in order to make up for the lost time due to the traffic we had hit earlier. As the speedometer hit about 130 kmph, or perhaps that should be 1300 kmph, I started to worry that perhaps this guy was on a suicide mission! There were an unusually large number of kids on our bus, but this seemed to make no difference to our madman, whose conscience must have been crystal, as he continually pummeled the accelerator!
I think this was the first bus journey where the speed made me feel uneasy, I guess it must have been the visual I had just seen and had firmly stuck in my mind, that brought me back to the reality of what possibly lay ahead!
Anyway fears aside and full faith in the driver, we soon (I should bloody well think so with those speeds!) arrived at Manizales....safe, sound and in one piece (apart from my nerves which were obviously shot!)
Manizales was a pretty town, the weather was a bit miserable but we walked around the city, took photos of everything and anything and spent the next couple of days relaxing. So much so, that we booked ourselves in for pedicures. I was thoroughly embarassed when I had to take of my mucky flip flops and unveil my street urchin-like feet! I think next time round I will give myself a couple of pedicures before heading for a professional job!! The lady seemed fairly disturbed by the prospect of it all!
And here endeth another delightful tale!
Mum, dad, grandma, grandad, Vijay, extended family, friends, foes, one and all....I hope I havent alarmed y´all....in fact the bus situation is ok, because in the bus terminals they have massive boards with stats of accidents, injuries and deaths occurring for each company. We regularly check them and choose the safer companies!!! Problem solved!
posted by Priya @ 4:24 PM
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