Still Monkey-ing Around in South America (Part II)

QUITO - COLOMBIA AND OUR BRIEF ENCOUNTER WITH THE FARC!

Rebekah and I decided to head to Colombia first thing on Monday morning...so after waking up bright and early and messing about, wasting time for most of the morning, we eventually made a move!

Head over to Terminal Terrestre (the main bus station) and caught a local bus to Tulcan (an Ecuadorian town on the border) After a delightful 6 hours of travelling in the hot, crowded, noisy and fairly dirty bus we arrived!!! Oh but wait, we still had to get a taxi to the border, walk the bridge, a bus to Ipiales, a town on the Colombian side and from there catch another bus to the town of Pasto which is where we wanted to stay the night. (and according to the Lonely Planet, is the first safe Colombian town to stay in?!) All good, BUUUUUT...due to our extraordinarily high levels of time wasting earlier in the day, it meant that the clock was ticking, nightfall was on its way and with stern warnings not to travel the roads by night due to general FARC activity...the question was, whether or not we would make it to Pasto in time or not.....dah dah dah daaaaah!!!

Ok....taxi to the border was fine, (time check: 6.31pm) got ourselves into the Ecuadorian Immigration office and joined the queue. [Aside: Ordinarily I am a fan of the queue...I think it is something that has been ingrained in me as a British Citizen, c´mon guys, admit that you do like a good queue. However, my one condition would be that the queues operate in a logical, orderly and fair manner...reasonable request?! Well, after 5 and a half months out here, you think I would have learnt....I still hold out hope each time I join one, am let down badly every single time, would save myself a fair amount of heartache and my stress levels would be significantly lowered! (Pops, you have NO idea what stress is until you start queuing in South America!)Alternatively in my time out here, I could have used my time more productively and worked on my how-to-queue-jump-without-looking-like-you-are-queue-jumping strategy... It works like this: 1) You enter an ultra busy place and locate the counter, desk, checkout, window etc with the longest queue. 2) You amble (note: amble...because usually your business as a queue jumper is NO more important than anyone else´s in the room) up to the front of the queue, barge directly pass the person who is already being seen to, and finally 3) commence to sort out your own stuff! Works like a dream everytime!]

Sorry about that...so...Beks and I are stood in the queue, being jumped by practically everybody, we eventually get seen to (time check: 6.57pm), the guy stamps my passport in a horrid place [Aside 2: I think my stress levels are alot higher when stood waiting to get my passport stamped...will he, wont he....yes he will stamp it in a horrid place....the whole "I still hold out hope each time am in the line, am let down badly every single time, would save myself a fair amount of heartache and my stress levels would be significantly lowered!" jangle applies in this circumstance too!] So...im pretty done with Ecuador by this point...we are stamped and ready to go....we walk over the bridge of Rumicacha (time check: 7.07pm) into the Colombian DAS (immigration) and join the...wait for it...queue! Surprisingly no one hops in front of us (i like Colombia already) and when the guy goes to stamp my passport I gently suggest a suitable location for the stamp, which he takes quite well and obliges (Colombia Rocks!!). We change a bit of money at a rubbish rate and look into finding transport to Ipiales.

Get ourselves squished onto a colectivo (small public mini bus) and away we go...it is already dark by this point...oh no, does that mean we cant travel on further, but technically its not nighttime, its really only late evening, does the FARC know that, would they consider it nighttime as soon as it gets dark, or do we have a couple of hours travelling time left....lets find out what the other passengers think. I strike up conversation with the guys next to me...he is more interested in telling me that the England shirt he is wearing is an original (that´s nice, thank you, i am truly happy for you, but there is this small matter of the FARC...do they class 7pm to be evening or night? Oh, Steven Gerrard..yes, thats so interesting...yes, he does play for Liverpool, uh huh...true, true...what fun?!?! HEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOO!! I dont even LIKE football that much...but I think I like the Guerrillas less, so perhaps some info?) How is Rebekah doing in the search for information...she has struck up conversation with a nice, friendly looking old guy, surely he wants to let us know whether or not it will be safe to travel at this time? Ummmmmmm no. He just wants to let Beks know that she can stay at his place in Ipiales if she wants to! Thanks, but I think I would rather go and stand in that queue!

We get to Ipiales and the general consensus is that it would be fine to travel the 2 hours further to Pasto...woowoohoo!! Get ourselves sorted with yet more transportation and away we go. Am squished between Beks (who is sat next the the window, so gets to take a cheeky snooze) and a guy who just luuurves to sing along to the radio. Was highly amusing at first, Beks and I looking at each other, trying not to crack up...but then it starts to get tedious, she goes to sleep and I am left to have him sing in my ear...for the rest of the journey along the windy, nausea-inducing mountain road...I love Colombia!

Get dropped off at the terminal in Pasto a couple of hours later, catch a cab and settle ourselves into our hostal. Oh but before we turn in for the night, we head out to find some dinner. Only thing open is a bakery, purchase a loaf of bread, (despite us both being able to speak Spanish, it is surprisingly hardgoing trying to convince the ladies that we DONT want cheesy bread!) borrow a knife back at the hostal and lather on the peanut butter which I have been carrying around with me....mmm mmm!! Night!

Oh and in case you where wondering about our FARC encounter....we managed to avoid one...this time!

posted by Priya @ 1:40 PM