Blogs from Colombia, South America - page 265

Hi all, This was definately a week of rest and relaxation. After finishing our fist experience of doing laundry here in Bogota in Abuelita’s patio, we were ready to get out of the city down to ‘tierra caliente’ for some hot weather and sun. We arrived early Monday morning to the bus station ready to start our way down to Villeta. A small town about 2 hours away from Bogota where the climate is much warmer. We were the only 2 people on the bus when the trip started, but little did we know that the captain has an assistant who leans out the bus door and screams into the street the destination of where our bus is going. I guess he did that JUST in case he finds a random person that needs a ride. ... read more

The bus station in San Gil was dead when we arrived but we sussed out that buses passing through tout for business on the main road just below the park. We also found a bus company office opposite who go to Bucaramanga every half hour, so on the morning we came to leave we dragged our heels walking down the road and when nothing passed (it was a bit early for buses from Bogota to have got that far) went to the bus office. The 2 1/2 hour journey took us through the Chicamocha National Park and some cool high Andean/big mountain scenery. Despite having a population of over half a million Bucaramanaga bus station was almost as dead as San Gil´s, and we weren't sure how we were going to find a bus to the ... read more

As most of you already know, my desires to travel and experience other places and people are born out of those same desires held by my parents when they were my age. They too fell in love with and traveled extensively throughout Latin America (mostly Mexico, parts of Central America, and Colombia) in the 70´s...a much different time than now. They were in Mexico and Central America for over a year when they arrived in a beautiful colonial , carribean coastal city of Cartagena, Colombia. They fell in love with the city, its people, its culture, and its beauty. So they stayed and became voluntary Cartageneros. I and my sister were born here...hemos hecho en Cartagena. :) As a family we returned to the States in 1983...I was 3 years old. The move was supposed to ... read more

We caught a collectivo back to Tunja and had our strangest bus experience yet - we found a tout for San Gil buses who went and found his mate, who made a call and got in a cab with us and took us to meet the bus that was stopped on the outskirts of town. They must have really wanted our fare! The journey took 4 hours and we were a bit annoyed to get into San Gil as we'd both just fallen asleep to escape the death defying bus driving. The bus station was completely dead and our first thoughts were that it doesn't bode too well for when we need to leave, we might actually have to wait for a bus! With no map of the town (thanks LP & San Gil tourist website) ... read more

On leaving Ibague we got a cab to the bus terminal and discovered that our hotel was only up the road from it, so easily walkable - one of the disadvantages of not having a map of the place. We got straight onto a bus to Bogota that was about to leave and even got a discount too when we didn't buy a ticket immediately the driver's mate came up and quietly offered us a lower price. The 4 hour journey was pretty uneventful and we arrived in Bogota just after lunchtime. We got onto a bus to La Candeleria (the historic centre) and the driver made an attempt to kill Marie by driving off as she was getting off, but luckily she was more off than on and didn't really notice. We quickly found and ... read more