The longest day of My life. II-Maicao to Santa Marta..or is it / Le jour le plus long de ma vie II- Maicao.Santa Marta ou bien

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(traduction francaise a venir plus tard, deja 3h que je suis enferme dans le cyber)

Maicao Bus station

I changed what I had left of $ US in Colombian Pesos. 17000 COP for US$ 10. I've got the impression I got ripped off but there is isn't a single cash point in the bus station, so once again I get a great bargain (yeah right), I´m getting good at this...
Then, surprise! All the bus companies are asking 20000COP for the bus journey to Santa Marta. I'm 3000 short ( thanks Venezuela and your unexpected tax to leave the country by bus!).
I think that's the opportunity to finally use my debit card for the 1st time since I've got here. So I start to look around for a company equiped with a credit card machin... After a while I found one. Only one problem, the bus doesn't leave before 2 hours and according to the Lonely planet (Edition 2006 !) Maicao is a "lawless city", nice... Nevermind i decide to do it, I've got no choice, not enough cash. That's when the (not very smiling) senorita behind the counter tells me that the price of the ticket paid by debit card is actually 29000COp! Wahoo!! That's almost a %50 increase just because I'm not paying by cash. No thank you!
So here I am again looking for a cheap fare to Santa Marta. A guy waves at me, it's 20000. I explain him that I only have 17000, that's fine he says. Great ,finally, if I had known before that itwas that easy to negotiaite bus fares in Colombia, I would have saved time.
The bus is leaving straight away, everything can only get better now.The bus is almost empty, hence the discount. It looks like I finally managed to get myself a good deal,it's about time. Santa marta is 250km ahead. 4 hours drive. The beach is getting closer.
The journey could have seemed long. Specially with the American action movie dubbed in spanished they played on the tv.
But the landscape around me was absolutely amazing. As we drive through the Magdalena departement, I´m absolutely speechless. Lush vegetation all around me, huge mountains,so green, so beautiful. Palm trees everywhere.
And then on my right, there she is. The sea, the Caribbeans. It is quite cloudy and the road is fairly far from the sea, i can't see if the water is as bright as I dreamt it. Visiting the Parque Tayrona (national park outside santa Marta) should be a highlight of my trip. Can't wait. All the check points on the road don't bother me anymore. I even find the colombian soliders with their scary looking automatic weapons, nice, polite and friendly.
Santa marta isn´t far anymore, if everything goes according to plan I should be in Tayrona's park by tonight. White sanded beaches, beautiful water and If i dare turning my back to beach, behind me, the Sierra Nevada, amazing moutains...
We're arriving to Santa Marta. I see signs, traffic jams, some of my fellow travellers start getting off the bus,can't be far now. I try to look around me, I need to locate the city center before we arrive since i need to withdraw money badley.... The bus keeps going toward the bus station, and going....
After about 30min I managed look back to read a sign, it´s for the people going the opposite way to us: it says, Santa Marta 26km!!!!! It looks like I managed to miss my bloody stop. How come, i thought SM was the last stop of this bus! I can't just get out of the bus now and hope that I will catch one going the other way, I don't have any cash on me, no cash point or town around me, I´m in deep trouble now. My only friend so far in this country, The LonelyPllanet guide book, tells me that the City of Baranquilla is next on this road. Hmm, Barranquilla, Barranquilla, well all I know is that it is Shakira's home city, but according to my guide book it is also a big industrial city not really tourist friendly or recommended. Brilliant. Things can't get worse. I just arrived in a new country, country which has one of the worst reputation on the continent, heading by night, to one of the least recommended cities of the caribbean colombian coast,I don't know anyone in this country, the battery of my mobile is flat ,I don´t have a "peso" on me ( I've always wanted to say that, sorry mate I don't have a peso on me) and I´ve got an increasing feeling that my british debit card isn't gonna work in this counntry ( I know I should have asked about that before I left!!!).
Instantly I got extremely stressed. No money, or friend in here, I´m feeling powerless. The reality of my situation just hit me.

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