ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE LAW IN COLOMBIA


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South America » Colombia » Cali
October 14th 2007
Published: November 7th 2007
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On the way back.....a group of young boys riding with us getting lessons from the older driver on how to operate the trolley
After a relaxing few days around the Popayan area it was time to get on yet another bus and head north again to the city of Cali.....home of famously good looking women, salsa and apparantly the city is the world leader in plastic surgery. Luckily this trip was only a few hours on a paved road as my patience and enjoyment level of taking a bus ride is diminishing as the days go by. Cali itself I found was nothing to rave about and by the time I got there I was pretty much over concrete and buildings that you find in the big cities and really didn't find it very interesting. We planned to stay a few days and check a couple of things outside of Cali....as a result I really didn't see the main part of the city other than from a distance, but it was enough. One of our missions was to replace some items that we had had stolen whilst in San Agustin, nothing serious just a head torch and some caribbean clips for Sharyn's hammock. After asking about camping stores or where we might be able to buy these the lady at the hostel told us
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Sharyn with the family that took the moped propelled trolley with us
of a shop just nearby. Passing this shop later that night we decided that she obviously didn't know what she was talking about and that Colombian's have a different idea of what a camping store is and that she really didn't get what we wanted to buy. So because of that we searched for other options in Cali to get what we needed, even though neither item was extremely important. Sharyn found a store called Super Camping Store or something similar, that created images in our minds of endless camping equipment and lots of choice, mean while knowing damned well that it was not going to be like any store at home. We decided to walk to the shop even though it was miles away but we thought that we could do with the exercise. Once we started walking we realised that we could be walking into a dodgy part of town, all good for the moment as there was lots of interesting shops to look at and lots of activity going on. Our thoughts were confirmed when one of the locals approached us and asked what we were doing there and warned us to be careful. Finally after a
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The trolleys are powered by a moped and run along train tracks
couple of hours of walking, many concrete blocks and trying to work out the numbering on the houses we were approaching the Super Camping Store. I was in front and as I got closer I could see a couple of tents and other bits of camping equipment out the front which was a positive thing. As I arrived at the store I realised that all thoughts of any form of camping store that I had had been fruitless.......all that the shop was was the tents out the front, a counter, a few compassĀ“, swiss army knives and the owner with his sewing machine at the back of the shop doing repairs. Highly disappointing after many hours walking through the back streets of the town to no avail. That was our first thoughts as we started talking to the owner of the shop. I went off to use the toilet and could hear Sharyn talking to the owner along with lots of laughter. Once I joined them again Sharyn filled me in on what had been happening.....in a nutshell the owner was a very comical man and had made our long walk worth it. Another plus was that we actually got
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Having to remove our trolley from the tracks as we meet another one coming the other way
to see a different side of the city and I actually preferred this as I have seen many cities that are similar to Cali in the centre and walked away with only a few blisters from wearing thongs.

Our other mission whilst in Cali was to go spend the day in a small village called San Cipriano, a couple of hours outside of Cali. We started the day by catching a bus from the road side and I think we ended up with craziest driver in Columbia. Driving like a maniac, taking corners at high speeds and making most the people on the bus sick were just some of his skills. We drove out throught he hills which again were amazingly beautiful and these hills were full of great big houses with amazing views. There is a lot more money in Colombia than other countries and this area seemed to be full of wealthy people. All was going well until we were pulled over for a routine check by the police. At this moment Sharyn and I realised the mistake we had made, we had left our passports at the hostel in the safe, one thing that whilst in
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A house that we passed on the way.....positioned right on the edge of the tracks
Colombia is not a wise thing to do. As we got off the bus we tried to look inconspicuous, a hard thing to do when you are white and taller than everyone else, and stayed at the back of the group as the police checked everyone's idenity cards and the bus. To our suprise we hadn't been asked when they told everyone to get back on the bus and go......at this point we tried to get on as quick as possible before they realised they'd missed us. Sharyn did well to get amongst the group but I was way too slow and got pushed out the back of group when I was approached by one of the police men. At this point I knew we were busted and it didn't matter what I or Sharyn said from that point because we didn't have any ID....in Colombia you don't leave home here without your identification. So for the next four hours we were kept by the police and to start with were not really sure what was happening. At the check point there was phone calls being made while they seemed to look at us as if to say 'stupid gringosĀ“
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The town of San Cipriano
not bringing identification. At the checkpoint we were not allowed to go to the toilet by ourselves and had to be escorted. We sat there for a good hour while they all talked amongst themselves as to what they would do with us and how they could get our passports to confirm that we had a valid visa. Sharyn and I weren't too worried at this point as they all seemed to be very friendly and not angry, our main concern was that we thought that we might be bribed and that it some how might affect us re-entering the country again. As we sat there all the locals that were working in the stalls were watching and wondering what was happening with the gringos and why the police were detaining them. We managed to make friends with a guy who looked like he could be the local drug dealer.....he came over and asked what was happening, reassured us that everything would be ok, had a chat and then brought us both a drink while we waited. During this he also brought his friend over who could speak a little bit of English, his friend looked like some kind of
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The river that runs through the town
gangster in a black mesh shirt and chains along with a belly.....nice look we were thinking. What amazed us was the that the cops did nothing to get these two away from us....the dodgest looking people in the whole town and they just let them come right over and have a chat but they wouldn't let us go to the toilet alone. Finally some more police arrived in a vehicle and came to speak to us, the short of the story is that we had to go with them to the headquarters and check that we had a valid visa. Off we went in the back of the ute sitting in the tray that has a few bench seats......we were split up and had a couple of police sitting next to us. Still we were not too worried as everything seemed to be going legitimately but there was always that thought in the back of the head that we were in South America and anything can happen here. As it turned out it was all good.....we spent another few hours at the headquarters and after they took all our details they tried to work out how they would get our
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Attempting to take a self timer photo, but not giving myself enough time to walk over the many rocks to get to Sharyn....hence the non glamourous photo as I fell
passports. Firstly they told us that they would ring our hostal in Cali and send police around there to verify our visa, all we could imagine was Betty, the lady that worked there, answering the door to find armed police men asking for our passports. While all this went on we spoke, well Sharyn did and I just tried to understand, to many of the police members who were very interested in the two white girls from Australia. They found it highly odd that at our age we were not married and were actually single and had no children.....they were quick to point out that all of them present were also single and that if we wanted husbands then they were happy to take on the role. They also reassured us that Colombian men were the best lovers so that we would be happy and there would be no reason to look anywhere else. So after all the cuffle and talking about how to get our passports it was finally decided that we would go back to Cali.......we thought that we had to go with police members to show them our passports but we were to discover that they would
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Take two
just send us alone.....obviously they had finally worked out that it was going to be too much hassle. Earlier in the day when we had been waiting at the check point a couple of ambulance vans had come screaming past us with lights and sirens screaming......we were told that two police men had been injured in cross fire with the guerillas further up the road. So the problem of having two Australian girls without their passports was low on their list of priorities that day......it was also a good thing for us to be stopped and not to continue up the road and to be in police company for the day. So to get back to Cali the police drove us to the main road and organised a car for us to drive us back. Usually these cars have a set route that they take but the driver was told by the police that he had to drop us at the door of the hostal and call him once it was done so that he knew we had made it safely back. Afer signing a statement that we had been treated properly and no harm had come to us whilst
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As the rain came pouring down
in police custody we were off in the car heading back to Cali. I haven't really had many experiences with police, other than working with them, and this one had been all good but I was happy that day to be a female and not male as things could have been different.

The following day we decided that we really wanted to head out and see the village of San Cipriano.....this time with passports in hand we started the day out as we had the day before. This day it seemed like we were meant to be going there....the bus driver was much more relaxed, there was no kids throwing up, we had our passports and it was a nicer day. The reason we were heading to San Cipriano, a small village deep in tropical rain forest near the Pacific coast, was to see the small trolleys that they use on a railway that are powered by mopeds. We were dropped off on the side of the road and were instantly surrounded by kids and others wanting to get us on a particular trolley. After managing to get the price for around half the starting price, we jumped on
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Kids playing in town as the rain sets in
board this trolley with a family, an old lady with a baby and a few others. They are a great little invention and definately get the speed up as they cruise along the railway line in the middle of the forest. The forest is amazingly green and thick right up to the edge of the railway line......all we could do was to hold on tight. We had wondered what happens when another trolley comes the other way as there was only a singular track.......this did occur and it's a simple matter of a bit of a conversation or arguement on who is going to move, once that is decided then everyone gets off and the whole trolley is lifted off the rails while the other one passes and then the trolley goes back on again. The small village of San Cipriano didn't consist of much.......a few dirt roads lined with wooden houses, most of which had seen better days, and a river that ran passed the village. We wandered through the village to find a nice place to have a swim.....in my mind I was hoping for a small bit of sand or something similar to lazy about on but
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Our little friends and our trolley
unfortunately the banks consisted of rocks only. After a quick swim we decided to beat the rain that was coming in and headed back to town for some very tasty lunch consisting of fish caught at the nearby ocean and the usual beans, rice and salad. Our ride back on the trolley was with a couple of the local boys who took it in turn to have a go at driving the trolley.....they can't go too wrong other than with the gear changes so there was plenty of laughs along the way. After buying a great coconut icecream we jumped on a bus heading back to Cali......along the way waving and saying hello to all the police men that recognised us from the day before.


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The track which cuts right through the middle of beautiful tropical forest
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A trolley coming the other way


7th November 2007

two fearless girls and an amazing story.

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