Welcome to "Corrupt" Colombia

---

Wednesday 18.03.09 (continued)
Apologies for the cliffhanger ending yesterday; the internet cafe I was doing the blog suddenly emptied and they wanted to close. So the tale continues....
With no sign of the driver´s assistant who had our tickets and us left stranded in an office in the bus terminal at Riohacha, we (the 2 Canadians and me) thought it was time to get the police involved. We left our luggage behind the counter in the office and looked for the police. We split up and I found one but then couldn´t find the girls. I went to the police station and explained the situation; they said there was nothing they could do and that I should take a taxi to DAS where I should be able to get help. Before getting a taxi I had another look for the girls but no sign of them! After a short taxi ride I arrived at the DAS. The officials in this department werer not in uniform but all had hand guns tucked into their trouser belts (not in holsters). After relating the story, they asked me lots of questions, right down to my parentage, previous profession, exact town of birth in Ireland etc; they kept referring to a multa (fine) which I would have to pay. I remonstrated with them that I was not willing to pay a fine for something which was the bus company´s responsibility. They eventually agreed to waver the fine and they would produce a document for me to go inside my passport, as they did not have the official entry stamp. They document would take about two hours to type up. In the meantime the two Canadian girls arrived; they took them into a different room and said that I must not mention the fine waver to them! The girls eventually came into the office where I was and said that hey were going to get a taxi back to the border to get the passports stamped and cut their losses. After some thought I decided to join them;a) it was going to take at least another hour for them to produce my document and b) even with the document I could foresee problems. We returned to the bus terminal and retrieved our luggage, argued further with the bus company and eventually got a partial reimbursement - only a small fraction of what we paid. We found out that two bus companies were involved in our journey across the border and the first one had creamed the lion´s share of the fares. We split the cost of a taxi to the border (just over an hour away); the driver drove at breakneck speed to get there before it closed for the night and just made it. The stamping process was so smooth, it was almost an anticlimax, but we were so relieved. The taxi driver waited for us and took us to Macao (a town not far from the border) as there were no further buses that night from Riohacha. The girls were travelling to a small town near Santa Martha, which is en route to Cartegena, so we shared a collectivo with some others from Macao. Cartegena was another four hours on from Santa Martha. Though the driver had agreed to take the girls to their final destination he aksed them to get out a to Santa Martha to get a further taxi from there. No matter what they said he would not take them any further. After this I was prepared for anything, or so I thought! About an hour and a half from Cartegena, he stopped again and tole me he wasn´t going any further. I told him that I had paid for the full journey and I wasn´t moving. He said it wasn´t economic for him to continue the journey with only one passenger and he would pay a local collectivo for the rest of my trip. I got out and say him hand payment to a local driver and he assured me again that I would not have anything further to pay. I moved my luggage to the colectivo and got in ready to go. As there was no sign of the driver going,I asked him what he was waiting for. He said he couldn´t go until he had the full complement of passengers. As it was now after midnight and there wasn´t much sign of life around I could see me not getting away until the next morning. A further complication was that I had a prebooked flight from Cartegena to Medellin for the next morning and there was now a possibility of missing that flight. Within an hour two further passengers came along but not enough for him to start the journey. No matter what I said and how loud I raised my voice (aside from the morals or ethics of the whole situation) he would not move. The other two passengers wanted to split the extra cost with me for him to start straight away, but I wouldn´t on principle! Two further hours went by with no more passengers; the other two were by this time getting very frustrated, but also understood my point. It got to 2:30 am and they pursuaded the driver to lower the surcharge and I eventually gave in (if I left it much later I would have missed my plane in Cartegena.) The two other passenger worked as maintenance engineers in a local coalmine. I chatted for much of the way with the older of the two; he worked a daily shift of twelve hours, four days on and four off. He was now on his way home for four days. I arrived at the airport in Cartegena at 4:30 am..... shattered! My journey out of Venezuela into Colombia turned out to be a harassing expensive affair and an introduction to corrupt Colombia.

Postscript on Venezuela:
Venezuela is a diverse beautiful country with generally friendly, welcoming and helpful people. Despite its wealth from its natural oil and mineral resources there is much evidence of widespread poverty, unemployment and still some corruption. There is little respect for the environment as rubbish abounds eerywhere; a lot of non-biodegradable material (plastic bottles, bags cans..) litter the sides of the roads and highways. The people are generally aware of the problems and some have high hopes that Chaves will change things. Others say that he´s already had enough time in office to make a significant change but this hasn´t materialised; he´s got good ideas but he´s not carrying them through.
In addition to the above the following impressions remain:
1.Image crisis? There seems to be a lack of representation of the mix of cultures in any aspect of the media - this includes magazines, catalogues and advertisements.
2. Travel: bus, coach, and collectivo travel is easy and there is a good range of public and private companies to choose from. Anyone over the age of 60 is entitled to 50% reduction on all public travel (both long and short haul). However not all routes are covered by public buses. I still haven´t found reasonable answers to my questions: a) why is the AC kept at full blast so everyone is freezing on the buses, b) why are the curtains in the buses kept drawn even during the day - security is a frequent answer to the latter,but what security; if a window is hit by a stone or overhanging branch, the glass would not shatter as it is laminated!
3. Driving: I still haven´t got to grips with their driving, signalling and instinctive intuition of what other dirvers are thinking of doing. As a European you would need lots of guts, plenty of insurance and more than a pinch of insanity to drive there. Road rules seem to made up as you go along and they don´t exist where pedestrians are concerned. Health and Safety (not just on the roads) has yet to be put into force - if it´s in law. The country has many large old US style gas guzzlers; every young person´s first priority is to own a car (before a house). In many of the larger towns/cities the youths who own cars customise them with extra large loudspeakers and blue flouresent lights on their number plates, wheels etc.
4. The Black Market: this is ruining the country and giving it a poor reputation in the eyes of the visitor; it also opens up a world of various petty crime and corruption. Most government officials turn a blind eye to it (many are involved in it themselves).
5. CDs and DVDS: like many of the other S. American countries there is a thriving trade in copied CD/DVDs. Every town/city has its host of peddlers of these which they play v. loud in the street.
6.THe Brain Drain:unemployment is high and there is not enough skilled jobs to go round, so many of the skilled graduate people either take a job that doesn´t match their skills, leave the country or just remain unemployed. The "List" is still effective in preventing those opposed to Chaves in getting employment.
7: Music and Noise: The Venezuelans love their music and play it everwhere (usually v. loud). They want bigger and better speakers in their vehicles and blast out the music as they travel.
8. Rich and Poor: evidence of poverty is almost everywhere. The new rich - those working in oil or any subsidiary aspect of it, have everything they need/want. Those I met in this category and had long discussion with seem to be shallow, egotistical and materialistic (though this is not a generalisation!)

Finally...... the problems Venezuela has are complex and numerous. If Chaves does not act now while the country still has such wealthy resources, the opportunity will be lost.


Thursday 19.03.09
To continue with the story....... at Cartegena Airport I went to the Avainca main desk to see if it was possible to change my flight to a later date as I wanted to spend a few days in Cartegena city. However this was not possible, so I checked in, had a wash& shave in the bathrooms there and a bite to eat which I waited for the flight. Cartegena has modern, well maintained/staffed airport. Incidentally , en route to Cartegena by collectivo we stopped a few time for a refreshment/bathroom break. We were charged an extortionate price to use very primitive, dirty, smelly toilets. When I did use them out of necessity, I refused to pay, which caused a stir!. The flight to Medellin was civilized and smooth after the events of the last 24 hours. I had a window seat in the twin prop plane (Fokker) but couldn´t sleep, so looked at Cartegena by night from the sky. I noticed as we approached Medelin how lush and green the countryside was, in comparison to much of Venezuela. After a brief chat with the lady in the tourist office of Medellin airport I caught the bus for the 37 km journey into the city (apart from the driver I was the only one on it). Lack of sleep was catching up with me and I found it difficult to keep my eyes open on the journey. I woke as we came the over the surrounding hills of the city to see some breathtaking views of it. The driver dropped me close to the hostel where I planned to stay. ´Checked in, lay on the bed and fell asleep for a couple of hours. Äwakened by the heavy rain falling outside, I showered, unpacked and decided I was going to stay in Medellin for at least 3 days to recover and chill out. Though the rain was very pesistent I went for a walk around the centre. It seems a nice, lively, well planned city. I had a lazy stroll around, a bite to eat and a quiet evening.

---

Photos

Tour into the mountains around Medina
As we got higher into the Andes the variety of flora was much more evident - some beautiful flowers.

Monument to a Dog
This monument was erected in memory of a Andean mountain dog who saved the life of a child.

Chapel of St Piedro
This little chapel up in the mountains was built entirely of stone.

Interior of St Piedro Chapel
The interior of this little chapel was just as beautiful.

Andean Condors
This one of the 3 caged Andean condors we saw nearly 4,000 metres up. ´Difficult to walk without getting short of breath.

Castle Hotel
On our journey back down the mountains we stopped a this hotel - modern but built like a castle.

Road Blocks and Checks
There were frequent police checks on the main highways where you travelled. At this one they also took samples of our bus´ petrol. However I would have thought that petrol is so cheap here that it would not be worth having anything else.

Medellin´s Palace of Culture
This photo was taken late in the day I arrived in Medellin; ´lovely building but the interior was manly boring offices.

Iglesa de la Candeleria
´lovely church both outside and in; couldn´t take a photo inside as there was a service in progress.

Comments

[rcp]

LEAVE!
Colombia is a great place! depending of the eyed you look at it... you should LEAVE. we dont want people like you here...