Crossing the border

We got up a little later than planned but were ready quickly and after a short sojourn to the panaderia around the corner where we bought some breakfast we were ready to be off. We grabbed a taxi to the border for $3.50 and were surprised when it took over 20 minutes to get there even though its supposedly only 5km away. When we arrived it was all hustle and bustle with people and taxis all over the place and little stalls selling the usual sweets and crisps, money changers with huge wads of dollars in their hands strolling around under the watchful eye of the many police stationed there. We paid the driver and after directions from a tourist going the opposite way to us, made our way to the Ecuadorean immigration which was very efficient and stamped us out within 5 minutes. From here we gathered our bags and walked across the bridge into Colombia, marvelling at the tumbling river far below and the 2 beautiful mansions set on the sides of the gorge, obviously government buildings of some sort, which we didnt dare take photos of as we had heard it was not wise to take pictures of anything near immigration! Once across we bypassed the many taxi and money changing touts and walked up a short flight of stairs to the Colombian immigration which was again very efficient and we soon had yet another stamp in our passports :) On our way we had spied a couple of bus company offices and decided to see about a bus to Cali from here rather than wait until we got to the station, we also needed to change some money which they seemed to do also. A lady took us to an office after we told her we wanted to go to Cali and we got tickets for $20 which is a little cheaper than the books said and also it left in half an hour. All we could find on the internet was a bus that left at 7.30pm which we weren't keen on as we had been advised to travel in daylight, so this bus leaving at midday was a welcome relief. We asked if we could pay in dollars and handed over $40, the man behind the desk (the lady had gone out again looking for business) then handed us 25,000 pesos and the tickets in return. We were a little confused as hadn't expected any change the exchange rate being approx 1000 pesos to $0.60 and the bus tickets costing 70,000 in their money. So we looked at each other, shrugged and started picking our bags up when the man said we had to pay for the tickets... I told him we'd just given him the money for the tickets and he said no, we'd just changed some which was clearly b******s cos he hadn't given us nearly enough. Demanding my $40 back loudly enough to attract attention (the lady who had brought us in was just outside) he quickly got his calculator out, took the 25,000 back off us and gave us 2000 instead meaning we had now paid the correct amount for our tickets. Pissed off that he had tried to rip us off we stormed out and refused to even think about changing money with him deciding we'd do it at the bus station where the guide book said you got fair rates. We were ushered into a collectivo taxi with 2 other women and our bags were crammed into the boot which had to be tied down and were soon whizzing along (Colombians are definitely not slow drivers!) to the bus station where the driver demanded twice what the lady had told us. We only had the 2000 pesos change from the tickets which we thought was enough as we were told it was 1600, so when he asked for 4000 we had to say we didnt have it but could pay in dollars instead. He demanded $2 but we worked it out to be about $1.60ish and so gave him that instead. After refusing it we offered him the 2000 again which he also refused so, being late for our bus from all his faffing around at the other end getting more passengers and messing about with bags we told him to stuff it and walked into the bus station with him trailing along, uncertain what to do. We sorted our tickets and as he was still pestering us gave him the $1.60 once again which this time he took begrudgingly deciding it was better that than nothing at all and we proceeded to get on our bus. After watching our bags being thrown about, crushed, slammed and stuffed into the 'boot' of the bus which was only a 20 seater minibus, we climbed aboard dubiously. With no seat numbers on our tickets Andy chose a seat on the left and we settled down for the 10hr journey. There were several other people on the bus including an Argentinian couple both with the awful dreadlocks they all seem to favour and the accoutrements that showed us they were travellers, the ones who are more like gypsies though as opposed to 'tourist travellers'. They had juggling pins, a black folded board no doubt with jewellery they'd made hidden within it and various other bits and pieces which they would use to get money to live by, juggling at traffic lights hoping people in the cars would tip them etc. We've seen lots of people like this as we've travelled and have to say they dont appeal to us, generally trying one way or another to get money out of you and always the first on the bus to put their seats back as far as possible not giving a damn about the person behind them, clogging the aisle with all their stuff, which this time included a sack barrow which rolled about all over the place the whole journey. As we were on the other side of the bus we were able to ignore them and instead listened to our book on the ipod and gazed in wonder at the magnificent scenery that started to open up before us. For the first hour of the journey it was like driving through parts of England, rolling hills were rich and green, covered in many fields of different crops or cattle with farmsteads dotted between them and deep green hedges forming boundries. Eventually though the hills got bigger and before we knew it we were driving precipitously along steeply winding roads with hundreds of feet below us as the hillside descended into a huge gorge. Magnificent waterfalls appeared round every bend and when you had the right angle you could see for miles back along the valley between the hills and forwards to more of the same, mountains stretching on forever it seemed. After a while, we'd probably been travelling about 4 hours, we came to a small town nestled in a valley where we picked up more passengers who had tickets with seat numbers on, a pain as it meant we had to move and ended up sitting behind the dreadlock duo with our knees squashed in behind their lounging seats. The one advantage however was that when we set off again, we were on the right side of the bus to take the best pictures of this outstanding scenery. With the window open to let the breeze through (it was now getting decidedly hotter the further into Colombia we went) I leaned out to take snapshots of the ever expanding valley with its smattering of fields, rushing rivers and even snow capped mountains in the distance. When the battery died and we couldnt replace it as the other one was in Andy's big bag in the boot, we contented ourselves with staring wide eyed at the view below and around us and continued listening to our book. Many hours later and almost as many police checks, we arrived in darkness to a small cafe by the side of the road where another bus and a couple of taxis had also stopped for a bite to eat. We had no money and the bit of bread and bottle of water we'd bought at a previous stop at a bus station were long gone, so we mooched around for half an hour, enjoying the cooler night air while everyone else sat down to plates of delicious smelling food. Eventually we were under way again and another half hour saw half the passengers, including the annoying Argentinian couple who had decided their disgusting dreadlocks would be better over the back of their seats and in our faces than over their own shoulders, get off the bus in Popayan, leaving us a further hour and a half approximately to reach Cali, only an hour late thanks to all the hitch hikers and other unnecessary stops we'd made on the way. Once we'd recovered our sorry looking bags from the boot, we found a cash machine and got a taxi to a hostel where we spent the night, hot and exhausted.