Columbia

We wake up early again as our bodies are just use to it now. A cold shower doesn't really turn me on so we skip it and head for the bus stop. After trying a few places we decide we have to take a local minibus. We go look at it, pay, chuck our bags on and think about breakfast. I wait while Sarah heads to the toilet. While I'm waiting the locals are having shots of a beer colored thick drink. The bottle was a red local soft drink bottle with a darker brown sediment mark down one side where it fermented on that side. One of the guys says in Spanish that their new friend should have some columbian juice. Do you want some? Noone seemed to cringe and die so I though I'd give it a try. It was a type of corn based Chicha. Not bad at all.

After a little breakfast shopping and more waiting we leave at 9am with a few locals in the aisle. After about an hour we had our first random police checkpoint, where everyone gets off and shows ID. This time there were no bag searches so we got back on the bus an continued. The view of the valleys out the right side of the bus was incredible, such an amazing place already.

Time ticked away quickly and we arrived at Paso in 1:45 not two hours even with our police stop. Maybe we can make it in six hours. We then sat for a long time, had our second passport check, killing our lead and filling the bus up more. I guess we should have been expecting the eight or more hours.

Finally we moved once again and headed on our way with a few extra people and for some reason with the door open. Turns out this is normal, or a normal action as at anytime the door could be open with the drivers helper hanging in or out. We drove for an hour, maybe longer before stopping again for lunch. A nice touch but we were not going to get there anywhere near 6 or 8 hours.

As the time neared an end the driver started the engine of the bus. No one really did anything or was concerned as he left to brush his teeth. A little while later he got in and people started moving. We still had to wait as they are not organized or care about time, but that's how it is.

Finally again we started moving, door open and people crowded round the door. Luckily for us we had seats right there so we got to be in the craziness.
We chilled out for a while as we started and stopped around roadworks, and once as you may have guessed for our third passport check of this road. Time ticked by and we were happy to see the 'welcome to Popayan' sign, 9 hours into our 6 hour journey.

We got our bags and walked to checkin at HostelTrail, a little expensive and poor Internet but it seemed ok. We headed out for dinner, either vegetarian or Italian. When we arrived at the vegetarian place it had no menus and we were both to tired to work it out just from her speaking to us. It is hard when your tired to translate and remember what you translated before..... b***** it, Italian it is. A nice pizza with salad and garlic bread starters, perfect.