Bus 666

From then on my/our average speed would increase a bit...

Around 9 pm another bus comes along through the center of Isnos. This bus is full as well, but the driver agrees to seat us in the pass way for an illegal off-the-record one-time group-reduction/inconvenience allowance.

1 hour later I start to realize that the abominable state that the road is in is not gonna get any better soon. My body already aches everywhere from bumping up and down and is cramped from the tiny space it is crammed in. At a certain point the road is so bad that people fly out of their seats. Many of the passengers start yelling and whistling for a moment as a complaint and one woman in the back is nearly in tears as she yells at the driver that she has a baby in her lap. From then on the driver takes these points a little bit easier and the trips recedes to it's normal bumpy character. 10 mins later the bus stops and 2 mins later the engine switches off. We're happy to be able to get out of the bus to stretch our painful bones and some 5 m away from the bus we smoke a joint while joking about the driver being a pirate (he has no adjudant like all the others) and about how this was supposed to happen due to the bus' call sign: UJF666.

The driver and some other guy tinkle a bit with the engine and manage to start the engine over new, but it makes a loud rattling sound (supposedly from the water-cooling fan). The engine is switched off and the problem fixed. When walking back to the bus, I see through the front grill that a fan (supposedly from the water-cooling fan) is not running. An hour later this happens again, which makes me happy, as I was in a far less comfortable position as before and thus desperately watching the public speedometer lingering between 6km/h and 22km/h at the most.

Again the problem is fixed in 15-20 mins. We stop a little later again to eat a piece of bread with some unbranded, white cheese and a cup of hot Panela, company service.

Two other stops (problems with air-pressure) and three hours later we climb out of the bus at a place that appears to be in the middle of nowhere. It's 3 o'clock at night so everything appears that way. A local that helped the bus driver to some more air points us in the right direction and tells us it's an hour walk to the hot springs and we're on our way.

Average Speed

Finally San Augustin saw enough of me (and so did Laura). I take a colectivo to "la cruz" a road-crossing where the bus for Popayan is supposed to stop. The crossing runs uphill and contains one building which is a store/pub. As usual we're surrounded by green mountains. Groups of people are sitting in the sun waiting for a bus, a taxi, a colectivo or a motorbike to go to various destinations. I chat a little with different people as they arrive and get on their desired vehicle. About two hours later a bus arrives for Popayan, but no seats are left. As I ask the driver, he tells me there is other buses coming. An hour later two taxis drop off 5 more people exactly on the spot where I'm sitting at. They tell me they're going to Coconuco, a place about 2 hours from Popayan and they ask me if I want to come along. The next bus to Popayan also has no seats for us (since now we're six) so we take a taxi to Isnos, a little village 15km further. (I've been here before when I did a tour to see the Archeological park and some waterfalls). A little later, we're waiting for another bus in the centre of Isnos and it has been 5 hours since I left San Augustin. At this speed, I will be in Argentinia way before 2014...

San -doesn't let me go- Augustin

Some days after I had decided to go to Quito, I decide otherwise (since I'm still keeping Laura warm) and make a loose plan to go through the Amazon. Luc will come to Mocoa from Lima-airport (peru) over Quito (Ecuador) to Pasto (Colombia) with busses and no Spanish. Stefaan Geerts will probably be glad to help him a hand with directions since he's familiar with the area.
So I still have 5-6 days to spend in San Augustin. We are kind of kicked out our hostel because Laura's dog made a big mess in the room and the owner wasn't too happy with that. Earlier that day we passed upon a store that sells iglo's. We return to that store and for an hour try out the 3 models they have. One of them we know immediately that we don't want it as it is too small.
We camp an hour walk outside the village near the river, at a place called "la piscina", because it provides a natural place to swim. When we arrive we meet 2 travellers that we've met before in the hostal we stayed at. They're camping in a VW camper with two more people. All of them are native Spanish speakers (from Spain & Chili). We cook a delicious soup together with onions, carrots, potatoes, yuca, tomatoes and more. The meal is ready around midnight (as custom in Spain). After the meal, the Chilene and his Spanish girlfriend play some amazing music together with guitar, melodica and voice. (The melodica is a like a mini-piano that rests on your lap with a tube that you put in your mouth to supply it with air). The stars contribute to the atmosphere by throwing in some marvelous shooting stars.

San -Okay, I'll stay another day- Augustin

Another lovely village, slightly bigger than Salento and far more south.
The hostal is just a pretty as the village and is run by Mario, the loco hostal owner. The reputation about the best shower in South America being there, is not a lie.
The first morning we do a tour with a jeep (turns out to be a regular, 25 years old Renault) to visit the archeological museum which sucks, some maya-statues and tombes which lack explanation and some waterfalls from almost 400 resp 100 meters high (if I understood that well). The waterfall and the views are absolutely stunning, even for a by beauty numbed eye (that happens when you see so many beautiful things; you just stop appreciating). A small construction protrudes from the steep cliff, if you walk upon it you're litterally surrounded by the valley-walls.
The next day I decided to stay one day longer than planned and I joined Nathalie, Laura and Oren for a walk to a finca that Nathalie has bought and a swim in the nearby river afterwards. Moihikano and Patata, Laura's 9 weeks old and Nathalie's 2 weeks old pups climbed, tumbled and fell around us as the view changed with each turn, slope or hill we covered. After a brisk 2 hour walk we jumped onto the back of a jeep and continued on the dirt track (which also is the main road) for another 20 mins. At this point, only every 5 km or so a house or finca was visible, everything else was just trees, plants and animals.
The familie that lives in the finca was awaiting us when we arrived at the property. The finca is a poliered concrete plane with a wooden shed making 2 bedrooms, a kitchen and a veranda. Laura, who's dad is Chilene, started making a typical dish, so soon some pots were simmering on the wood-fuelled stove.
Then we took 2 machetes and strolled of towards the other side of the micro-valley to get wood. When we arrived at a waterfall and a wake to swim, it finally sank in what we were here to do. Of course I left my swimming pants in the house. The water was pretty cold, but after a while it became bearable and refreshing.
By the time we returned from getting the wood (which we didn't have), the man of the house fixed us a bag of approximately 50 gr weed for 5000 pesos (2€). It was, however, freshly picked, so we fast-dryed it in the wood-oven which was already warming up for the next stage of the meal. When we were finished making thin, round circles of dough, to be used to wrap around the meat and then put in the oven, it was starting to get dark. I try to ask how we were going to get back. Not that it mattered, but it is a civilised reaction, I guess, to always want to know what's happening next. Still I was taken by surprise to learn that we were staying for the night. Thus that meant sleeping with my lenses.
After the meal we talked a little bit (everyone laughed with my Spanish). One by one everyone went to bed. I kept Laura, the colombian girl warm at night because she was cold ;-)

The Science of Cryogenics

Travelling over longer distances in Colombia mostly happens at night. There are numerous companies providing this service and they try to make that as comfortable as possible. One way they do that is by using busses with comfortably soft seats that bends way backwards. The driver sits in a seperate compartiment so they can deep-freeze the passengers compartiment to make them enter a cryogenic state. This way the 16-hour trip passes mostly unnoticed for the passengers. At the destination they take all the blue, stiff body's out of the bus and put them on a big pile. In cold places the people in the center of the pile de-hybernate first, but they have to wait till the layers of people above them are defrosted and have awakened first.
Some people that often travel that way are missing a finger, a nose, an ear or any organs that protrude. The've broken off in the piling process (the craftsmen with the heftrucks don't always handle the load with the care prescribed.)
This morning I de-hybernated in Armeni...