Salento

I don't really know what to write about this really small town. It covers an area of just maybe a couple of kilometers but in that small area there are over 50 hostels, hotels, guesthouses and people's houses offering you a room to stay.

There are two things worth ti see there (not for free in one way or the other):

• The trek to "Valle de Cócora". There's no park entrance fee but you have to pay for a jeep to take you there and back.
• The "Don Elías coffee finca". You can learn how coffee is grown, harvested, peeled, dried, roasted but it's 5000$ the entrance. I know all that anyway. I learnt it with Julio before going to Ecuador. Maybe not the toasting part though.

There is a small hill with a not-so-impressive view of town with an impressive 238 step staircase all the way up!

not the one in middle Asia

I thought that the road leading to Pereira went through Armenia. It turns out that it doesn't so Adrian's dad left us at the turn off where we waited for a couple of hours until an old guy drove us to about 10 km from Armenia (close to the airport). From there, a pineapple finca owner drove us one street away (pineapple included) from Casa Quimbaya. One of the few hostels that reply to my email about a job. They wanted to see us for an interview but what they offered was not what I was looking for. But we stayed for a week in exchange for a bed.

Armenia is cute little town in the middle of Pereira, Salento and Manizales (I only didn't go there). It was here where my first ride coming from Pereira dropped me two months before. It was a nice town to stay and recharge batteries. We were sleeping in one of the dorms but since the hostel was practically empty (only privates were busy) it felt more like a private.

There's not much to see in Armenia (in my opinion) but I liked it. Not many people stay more than one night because they had a late bus when going to Salento or early bus leaving. But on the other hand, Armenia has a great location and you could make it your base camp for exploring the sorrounding areas which are not more than 50 km away. But not many people do this. They usually arrive in Armenia , change buses and head straight to Salento.

shouldn't things supposed to be safe here?

This post is going to disrupt the chronological order of the blog but I feel the need to let everyone what happened in Taganga.

While looking for a place to sleep, we left our stuff at the local police station. I was thinking that leaving our stuff there  it was going to be safe... how wrong I was.

I only took my 2 people hammock, water, our passports and other small things.

Maybe I was naive or just stupid to think that the police here was going to be different. Maybe I felt that because "Colombia is not what it used to be 10 years ago" like a lot of Colombians told me before.

We slept somewhere in front of the ocean. The problem with sleeping in public places is that you have to go to sleep late and wake up early.

At around 7 we went to pick our stuff. The staff there  didn't even know that our things were there. When I walked inside the room I saw that my small bag was in a different place and not where I left it the night before and it was half opened.. I immediately thought the worst and indeed my laptop was gone. My camera was still inside because it fell on the side of the books I carry. Paula's camera was gone also. The power cord was (and still is) inside my big bag. I though of leaving it and tell them "give this to the wanker that has my laptop, maybe he can fix it and he will need the cable" but then again, saying that won't help at all in recovering our things.

I talked to the police in Santa Marta and they are "worried and embarrased" of what happened and apologize on behalf of the entire institution. Thank you, but none of that is bringing my laptop back! They are trying to do something about it. At least I would like to think that they are.

That same evening we went back to Taganga with the commander of the station. I we keep pushing things the policeman that received the bags WILL get into trouble. It's not my intention to fuck him up. Doing that won't bring the stolen things back. Karma.

For some strange reason I still like Colombia. Unlike Panama that I wanted to leave immediately. I guess a knife in your stomach can make the difference.

"I'm going back to Cali, Cali, Cali"

I was lazy. Very lazy. In the two days I dind't even go out of the house.

Adrian's dad gave us a ride to around 50 or 60 km from Armenia.

X-3 Pasto Firestation

After taking the bus to the end of the line Hitchwiki says to take another bus to the first peáge, but there's a petrol station a few meters away. Shortly after we were going to Calderón, a nearby city. From there we walked "2 km" to the peáge. Walking there, we stopped in a restaurant to fill up our bottles and empty our bladders. I asked how far was the peáge and the guy told to go with him, he was going to show you. That didn't sound promising. I think the damn peáge was 20 kilometers away!  Hitched there and almost inmmediately found a ride to Otavalo (famous for its market and handycrafts). Then a slow but nice rider (not on the highway) ride to Ibarra. Ibarra is big si I convince the guy to leave us at the end of town. I was opening a can of peaches that Sofi gave us when Paula found a ride, we were eating in a police checkpoint in the middle of nowhere. It was getting late. I wanted to reach Pasto the same day but it seemed  that we weren't  going to make, we were still far (in South American terms) from the border. I started thumbing but nothing happened. No one stopped. Paula started thumbing and found a ride with a trucker and his girlfriend. I thought  in a split second that it was better not to take the ride and wait for (fast) car, but then again, it was in a split second and we were riding the truck. We talked about it inside and decided to change rides. We were in a petrol station somewhere when I found a ride to the border city of Tulcán. I was running to tell Paula when she told me that she also found a ride. We chose the back seat of a recent Kia Sorento instead of the back of the pickup.

The guy was driving fast but it was late. It was already dark by the time we made to Tulcán. After some time I thought no one was going to stop, who would pick up to people stading on the side of the road, at night? Suddenly, a pick up stopped and drove us the last 9 kilometers separating us from the border. We made it to Colombia the same day but Pasto was still some 80 kilometers away. We thumbed at the border check point, nothing. One of the border officers told me that no one was going to take us to Pasto, everybody was going to Ipiales. A couple of cars stopped and I said "Pasto" but they were going to Ipiales. We kept trying but it seemed that his words were true. We took the next that was willing to take us. Once in Ipiales, after thumbing for a while we reached the conclusion that we will have to spend the night there. It was cold. We went to the local firestation and they let us sleep in a dirty old wooden house. There was no way to sleep on the floor, it was filthy and there was waste. Luckily I have a hammock.

Leaving Ipiales was harder than I thought. It took us a few hours. Then I saw a petrol station not far. We started to walk towards it when a car stopped  (with Cali license plates) beside us and asked me if I knew where Pasto was. "Yes, I know where Pasto is. We are going there, can you take us?" After maybe 3-4 hours we were finally moving. But the happiness of getting closer to the firestation didn't last long because the car broke down and some thing was burning under the hood. The driver call road assitance and after about three more hours we were being towed away to the town of Pedregal. We were halfway to Pasto. Despite what the mechanic said, Pedregal was NOT good a place. Paula was thumbing on the right side of the road while I was on the left (under the shade) when a car stopped and Paula called me. The two guys inside didn't like the fact that she was with me. They asked us for money. I said tht we were getting off immediately and they left us in a actually not bad place to keep hitching: before a bridge that was under reparations, there was only one side available so cars had to stop. my personal experience with this kind of place is good. I've found a couple of good rides in places like these. This one was not going to be the exception because we found a ride shortly after. I made sure to tell that we didn't have money to pay for the ride. About an hour later we were standing outside Pasto's  football stadium. From there is was only a couple of kilometers walk uphill to the firestation.

We got to the X-3 Pasto Firestation and what a welcome! I felt right at home! Jhon (he spells it that way), one of the firemen is the one we talk to the most. He gave an original battery for my Nokia phone. They said (again) that we can stay for as long as we wanted. Jhon even offered me to get the vaccine certificate that by the way, the people at the border (don't know which one) made sure to lose the receipt I had.

Since Pasto is not very big and we don't have the money for buses we spend a lot of time inside the firestation. We only took a few short walks around. We only went to the center once. Going to the shop we hitched a ride in the station's ambulance. They were going when I asked them if it was Ok to ride with them. Another first for Colombia. We hitched again the ambulance the day after coming back from the center.

Going South, to Ecuador, the firestation is in the perfect place: in the South of town. But going North, to Popayán/Cali...