Ways to Go
In Colombia there are three notable forms of transportation.
By Train
If you are sitting on the Medellin Metro, and you are under the age of 60, and you are healthy, and you are not carrying a baby or a very cumbersome package, and a senior boards the train: you will be asked loudly by another passenger, probably a young man, to give up your seat. You will quietly get up and make a grand gesture for the senior to please, take your seat.
All of this happens very easily because the train moves very smoothly and it is not difficult to stand up. There is also always enough room, there is never any strange food smell, and the passing view of the Inception-like vertically stacked valley is good for the eyes.
By Bus
When the mom next to me asked for several black plastic bags, I knew I was in trouble. The baby on her lap had decided to sprawl out over her lap and half of mine for most of the 9 hour bus ride and within the first hour, spewed into all the bags. As rude as it probably looked, the best I could do was cover my mouth with my scarf to avoid a chain reaction. Fortunately, I wasn't directly affected by the windy roads from Medellin to Salento, probably because I was so focused on the A+ film "How To Be A Latin Lover," dubbed, with no subtitles.
This is to say, buses are super. At worst, they leave you in giggles for their irony and disaster. At best, they are wheeled-palaces of comfort (re: Cartagena to Santa Marta). For example, the ride from Armenia to Cali is a worst: the "direct" bus, delayed by one hour, stopped at every opportunity to cram more people into the shoddy, smoke-spewing minivan. It even stopped to pick up bags without people and shove those in, too. It was only fitting that after we waited ten minutes for a kid's dad to pick him up from an unscheduled stop, the minivan wouldn't start again and three men had to disembark to pop the hood. It reasons to follow that less that 15 minutes from Cali, the bus needed oil, so the "bus assistant" ran across six lanes of highway to buy a bag of oil and slop it in. But even so, what else can you do but laugh?
On Foot
By far the best method of transportation anywhere, in Colombia the complications of walking generally come in the form of mud or heat. Squishy, noisy, poopy-looking mud across trails abounds, challenging you to find the exact correct footing or else face the consequences.
Heat: it's what's up most days in most places. But no one on any existing travel blogs mentioned that the hike up to Tres Cruces in Cali would be a grueling death march in semi-tropical sun blasts up a chalky rock face. And how is it that at the top of this pilgrimage, there is an outdoor gymnasium - for all the beefy gentlemen who ran up the mountain, just for fitness and fun?
Even so, it seems that the best rewards of this country are only reachable by wandering without expectations - stumbling on an unassuming bread roll or wacky looking piece of fruit, a building that reminds you of somewhere else, or overhearing that one song that you've just started to learn the words to. Through mud, through heat, weaving through the traffic or bouncing along to sidewalk as you greet everyone you see with a smile and a "Buenas!" - it doesn't really matter how you go, as long as you do.
By Train
If you are sitting on the Medellin Metro, and you are under the age of 60, and you are healthy, and you are not carrying a baby or a very cumbersome package, and a senior boards the train: you will be asked loudly by another passenger, probably a young man, to give up your seat. You will quietly get up and make a grand gesture for the senior to please, take your seat.
All of this happens very easily because the train moves very smoothly and it is not difficult to stand up. There is also always enough room, there is never any strange food smell, and the passing view of the Inception-like vertically stacked valley is good for the eyes.
By Bus
When the mom next to me asked for several black plastic bags, I knew I was in trouble. The baby on her lap had decided to sprawl out over her lap and half of mine for most of the 9 hour bus ride and within the first hour, spewed into all the bags. As rude as it probably looked, the best I could do was cover my mouth with my scarf to avoid a chain reaction. Fortunately, I wasn't directly affected by the windy roads from Medellin to Salento, probably because I was so focused on the A+ film "How To Be A Latin Lover," dubbed, with no subtitles.
This is to say, buses are super. At worst, they leave you in giggles for their irony and disaster. At best, they are wheeled-palaces of comfort (re: Cartagena to Santa Marta). For example, the ride from Armenia to Cali is a worst: the "direct" bus, delayed by one hour, stopped at every opportunity to cram more people into the shoddy, smoke-spewing minivan. It even stopped to pick up bags without people and shove those in, too. It was only fitting that after we waited ten minutes for a kid's dad to pick him up from an unscheduled stop, the minivan wouldn't start again and three men had to disembark to pop the hood. It reasons to follow that less that 15 minutes from Cali, the bus needed oil, so the "bus assistant" ran across six lanes of highway to buy a bag of oil and slop it in. But even so, what else can you do but laugh?
On Foot
By far the best method of transportation anywhere, in Colombia the complications of walking generally come in the form of mud or heat. Squishy, noisy, poopy-looking mud across trails abounds, challenging you to find the exact correct footing or else face the consequences.
Heat: it's what's up most days in most places. But no one on any existing travel blogs mentioned that the hike up to Tres Cruces in Cali would be a grueling death march in semi-tropical sun blasts up a chalky rock face. And how is it that at the top of this pilgrimage, there is an outdoor gymnasium - for all the beefy gentlemen who ran up the mountain, just for fitness and fun?
Even so, it seems that the best rewards of this country are only reachable by wandering without expectations - stumbling on an unassuming bread roll or wacky looking piece of fruit, a building that reminds you of somewhere else, or overhearing that one song that you've just started to learn the words to. Through mud, through heat, weaving through the traffic or bouncing along to sidewalk as you greet everyone you see with a smile and a "Buenas!" - it doesn't really matter how you go, as long as you do.
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