On wings of change - part 2 !

After leaving the conference site, and taking a bus, I was 10 hours afterwards back in Bogota city, in Ricardo Gonzalez's house. That dude's family and him have been the warmest people I've met in Colombia throughout my year. At every single moment, they made me feel so at home and so appreciated. Definetely, it's small things that count, and all what they did for me meant the world! :)

One night before I left, Ricardo's mom brought out a box. It was full of cassettes of peruvian music! Many years ago, she had been to Peru and so,she had my "all times" favorites! Such a nice peruvian music collection she has...I'm telling you, that house is just awesome!

The night I was leaving Bogota, they brought me to the bus station, and then, again good-bye hugs were coming... It's so difficult to say good-bye to people you care about... I guess it's somehow like what moms feel when we're being born, as something is breaking apart, but at the same time, you know there's a life time lasting bond between they two.

Nice trip to Cali. I slept most of it. 10 hours, 51 thousand pesos. Took Fronteras.. so comfortable. Two thumbs up!

Then, it was Cali-Ipiales... I was kind of concerned about that trip, cuz everybody had told me there's a red zone near the border with Equator, but it was ok. Actually, I dared to travel at night, and I made it to Ipiales in 10 hours, for 35 thousand pesos. No stops. Safe trip. Comfortable bus again (Transipiales company).

I got to Ipiales, picked up my fridge,..ehem, suitcase (it's just huge!), and took a cab to a park nearby to buy US Dollars (Equator's currency is US Dollars), got there, got the money, and went to the frontier....

Here's the not nice part. I hate it! In spanish they're called "intermediarios". Basically, these people make a living out of doing errands for others. So, once you're there, there are like 8 people all around your cab asking you "whether or not you have a passport, if you need a certificate of this or that, or whether you want to get someone to carry your suitcase"... I just hate it! So, I got out of the cab, and immediately said: Thanks, but I don't need ANY of your services, and turned around.

Bad idea.

One of them started complaining out loud while slowly fleeding away. For a sec, I thought my big mouth got me into trouble. Was already looking around for an officer (just in case). Anyways, nothing happened.

Inmigration office was in the second floor. I was in the first one, with a huge one, and had basically already told everyone to fuck off... :s I pulled my almost falling apart suitcase (it's all damaged :s) to try to lift it myself... in the end, I ate my pride and asked someone for help... got the help, yey!

So, I'm now in the second floor, with huge baggage. And I mean HUGE!!

When I was approaching the windows, one of those "intermediarios" approaches... and asks these tons of weird questions, while I'm trying not to chew his head off... told him I didn't need his help, but he's still around...god, I hated the mtfckr! So annoying!

Waited in line, and once it's my turn, a zillion questions are asked to me: Where's your passport? why you don't have a passport? Where's your safeconduct? what were you doing in Colombia, etc etc.. fortunately I had all the answers and papers ;) I should have been a boy scout in a previous life... or actually nope, cuz if I had been, I would have had my passport robbed :S

After I got my papers ready, I asked someone to help me to get my things down to the first floor (imagine me swallowing my pride). Once down, time to pull! Crossing the border meant crossing a bridge, so much fun!!

While I was in the middle of the bridge, I turned around one last time to take a glance at the country I was leaving behind: My Colombia. So many things going through my head then! I never looked back afterwards....

...To be continued...