Monday, July 18th, 2016

Well, I learned that just Teresa and I are going so the 330mil costs 330mil (about $115) per person.

We got up at 4:45, left the apt at 5:20, took a taxi (for 16,000 pesos) to Parque de Ajedrez and arrived at where we meet the bus at 5:50.  It was a large Greyhound like bus with reclining seats, overhead lamps and A/C.  It also had a bathroom in back but we were warned it was only for peeing.  I had read in Medellin Living that these buses can get real cold so I wore jeans, a t-shirt and my jacket.  Teresa had on short pants a blouse and flip flops. 

They put our small suitcase in the storage under the bus and we left at 6:30.  The bus did a 3 point turn in the street and we headed east.  About a mile away the bus did another 3 point turn and we ended up back where we started; something about someone forgetting their cell phone.  After a few minutes the bus did another 3 point turn and we headed east again.  Thirty minutes later we stopped at the same restaurant - Parador Rancho Alegre – where we always stop on our way to Santafe.  I had calentao, scrambled eggs and coffee and Teresa had a chicken pastry and hot chocolate.  We really needed the stop to warm up because the A/C was turned up high and we were freezing.

An hour later we made another stop and Teresa picked up a pair of socks for 5,000 pesos and a polyester blanket for each of us for 12,500.

We felt much warmer the rest of the way.

View from the bus - lots of green.

View from the bus - more green.

View inside the bus

Two hours later we made another stop for lunch.  No wonder it takes 10 hours to get there – because there are so many stops.  My stomach was starting to feel a little queasy so I just had a fruit salad.  

At one point we drove through what Teresa said is called the Tunel de Ladrones (Tunnel of Thieves) and there was what looked like an army barracks with sandbagged bunkers on the other side.  At another point the road was all dirt and gravel so for a while the driver only did about 20 miles per hour.  I saw a woman sitting on a wooden platform attached to a cable that they pulled from one side of the valley to another.  At another point the police got on the bus and took everyone’s cedula – except mine which for some reason they didn’t want and Teresa’s because she forgot hers.

A couple hours later we stopped again and I thought something had happened – like a problem with the bathroom.  It turned out that while I was napping a woman threw up in front.  They took some extra time to clean everything up.  

I saw fields of banana plants where they had mesh bags around the bananas to protect them from birds.

The last 3 hours was driving on flat land – my stomach was thankful for no more of the back and forth of going through the mountains plus the natural rocking back and forth of the bus itself.

We drove through Necoclí, a town of 48,000 which didn’t have much worth seeing.  We finally arrived at Hotel San Sebastian at 6pm. 

It’s right across the street from the beach and the Pacific Ocean.  The hotel wasn’t anything special but they did have wifi.  Our room was about 10 x 10 with a double bed and single twin bed, a small nightstand, television, and window air conditioner.  The A/C worked and the instructions were in English so I soon had it changed from high fan to low cool and the temp improved shortly.  The bathroom was about 4 x 10 with a shower (no heater, just water coming out of a pipe), a sink that I wasn’t confident would stay in place if I leaned on it and a toilet with no seat.  :(  I plugged in the TV but the remote control didn’t work so all we had was a children’s program.

Right after we arrived the batteries went out in my camera.

For dinner we were directed to a restaurant named Carolina where they served us a ham sandwich on white bread and what was supposed to be a cup of coffee.

After dinner a group of about 8 people put tables together and played a simple game with cards and dice.  I saw some of those little lizards hanging around the bare light bulbs catching ants.

We took our sleeping pills, went to bed and slept soundly until the alarm went off at 7am.  

T-shirt of the day: Hugs not drugs.