Cartagena to Bogota

On the last day in Cartagena we had a big breakfast and then took a cab drive to the bus terminal. The bus terminals are always in the seediest parts of town but Steph found a bus and we were on our way within an hour. We got frisked and bags checked before going in which was a bit of a worry since I was wearing all my cash in my money belt. However, they only did a cursory one on us. I think the men were a bit embarrassed at haveing to check us western women. Then the trip started and for the first four hours we made almost no progress at all. In fact if you can look at a map we went in the wrong direction, going up to Santa Marta before heading south on what is part of the Pan American Highway. I checked the map and realised that we were going to go through all of Santander which is a level 5 area. In the night tried to use the loo while the bus was bumping down the road while not actually touching the toilet seat which was pretty disgusting. We bought some arepas from a vendor who came in on the bus and gave them the aussie treatment by smearing them with vegemite. Before we left we asked a street vendor to fill our plastic tupperware box with fruit (mangoes, papaya and watermelon) and that was our dinner and breakfast.

In the morning we watched as the bus crawled up the misty mountains. The right lane was a long unbroken line of semi-trailers so we spent most of the time in the left lane. Lots of honking but then that´s the traffic everywhere.

When we got to Bogota we had been on the bus for 21 hours. Fast really. We thought it was going to take 24. Only one holdup and that was by police who made everyone get out and examined the bus inch by inch, looking under seats with torches but found nothing.

So Bogota. We had a huge lunch and then a sleep. The altitude or the bus ride has made us a little sleepy but now it´s evening and we are going to the main plaza to look at the Christmas tree and lights. Cool. Literally. It´s quite cold here because of the altitude!!