Traveling in any country it typically takes a few days, even weeks, to figure out the bus systems. Colombia is no exception. There are so many options: long haul direct luxury, long haul indirect pain inducing, regional station to station, regional jump on anytime, city metro with ticket, city wooden benches with peso..... It is impressive and intimidating all at the same time. So, when you find yourself on a regional bus traveling 20 kilometers for .60 cents you can't help but feel a sense of accomplishment. The fact your right thigh is falling asleep does not detract from the celebratory sensation of "I got this!" We may look like tourists, but we travel like locals.
Traveler beware: it's about this time you'll get a reality check.
"Do you go to Salento?" we ask the bus driver in the Pereira bus station. "Sí!" he replies with gusto as he motions us to follow. We return his smile and fall into step behind him. We know we are close to Salento, within 40 kilometers, so the bus will be regional. The level of "regionalness" will be directly related to its price, and this bus looks cheap. Yes! You can imagine our surprise when 25 minutes into the trip the driver pulls to the side of the highway, calls out "Salento!" to the foreigners in the back, and waits for us to exit. We ask, "Salento?" He replies "Salento", and motions with his hand to cross the road. Hummmm..... it's occurring to us that something got lost in translation. Bags on our backs, watching the bus pull away, we take a moment to look around. Yep, we are indeed on the side of a lonely highway with no town in sight. We look at each other and can't help but laugh. This leg of the trip is not in Lonely Planet. Time to regroup. The driver did gesture to cross the road. So we do. Sure enough there is an off ramp with a sign that says Salento. Ok, the driver was right. We'll walk towards the sign. Salento must be right around the bend (there's always a bend). The walk appears all downhill and really quite beautiful. We got this (really)! 20 minutes later, and sufficiently around the bend, we see the sign: Salento 20 kilometers. Time for plan B.
Hindsight? If you want to travel like a local, it's best to know your local geography. Lesson learned? Our Spanish skills could use improvement. Interpretation of driver's instructions after the fact? Walk across the road and you will see a bench. Wait there for the next bus to Salento. One comes by every 20 to 30 minutes.
Luckily the bus was a regional "jump on anytime". And really, the stroll downhill towards town was quite nice. When the road started to climb, we waited for our bus.
All's well that ends well. The learning continues.
You are so flexible! How does your hairS still look so good? (What a t'ing to notice -- yikes.) xo
ReplyDeleteLynette