Thank goodness for ear plugs. As soon as the bus left the station, the lights went out and a baby started crying a few rows back from us. They were also playing Mr. Bean’s Holiday Vacation very loudly and something about an English actor dubbed in Spanish wasn’t my idea of an entertaining movie. So I put my ear plugs in, adjusted my neck pillow, and drifted off to sleep.
Overall I slept pretty good, and more than the guys did. The bus was comfortable to say the least, but it was VERY cold and I wasn’t warmly prepared. I woke up here and there because I felt the bus stopping a lot throughout the trip. I kept wondering why, and often I would peek out the window to see what was going on, but it was raining and dark out and there wasn’t much to see. I think I even had a dream that during one of the stops, militia men came aboard and asked “where are you hiding the Americans?” Damned that guard at the church telling us about the hostages, now I’m going to have nightmares! A few times that I looked out, I would see lightening, and it would light up the mountainside that we were going over. The views were beautiful and in some way, comforting. As it started going from dark to light, the mountainside became breathtaking with the rich, green leaves, and the fog or clouds rolling in. We passed by creeks and crossed over rivers. I saw big houses and run down shacks. Along the roadside were horses and cows (red cows!) and donkeys. And there were people walking along the road, in the middle of nowhere, going to work. Where was work??
We stopped at a rest stop and I got a bite of pollo soup. It was tasty and very welcomed. But mostly the stretching and bathroom break was great. There was a bathroom on the bus, but I was not about to go in there!! Back on the bus I fell back asleep. The soup warmed me up and I forgot about the freezing air that was blowing around me – definitely I’m buying a blanket for the next bus ride! As we kept driving on I admired the yellow and red flowers in the middle of all the greenery. In one spot you’d see a statue of Mother Mary holding baby Jesus, and then a mile later there were signs in Spanish with men that had war painted faces. Every now and then you’d see armed soldiers walking down the roadway, in the middle of nowhere, holding their rifles out for all to see. One area we passed must have been the soldier’s station where they were sitting around tanks, washing their uniforms in a bucket and standing guard.
39km outside of Medellin we passed through a small town called Marinilla, it had been flooded from the rains over the past few days. But kids were happily playing with a balloon, tossing it in the air, and not even concerned about the standing water throughout the town.
We arrived in Medellin around 10am – we were all so happy to get off that bus. The air was a little muggy so I’m guessing it had just rained. We got a taxi and made our way over to the “Pit Stop” hostel which was located in the Southeast end of the city, near the Zona Rosa (Red Zone) area. That is where you usually find the good nightlife and restaurants. Coconut and Gorky were really tired from hardly any sleep on the bus, and they napped for a few hours while I read and explored the grounds. We were in a dorm style room, me with the top bunk again. We had two roomies with us who were passed out, and the room reeked of smelly feet – ugh! The bathroom was big! It had a jacuzzi tub, a sauna, and a shower, except that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go in any of it considering the people that came through there daily. To get away from the smell, I went outside for some fresh air and read by the pool. The place was nice and big, but the rest of the guests were not big on talking and came off very unfriendly. Then it started raining so I went back to the smelly room, opened the window a bit by my bed and laid there watching the rain fall. The boys finally got up, the rain eventually stopped and we all got ready and headed out for some food. Oh what a treat! We ended up at this restaurant called Basilica with a great ambiance and menu option. The food was excellent – we started with tomatoes stuffed with beef, bacon, onions, and cheese with even more loads of cheese melted on top. I had a steak entrée with mozzarella cheese and mushrooms smothered all over it. Omg! I was so ready to pop!
Afterwards we waddled our way to the metro station thinking we would just go venture to the other side of town and see things via the metro line. We got off at Estacion Andalucia and continued on to a cable car that took us way up into the “not so nice” part of the city, but where the views were amazing. You can see the whole city from the top – it was so big, and so heavily populated with house after house, packed so tightly together. We really stood out from the others in the neighborhood. It was like Beverly Hills meets Compton. But the kids there were talkative and asking questions (more so to Gorky since people were attracted to the tall, blonde, white boy!) The adults just smiled at us and stared. It was a little uncomfortable and so we stayed just a few minutes to take some pictures and then quickly left.
We headed back to the Pit Stop and got ready for dinner. It rained off and on through the day so we were hoping to be spared at dinner – we didn’t hope hard enough. Every place that looked good in the square was packed, and considering it was raining heavily now, we just wanted to get out of the rain. So we ate at a place called San Y Carbon. It was a little light on the people there to eat, but it seemed nice enough to hang there and have a few drinks while we let the rain pass by. A few appetizers, some wine and some shots of aguardiente later, we were ready to go out, but it was still pouring! We ran to one place that had good music, but the guys thought it was a “sausage fest”. So we ran to another recommended place that turned out to be hosting a swimsuit competition! The boys enjoyed it immensely of course, and I just kicked back, had a few more rounds of shots and danced a bit to the music. We all were not feeling up to walking back to our place in the rain so we took a taxi, but us feeling tipsy after a few shots was nothing compared to how the driver was probably feeling after the joint he just smoked before picking us up. Wow that taxi just reeked of marijuana! Back in the dorm room, I safely climbed up to the top bunk and passed out – clothes on and all.
