Buses in Latin America

All Latin American buses are not like the old Mexican chicken buses.  Actually, in our visit to Ecuador and Colombia, we haven't seen a single bus like that.

But we have seen various other kinds of buses.  For example, there is the large "executive" style bus with adequate leg room, seats wide enough for the average fanny, video screens on the back of every seat with various movies or music available for free (including headsets).  The actual seats are ergonomically designed and recline more than airline seats. These buses are air conditioned with windows that don't open and a bathroom in the back - to be used ONLY for urinating (which the conductor strongly emphasizes to each user).

Not made for foreigners

Then the next level bus is more . . . common.  Often the seats are not wide enough for a thin person's width, making it necessary for a normal sized person to flow over into their neighbor's seat or into the aisle.  Especially in Ecuador, these buses are used to transport all manner of freight, from huge sacks of potatoes to large bins and boxes all over the Andes, twisting, jerking and jolting around the extremely windy roads.

The most, absolute most, irritating aspect of this most-common type of bus is the tradition for the bus to stop and allow vendors onto the bus.  Down the bus aisle they stream, each loudly yelling the names of the goods they're selling. One after another, after another, after another in a seemingly endless stream these vendors create a parade. Mandarins, strips of fresh mango, water, soda, homemade fruit juices, breads, pastries, traditional food items, jewelry.  And our journey has to pause for this raucaus circus to end - usually in the heat of the sun baking the bus.

Then there are the vans with seats enough for about 12 passengers.  In some ways this type of transport is better.  They leave more often which is convenient.  They don't have room for vendors to come on board.  All the vans I've boarded are fairly old and show their wear - but they're not rattle-traps. 

Just over the border from Ecuador in Southern Colombia we took a fairly long trip in one of these vans.  Jeff sat in the front passenger seat and I sat between him and the driver.  And this driver thought he was a race car driver - clearly the worst daredevil I've seen.  As he jerked us in and out of lines of vehicles for many, many miles of windy, hair-pin turns in the Andes, I tried (for dear life) to not bump into the driver who was sitting right next to me and be responsible for killing a whole van full of people. That was a stressful ride.  Normally it's much better, thank God!

Manizales to Bogota:
So we chose an executive bus to travel east from Manizales to Bogota.  It was nine hours of unending twists over the Andes, down to the Rio Magdalena (remember that from 5th grade social studies?), and back up to over 8000 feet as we neared Bogota and it's 7 million people. At least these bus seats were comfortable and they let me stand up whenever I wanted to. 

Everyone has warned us of the dangers of Bogota. To the point that we had NO desire to deal with the bedlam of such a huge disorganized and scary town where avoiding being robbed in a taxi has resulted in an elaborate system of taxi numerology.

I have to stress that we so, SO didn't want to ride another bus, but we still opted for the less distressing option, immediately hopping on yet another one to get the hell out of Bogota.  So after a short stop at the Bogota bus terminal we hit the road, northward bound for several more hours to the small town of Zipaquira, a dot on the map which we figured was the way to our current destination of Villa de Leyva.

Really, we'd heard Villa de Leyva was a lovely location however we just needed to pass a couple of more days until our departure date from Bogota.

Bus lunch: granadilla, pitahaya, mango, wheat bread, and water - YUM!!!

Ch - Ch - Ch - Changes

We'r'e continually amazed by how our travel plans emerge and evolve from minute to minute, based on advice, reading, and . . . sometimes, sheer whim. Gladly we're not too old to thrive on a sense of adventure, destiny, and flexibility.  Without these, we'd be stodgy and boring . . . to ourselves and to others.

Case in point: I was focused on our next stop being a revisit to the large city of Medellin 40 years after my first trip to Colombia. We had even met a Doctor in Salento who kindly offered his home as a place we could stay in Medellin.

Yet as we reviewed our final week in Colombia and all the areas we still wanted to see - Medellin was Northwest and we needed to end up in Bogota to the east. Too many windy, Andean bus kilometers by far!

Back to the drawing board (otherwise known as the Lonely Planet for Colombia book).  In reading about somewhat nearby Manizales, a city of 400,000 on the way to Bogota, it sounded attractive so we switched plans.

But when we arrived, we were immediately reminded that we don't like large, disorganized, crowded cities. We managed to navigate to the recommended hostel, met the somewhat hostile, cold desk clerk, took one look at the rain-stained, moldy ceilings and switched plans. We rebooted our plans again.  We walked off, suitcases in tow, with no idea of where to go from there.  Voila!  Just across the street we found the Kaymandu Hostel where we were greeted with a warm smile by the owner Juan, and offered a lovely room.

You all know we are not city-people. That secret is out. So it was "interesting" to visit Manizales, but there is no love affair to report here.  Just another case of having to plow through the overwhelming barrage of rushing people, buildings, sooty exhaust,  street dogs, and other endless obstacles.

The main boulevard traverses the top of a high ridge perhaps 3 miles long, and it includes modern high rise buildings, shopping centers, and traffic - loads of traffic. The more modest residential sections cling to the sides of the ridge. And a thousand feet below in the valley is the brand new bus terminal from which you travel up to the city center via taxi, bus, or ... the inexpensive Disney-style cable lift.

Our 2 days in Manizales were a little haphazard. We tried to visit some local towns and attractions. The botanical garden was disappointing- more a historical concept than a current reality.  The largest bamboo structure in Colombia closed 25 minutes before we  managed to get there on the city buses. Then the small towns of Palestina and Chinchina were unremarkable.

What are we doing here?

As usual, our interactions with the people were the true treasure.

One after another in separate conversations, our friends at the hostel Olga, Juan, and Lina all insisted we must visit Villa de Leyva before leaving Colombia.

Yes that fits perfectly! Thank you!!











Now we know why we needed to come to Manizales!


And now we have an energizing new travel plan that will carry us through our final days in Colombia.

We are on the road again.