Nabusimake reflections

Jennifer and I left her friend/our host's house in Barranquilla at 8:30PM Saturday night, after an hour or so hanging with Anthony and his friend at Carnavalada, an outside theater event equally as rambunctious as Carnaval itself. We had called at around noon to confirm that we would be able to catch a bus for Valledupar Saturday night. We arrived at the mini-terminal and requested two spots on the next bus to Valledupar. Without looking up from his keyboard, the agent said that buses stop running at 3:00PM for Valledupar. Steaming livid because of the drastic inefficiency that characterizes transportation in Colombia, I followed Jennfer around to a few buses on the side of the road as she asked if they could bring us. Not one was positive. I finally got tired of dragging my suitcase in the uneven, dirt road, and said we should just go to the terminal.

After talking to every open counter agent at the Barranquilla terminal, we realized we wouldn't make it to Valledupar in a bus Saturday night. So instead we bought tickets to Bosconia, a town 3/4 of the way to Valledupar. We arrived there at 1:00AM, and it was a super sketchy scene, we sat on the side of the road, luckily with other people trying to get to Valledupar, including a woman from the city, waiting for a taxi. Finally one pulled up, already half full of suitcases...??? We took it, and spent the next two hours laughing at the car, which must have had serious transmission problems, because it wouldn't go beyond 2nd gear, and on hills it felt like it would overheat/break down/die at any moment. Once we hit the city, the car died every 29 meters, and he had to turn the ignition over and over while coasting down the sleeping roads of Valledupar.

He brought us to the parking lot of the bus company that travels to Pueblo Bello, the next stop onthe journey. It was 3:00AM, and the gate was closed, so we yelled until the humungously obese guard woke up and let us in. We sat for 2 hours waiting for the company to open. Finally when people started arriving, a man came & had coffee with us (though Jennifer soon deserted me, leaving me super uncomfortable with this dude to get a contact for our return trip Thursday). He basically insinuated that he wanted to marry me, and I found myself making up a false husband of 1.5 years. Haha!

We headed out around 5:30, 4 women including Jennifer & me in the back seat row of a 4-door pick up truck, and Jennifer instantly fell asleep on the ther woman's shoulder. I opted for the window, but the road became supremely bumpy, and I'm sure I arrived with a welt on my forehead.

Pueblo Bello is a tiny, single street town in the middle of the Sierra, the beginning of the South American Andes. We had breakfast - eggs & beans & fried arepas - delicious! We then H headed for the office of the company that would deliver us to Nabusimake, the land where the sun is born, center of the Aruhaca people of coastal Colombia.

The ride to the village was the most uncomfortable travel experience I have ever had, and that is saying a lot... We traveled probably 15-20 miles into the mountains, but the "road" is dirt and cracked and mountainside and rock and needless to say, UNEVEN! We bumped our way there for 2 hours.

We arrived midday Monday to the village. We left Thursday morning at 5:00AM. I will write about those days, and post some of the few photos I was allowed to take, when I am back in Ibagué, the 17th. But until then, it was a very interesting, enriching, exciting, and inspiring visit. :)