Colombia part III

Despite all the warnings we have heard about Colombia, it turned out to be very friendly, polite (and clean!). The people here, quite annoyed with the stigma attached to their country in the rest of the world (Colombia=drugs and gorrillas), are doing their best to prove the opposite. In fact, several people said to us ¨Thank you for visiting our country, now you can tell your friends that Colombia is not what it is said to be, come to my house...¨This family hailed us over from our hitching spot right across from their house. Senora´s son Christian, who is not on the photo, came over and talked to us at length, he brought out for us a local brew that tasted like cider, coffee, cookies and in the end ivited us to his home to have dinner and spend the night.
Hitch-hiking was not the easiest for us here, though. Waiting times ranged from a few hours hours to a few days! Like in Panama, there are way more buses and taxis on the road, and very few big trucks and we seldomly saw a private car. When we saw one, it was usualy brand new and very expensive. Unlike in Panama, there are lots of motorcycles everywhere, which transport everything from entire families (both parents and two kids) to wheelbarrows, shovels, small trees and even washing machines.
We were enchanted by the quality and variety of Colombian bread! Yellow dough, freshly baked practically on every other corner! Often we had our breakfast in bakeries, with a cup of black coffee.
Our most favourite ride from the whole country happened to be the very last one, in the back of truck, on top of sacks of corn. The road was good and the scenery beautiful.

Colombia, part II

At one point in our journey we were feeling quite a big urge to do something physical and also something that would bring some positive and actual results... We were longing for work! We said out loud to the universe that we want to rest from the road and find a farm somewhere in the mountains where the climate is nice and COLD! Within a week our desire materialized and we were on our way to an ecological community ¨Atlantis¨, high up in the mountains.
We spent two weeks there, doing farm work, looking after goats and rabbits, cutting firewood, doing carpentry, cooking over a wood fire and thoroughly resting from the travelling and camping routine.
The community is nearly self-sustaining, producing most of what they eat, including sugar and goat cheese. They have a huge garden, lots of banana trees and a vast sugar cane field.
Strangely, we did not feel like taking a single photo on the farm, neither of the beautiful landscapes nor of the folks. Our camera is dying anyway...
During our stay, we met many neighbours, mostly native people. They came and chatted with us, all of them asking similiar questions. We also encountered a group of fully armed soldiers looking for the guerrillas in the region. They travelled in a big group and every soldier interrogated us, asking the same questions as the friendly locals, except that the locals did not have huge guns slung across their chests and big granades stashed in their front pockets. We guess they were all just bored out of their minds. Two days later, we met the guerrillas themselves, them being very armoured and very friendly with us. They shook our hands and asked how we liked Colombia. When the revolutionaries found out we were from Russia, they started smiling and telling us that they were ¨Marxista-Leninistas¨, too. We smilied in return and nodded our heads.

Half way through Colombia

From the first day of being in Colombia, we met more kindness and hospitality than in all of Central America combined! Bus driver buying us a meal, vacationing family inviting us for a picnik, merchants refusing to accept the payment for a litre of youghourt, families inviting us to stay the night, people on the street starting up friendly conversations...
This friendly family took us up to a mountain stream, where they swam in the cold water and relaxed in the fresh air.
A descriptive name for a youghurt store, isn´t it?
If you show up sweaty and tired, they don´t charge you for what you ask, but instead give sweet treats and wish happy trails.
As we were walking out of Pereira, a couple stopped and invited us to their home to rest for the night. John and Carolina have a small baby, a big dog and a beautiful garden.As soon as we entered their home, the skies opened up and the water came down for a good half hour. We would have been soaked to the bone.
As we parted, they told us to go to Salento, a beautiful town in the mountains nearby. As it was pretty close (20 minutes driving), we decided to walk there. And indeed, we walked most of the way, but as we were about 5 kms outside of town, a car stopped in front of us and the back door was magically flung open...
In Salento, we met Tom, with whom we crossed the San Blas. He told us about a beautful trek nearby, and we all went for a long walk (we estimated that it was about 30 kms in total) the next day. On the way out of town our group was joined by a street dog Mateo, who stayed with us throughout the whole hike.