In the freezing bus
Don’t believe everything you read (except this blog)
A post or two ago I spoke about bus travel in South America. I boarded the bus from San Gil to Cucuta at around 2pm, and was looking forward to arriving at my host’s house in Cucuta at around 8pm. Wishful thinking. When you look at the bus schedules as published in South America, just add on another hour for every 4 hours of travel that is scheduled. My trip, supposedly 6 hours, turned into a very long one, and I must say not at the fault of our driver.
Long and winding road through the mountains in Colombia
A perfect mess
The trip started out pleasant enough, the weather was good, and the countryside was pleasant to look at. As evening fell, the temperature dropped, and soon it began to rain. Ah poor traveler I was, I had not yet learned the lesson of having to pack a parka and blanket when getting on a night bus. By 6pm it was quite clear that I was not going to reach my host’s home by 8pm. I guesstimated that it would be closer to 10pm, as the rain was slowing us down. As we were driving through the mountains, telephone reception was sporadic, if it was available at all, and the moment I could send a message, I passed along where I was and what my ETA would be. Ah, I was the proverbial babe in the woods. The day trip from Bogota to San Gil had been great, and not at all difficult. This trip, however… By 9pm I knew that any hope of getting to Cucuta before midnight was almost nil. The rain had not let up, but traffic had come to a dead stop – in both directions. I couldn’t see very far ahead, all I could see was the road took a 90 degree curve to the right, and there I saw opposing traffic stopped.
What little heat had been built up by the 30-some odd passengers in the bus against the airconditioning soon dissipated, the driver shut down the engine, and the cold mountain air slowly seeped inside. I had opted for a t-shirt for the trip, and I had brought my jacket on board, my other clothes, including a much warmer hoodie, were in my bag in the storage compartment underneath the bus, buried under all other sorts of luggage. And the temperature continued to drop.
Bogota landmark – Iglesia Nuestra Senora del Carmen
Cold in Colombia
From a distance I could see several red and blue flashing lights making their way toward our area. From behind us came a set of flashing yellow and red lights. Emergency vehicles and tow trucks. By looking at the map I realized that we had waited for nearly an hour for these vehicles to come from the nearest town where such equipment might be available. Over the next 30 minutes, a variety of other vehicles crawled along the shoulders of the road to reach what by now was obvious, an accident scene. The temperature continued to drop. I can’t remember the last time my teeth actually chattered because of the cold, but on this occasion, there were a few instances when they sounded like castanets.
Suddenly the driver started the bus, and we began to move forward. Slowly we made our way to the 90 degree curve in the road. There it became obvious that to our right, there was only a limited shoulder, then a relatively steep drop of around 30 feet. To the left, now out of the traffic lane, stood parked a minibus, its sides dented and scraped. On the right, a similar vehicle had slid down the incline but had remained upright. Passengers from both vehicles stood in groups along the road, waiting to board a recently arrived replacement bus. Luckily, as I found out subsequently, there were no severe injuries.
SIM cards or telephone chips, lifeline when traveling
Nerve-wracking dependence on technology
With the bus in motion again, the temperature slowly crept back up to a more tenable level, and my teeth stopped their melodic chatter, while the rest of my body realized that it was not hibernation season yet. By now it was well after 10pm, and for the past hour I had not been able to send any type of communication to my host, as there was no signal. Anxiously staring at the signal level on my mobile, I suddenly noticed that the battery was also getting dangerously low. I had seen, earlier that day, people reaching below their seats and it seemed they plugged their devices into some sort of socket. I searched frantically, and finally found the usb plug that was positioned underneath and between the two seats I occupied. With a sigh of relief I saw the battery slowly replenishing, and the signal level was at 2 stripes when I sent out an urgent message “arriving probably at midnight. If not convenient to wait, I can find a local hotel”. The little check mark next to the message showed it had been sent, then the dual check mark appeared, confirming that the message had arrived at the recipient’s phone. Then reception disappeared. For the next half hour I kept checking my signal level and my chat application for any new messages, to no avail. It was not until 11pm when we finally left the mountains behind us and communications were restored. A flashing light told me I had received a message:
“No worry, we will wait. Let us know when you get to the bus station, we’ll pick you up.”
It was midnight when I arrived, 4 hours later than scheduled, 2 of those hours due to the accident and rain, the other 2 simply because that’s what you have to add on to bus schedules.
