Boarder crossings are fun

To say the least we have had some interesting boarder crossings lately. We entered Ecuador coming from Tarapoto, and everything was going fine on the bus until all of a sudden we stop behind a huge line of buses. The driver gets out to go see what the hold up is, and Leighton and I decide to join him in his quest. We get to the source of our problem and find out it is a huge landslide that has completely blocked the road with big rocks and debris. Some were saying it would take three days for the workers to clear it, others said one day, while others still insisted on only a few hours. Leighton and I just looked at each other and laughed. We had to sleep in the bus that night and in the morning it still was not clear. So with much uncertainty in the air as to when it would be clear, Leighton and I decided to not waist any more time in the area, and crossed the landslide by foot. We get to the other side and immediately find a Combi that would take us to the nearest city. Keep in mind this is basically in the middle of no where, in the mountains. Well we had to transfer Combi’s or Carros about three times until finally arriving to the boarder. Well here is where the story gets funny. The guys at boarder control say that there was a landslide up above that was completely blocking the road and we would have to hike for a minimum of two hours. Again, Leighton and I look at each other and laugh and slap hands. We start walking and not even two minutes into the walk we hit a rough area that would be impossible for any type of automobile to get through, later in the trail we find probably twenty small landslides. I thought it was funny that the guards acted like this landslide had just happened when in reality the road had been blocked for quite a while from any traffic. So it gets dark right before we hit where the landslide was supposed to be. We cross it and walk some more until we find this truck which was supposed to take us to the nearest city called Zumba like one and a half hours away. Well we get to this police stop and they say that we can’t pass until the next day. So we sleep in this town of about fifteen people, and the next day are off for Zumba. That little experience was about four days, just because of landslides blocking the road. Welcome to South America! I will never forget you!

Getting to Colombia was not as fun, we arrived to the boarder coming from Quito at about three in the morning, and we had to wait until six when the immigration office opened up. We got everything cleared in the legal department and were off for the nearest city in taxi. We basically speed through the country and are currently in Cartagena on the Caribbean side waiting for our sailboat to leave for Panama, yippee! Colombia is an incredible country, did you know that there is more North Americans living in Colombia than there are in any other South American country?

More of a reason to travel it!

Sorry for such a boring blog this time, it’s just a little into the loco life that I am living now, hopefully one more month and I’ll be home! Can’t wait! Chau gente! Bendiciones!