Southwest Colombia: Transportation

  One of the issues of visiting the off-beaten sites in Colombia is the lack of really timely transportation and good roads.  Although we saw a ton of places and had a great time, we spent hours upon hours in all modes of transportation.  

  A popular and faster way of getting from one place to the next was by collectivo.  This is a ten-passenger van that leaves only when it has all its passengers, which could mean a wait of an hour or more.  We learned not to trust the men who told us the collectivo would be leaving in 15 minutes.  Uh huh, more like 45.  

  On both buses and collectivos, more often than not, they gave us the preferential treatment and allowed us to sit in the front with the driver.  Although carsickness wasn't as big of a problem, there was often less leg room in the front (especially when you have to squeeze your legs together so the driver can shift), and occasionally, you'd get that annoying driver who would try having a conversation while driving on pothole-filled dirt roads in the middle of a rainy night and insist on slowing down the van to look over as you try to respond to his mumbled Spanish.  No worries, dude: I don't mind you hitting my thigh every time you start talking to me, and yes, I love the fact that you're driving five miles per hour and making this four-hour bus ride turn into seven.  No biggie.  Let's just say my normally cheerful disposition turned murderous that night.  

  All the streets are two-laned and some just one, which makes huge semis passing each other a magic trick.  Seeing as how we were driving through the Andes the whole time, we were constantly on the sides of sheer cliffs, just waiting to plummet down to our deaths by one wrong move by the driver.  Construction was going on everywhere.  Each ride took one to two hours longer than predicted to get to our destination because every 500 meters or so we had to stop and wait for the construction lady to tell us to pass.  One time, we waited forty-five minutes at a stop due to an accident further up the road.  

  This waiting led to some major dehydration, as we didn't know exacly when we'd be stopping next, and the constant presence of switchbacks meant there was no privacy to use the restroom.  A benefit to all this bumpy road travel was an increase in leg muscles due to tensing our muscles so as not to fall off the seats and excellent abs from all the bouncing.