Later that afternoon we stopped to stretch our legs and agreed to camp on the beach near Tolú rather then pushing on to the chaos of Cartagena in the dark. Just outside of Tolú we found a good spot for 5,000COP each, this included a shower, toilet and car camping in a grass lot just off the beach. We all immediately went for a swim in the ridiculously warm ocean, that offered only mild relief from the sweltering heat. It was our first swim in the sea since we began the trip and our first ever swim in the Atlantic Ocean! We lazed away the afternoon then prepared some food to cook over a beach bonfire. With the good company and a few beers we had a magic evening. However once we got into bed the heat inside the car was unbearable even with the windows open. The back windows have mosquito nets taped over them so when they are down we can sleep mosquito free. But for further respite from the heat we decided to oped the rear door as well which made things a lot cooler but brought with it an onslaught of mosquitos despite the repellant we had both put on. Then the music next door started and continued until 5am so we didn't really get any sleep at all that night and we knew we needed to do something soon otherwise sleeping in Cartagena would be difficult to say the least.
After our wonderful time with the Buitrago family stopping in Salento for more than a few hours didn't seem worth it so we pressed on to our next stop Hacienda Venecia near Manizales. A popular coffee farm and hostel where we could sleep in the car and use the pool. We arrived that evening just in time for dinner and booked their coffee tour for the next morning. The coffee tour was ok not quite as good as tripadvisor reviews had made it out to be. We didn't even get to try any coffee but we did get to see the growing and harvesting process again in a more commercial setting. We also learnt that coffee plants have a twenty year life span and are cut right back to the roots every five years. The only coffee we had there was when we joined a couple the night before to the tour room where they wiped us up a milky expresso free of charge. We were almost beginning to like coffee but still needed sugar and ideally milk to make it drinkable. After the tour we pushed on to Medellin though the drive took longer than expected after we were stopped for two hours by a road block protest. The long line of vehicles was being patrolled by soldiers keeping the peace and street vendors as always. Finally in Medellin we were pleasantly surprised to find a truly beautiful modern city, with its towering orange brick clad apartment blocks adding to the look. Over budget we stayed in another parqueo which turned out to be nicer than many hostels, it had covered secure parking, little noise and a shower in the bathroom, jackpot! Over night we read about a highly recommended 'free' walking tour of the city so in the morning we drove to the Black Sheep hostel (owned by an ex New Zealander) who the tour was run through. We booked the afternoon group and the owner agreed to let us camp in the driveway for the amazing price of 10,000COP or $7NZ. So we spent the morning in one of the huge five story malls that had a massive flower display for the up and coming flower festival we would be missing. We walked around feeling poor but eventually found Will some reasonably priced sunglasses after his last ones broke. In the afternoon we caught the nice metro to the meeting point for the walking tour. Our guide Pablo arrived a little late and seemingly exhausted having come straight from the morning tour that ran overtime. Though after a drink and a sit down he was back into it and we begun the excellent but not really free tour that lasted four hours. The tour took us through some of the back streets in order to experience the 'real' city Pablo explained. We also learnt about the cities violent history which meant that less than ten years ago even locals were scared to walk through many of the places we were taken. One question came up about why the police appear so young around Medellin. Our guide explained that during the notorious reign of the drug lord Pablo Escobar (not to be confused with our guide) he put a bounty on the police paying $1000USD cash to anyone who shot and killed a police officer and brought him his badge… incredibly over 600 police officers were subsequently executed this way. Pablo also explained the mentality of the local Paisa people who believe that they are perhaps a little better than other Colombians and in our experience we have to agree overall the cities of the Paisa people were nicer, safer and felt less confrontational then the rest of Colombia we visited both before and after. We were sad to leave Medellin and felt that we hadn't been in such a pleasant city since Santiago, Chile but time was of the essence. Our last Colombian stop before making the drive to the port of Cartagena was in the town of Guatape. Said to overlook a beautiful hydro lake with cutely decorated old buildings we were shocked to see that the hydro lake level was much much lower than normal. This turned the lake front into a swamp front and must have been costing local tourist companies a bomb in lost business. According to one local there was nothing they could do about it as the hydroelectric company owned the lake so could do what they liked with the water level. It certainly made us grateful for the Resource Management Act we have back in New Zealand. After a beer and fries we drove to La Piedra Del Peñol which is a enormous lone rock with a 725 step staircase built into a crack on the side. At the top we had fantastic views of the many winding arms of the hydro lake that maintained its beauty at this distance. We mucked around at the top for a while killing time as we planned to camp in the car park that night. From the top we spotted a Swiss plated van and headed back down to meet them. Michael, Martina and dog Killa (said Ki-ya) had been traveling and surfing their way around South America for nine months and like us planned to ship from Cartagena to Panama in the next week or two. We spent the night together under the shelter of their awning as lighting cracked around us and rain poured down. We discussed the possibility of sharing a container together for the shipping but in reality we wanted to ship a week earlier than they did. The next day we meet up again on the road and decided to travel together for the three day drive to Cartagena. We didn't travel very far that day due to hours spent in road blocks and resulting heavy traffic so just as it got dark we pulled into a gas station for the night. Together we had dinner at the restaurant next door and Will and I remembered it was our four year anniversary, haha what a place to spend it! After a hot, sweaty sleep we showered in the gas station 'ducha' and returned to the road with the aircon pumping. Before long we arrived in the town of Taraza so we stopped for some food supplies, while outside a man told us that we better keep going while we can as another protest/road block was about to start. We did just in time as the other direction was already closed and we passed hundreds of fallen trees that had obviously blocked the road in previous protests.
Later that afternoon we stopped to stretch our legs and agreed to camp on the beach near Tolú rather then pushing on to the chaos of Cartagena in the dark. Just outside of Tolú we found a good spot for 5,000COP each, this included a shower, toilet and car camping in a grass lot just off the beach. We all immediately went for a swim in the ridiculously warm ocean, that offered only mild relief from the sweltering heat. It was our first swim in the sea since we began the trip and our first ever swim in the Atlantic Ocean! We lazed away the afternoon then prepared some food to cook over a beach bonfire. With the good company and a few beers we had a magic evening. However once we got into bed the heat inside the car was unbearable even with the windows open. The back windows have mosquito nets taped over them so when they are down we can sleep mosquito free. But for further respite from the heat we decided to oped the rear door as well which made things a lot cooler but brought with it an onslaught of mosquitos despite the repellant we had both put on. Then the music next door started and continued until 5am so we didn't really get any sleep at all that night and we knew we needed to do something soon otherwise sleeping in Cartagena would be difficult to say the least.
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Before we went to stay with the Buitrago family in the small town of Pueblo Tapao ten minutes from Armenia we spent one enjoyable night in the city itself. Armenia had a very different feel to other cities we had been in during our time in Colombia mainly because it felt safe. It was a nice change to walk around freely in a clean city with wide footpaths and not too many street dogs. We stayed near the university and ate from the cheap uni food stalls which included Mexican for dinner. The next morning we spent a bit of time on the internet before driving out to Pueblo Tapao to meet the Buitrago's. Our instructions were to drive to the hardware store in town then give them a call, as it turns out the family own the hardware store and the supermarket next to it. They sat us in the office and discussed what we wanted to do that afternoon. Eventually it was decided that we would go and see a local coffee farm as they couldn't believe we had never seen a coffee plant before. We drove out to the farm with José and sons Esteban (17) and Jacobo (15), when we arrived José asked for a quick tour from the owner who obliged. With Esteban and Jacobo acting as translators we were taken through the process of sprouting new plants from beans in sand, then the harvesting of the ripe red fruit. To acquire the bean the fruit is split open mechanically and then the resulting bean with its sweet outer coating is washed in a large tank. The beans are then split into first and second grades and taken to be dried. The drying takes between 12-24 hours to achieve around a 12% water content left in the bean. The bean then has a final outer shell to be removed which comes off like sawdust. The resulting greyish green bean is then ready to be sent to the coffee co-operatives for roasting or export un-roasted. The process is very self sufficient with the red skin of the fruit being used as fertiliser and the dried inside shell being burnt to fuel the furnace that dries the next lot of beans. It was an excellent tour of a real working small scale coffee farm, but there was more to come… Next we were taken to a nearby quality testing coffee lab where we were taught about the further grading of the beans into twelve categories and the roasting process. The girl that worked there said she spent her days preparing and taste testing coffee but still enjoyed drinking it at home. Just as we were about to leave we saw a man loading up his packaged roasted coffee into his truck. José stopped him in his tracks and brought two bags of his very special coffee including one he insisted was a gift for my parents back in NZ. It didn't get much better buying local quality coffee straight from the source rather than from the huge co-operatives, we can't help but squeeze the bag every now and then to get a whiff of the delicious smell inside. That evening we were shown to where we would be staying. Not only did the place have a pool but it was five minutes drive away from the Buitrago's house and had a live-in family who took care of the property and opened the gate for us. The getaway was clearly set up for entertaining with a separate kitchen, three bathrooms, over ten beds and large outdoor table. Back at the family's tasteful home we explained that we had never tried an Arepa (a sort of fried corn based pita bread) so mum Sonia decided to take us out to try one for dinner. We arrived at a small local restaurant and were quickly presented with delicious Arepa's stuffed with the filling of our choosing and accompanied by fresh fruit juice. We haven't managed to find one as nice again since. Both José and Sonia made a big effort to talk to us during dinner even though our Spanish is still terrible luckily Jacobo and Esteban helped keep the conversation understood. What an unforgettable first day we had just spent with this family who were little more than strangers the day before. Last night at dinner we also mentioned that our rear brakes were badly worn so in the morning we followed José and the boys into Armenia to get our brakes replaced. They took us to the best guy in town and he begun work immediately which is not something we have experienced in South America very often, if at all. The brakes would be resurfaced, as factory replacements for the Dodge's rear drum shoes weren't available. Then it was back to the hardware store to discuss what we could do that day. However our plans to see one of the Buitrago's farms were put on hold after a worker at one of the farms badly cut his finger needing a trip to the hospital so we were dropped off at the coffee park or Parque Nacional del Café instead. We weren't sure what to expect at the coffee park but we didn't imagine so many theme park rides. We decided to make the most of it and blew the budget by buying a seven ride package deal. We went on the roller coaster, racing cars and got soaked on the rapids and log flume but the highlight was the coffee show which depicted the history of coffee through a spectacular local dance performance. That afternoon we picked up the Dodge and immediately noticed the huge difference the new brake pads made to our stopping ability. That evening the family were each doing their own thing but recommend we try the Asado steak house in town and we are glad we did! The service was excellent and the food even better, we would go as far as saying they were the best beef steaks we have had in South America. The following morning Esteban picked us up and took us out to one of their farms or finka's. We passed many old Willy's Jeeps on the way that were suddenly everywhere in this part of Colombia and Will was dying to take a ride in one. At the farm we wandered around in the sun looking at their crops of plantain, oranges, yuka and pumpkins as well as admiring their fine horses. Over a coke on the porch Will mentioned how much we would love to go on a horse rinding adventure and Esteban said we could maybe go the next day! Back at the family house we had lunch of fish, salad and platano followed by a home made tiramisu cooked by José's mum that we quickly finished off. Afterwards we drunk coffee with José and Sonia and admired the interesting wooden furniture they had around the house especially the big square table outside. José explained that they had brought it all from a local wood worker and asked if we would like to go and see his workshop. We quickly agreed and spent the afternoon being wowed by the unique designs of the mans tables, chairs and bed heads. While relaxing over a drink in some of the wooden chairs we discussed the possibility of going horse riding the next day. José jumped on the idea and gave us a cheeky smile when we said that we would like to do a real trek not some sissy half hour around a paddock. Immediately Sonia was on the phone organising things. In the morning we were picked up early and taken into town. In town Sonia brought up large for our picnic lunch of empanadas, chorizo and potatoes. We tried to pay for something but they so kindly insisted otherwise. Then with the boys on the back of the truck along with a heap of saddles we drove out to the farm where we found that lots of organisation had already taken place. The horses had been brought in and more saddles were hanging up on the fence ready to be put on. About an hour later all seven of us were ready to ride including José, Sonia, Esteban, Jacobo, Me, Will and the families friend/worker who carried the lunch. Some of the horses were a little frisky at first as they hadn't been ridden for a while, but the experienced riders handled them with ease and I was glad to have the older calm horse. We lined up for the mandatory photo and then set off down the gavel road passing through small villages before stopping at a local eatery for a cold drink. We felt like we were in a movie with the horses tied up in a line outside, sombrero and ponchos on and Spanish music filling our ears. For the next couple of hours we rode down a steep section of hill country with both José and I once needing to quickly dismount after our horses got stuck in some deep mud. Down at a stream we splashed around with the horses and my strong horse even lay down in the water for a moment with me on it then stood back up all like it was nothing. Then we had lunch under a huge tree and the watchful eye of some nearby cattle, all this and the trip had only just begun. After lunch we crossed a long bouncing swing bridge on horseback then meet up with another family at their farm who also planned to go riding. We stopped for a short time and were quickly offered fresh juice before we remounted and headed off in a group of about thirteen. We road down more steep hills, through shallow rivers and between jungle vines before returning to the friends farm. My legs were starting to hurt a little at this stage, I'd never ridden a horse this far before let alone on uneven terrain and for those that don't know I'm actually allergic to horses so I took a few antihistamines and packed plenty of tissues but other than a few sneezes I was fine. After Will had a cooling swim in the river it was time to make our way home, the view unreal as the setting sun cast a stunning light over the picturesque countyside. The horses knew it was home time and started traveling a lot faster even galloping down the road which was a little scary for me but fun all the same. We arrived back at the farm in the dark and quickly un-saddled the horses before returning to the Buitrago home for pizzas and a selection of exotic fruits. Under Sonia's instruction we tried to speak only Spanish and throughly enjoyed our last evening with the family. What an unbelievable day we had just had! They certainly gave us the horse trekking adventure we were after and more. We finally made it to Macoa after driving the eventful Trampolín de la Muerte and found a nice place to stay using trip advisor, though we had to ask a taxi to lead us to the place which was difficult to locate even with 3G on the iPhone. The hostel was called Casa del Rio and for 7,000COP each we camped in the car close to the river and took cold naked showers in the totally open outdoor setting. However inside the fully equipped kitchen and TV lounge was a great place to hangout. In the morning a group of tiny monkeys entertained us over breakfast before we hit the road yet again. I almost forgot to write about our time in San Augustin probably because the ruins we had driven to see there were very over-rated and well over-priced. They had all been moved from their original positions and were so overly restored they looked like large new garden ornaments brought from the local garden centre. The most interesting parts were the few old photos from the original excavations in the early 1900's and the carved out river pools. However the highlight of San Agustin was randomly catching up with our overlanding German friends Oliver and Isabel at the campground and Will seemed to enjoy having a wash in the bamboo walled outdoor shower. The next day after paying a small fortune in road toll fees (as usual in Colombia so I wont mention it again) we eventually made it to the Tatacoa Desert. It wasn't quite as big as we had thought but that didn't matter, the weather was warm, we had good food for dinner and we parked right next to the best view around. However the best part was meeting two lovely Colombian families who offered to have us come and stay with them in Armenia! That night though we discovered it was Colombian Independence Day (20th July) and many partying youths had used the holiday as an opportunity to set up camp next to us and play loud music until the wee hours, then be sick in the bathroom in the morning thank goodness for ear plugs. We packed up that morning and had another cold naked open shower pretending like we were European or something and ignored the early morning tourists who walked by; next stop Bogota. We followed a gravel road with many confusing branches through a tunnel and over a bridge through another tunnel and back onto the main road. Here we rejoined the queue of endless trucks on their way to Bogota and fought for our place on the road as we passed in between them. We found Bogota to be an unremarkable place with a feeling that made you lock your doors at all times while driving and put your phone deep inside your pocket away from interested eyes. We spent the afternoon driving around looking for a map store and stopped after spotting a huge Panamericana book shop. We parked in a nice new parqueo nearby and finally found the road map of Colombia we had been searching for, though it was quite pricy. Afterwards the smell from the golden arch's lured us into the nearby mall for an early dinner. Having downed a Big Mac we walked around the mall and found that we should probably leave as it was full of an alarmingly large number of sex shops. So we made our way to the camping log recommended parqueo right in the centre of Bogota's thriving La Candelaria district. The camping log explained that the parqueo had been owned by the same lovely family for more than 30 years who enjoy having overlanders and offer a very basic bathroom for use. But while the family were very friendly the place really needed some TLC. In 30 years there had clearly been very little development to the lot that housed at least three families in not much more than shacks, with one horrendous smelling urinal next to the bathroom and an outside tap that everyone collected their water from. So once we found out that the Museo del Oro (Gold Museum) was closed on Monday's we decided instead to leave the parqueo early and head to the Catherdral del Sal about 55km north in Zipaquira. Still yet to have a hot private shower since entering Colombia. At the Catherdral del Sal we stupidly brought the ticket that included the museum. If your going there don't bother with the underground museum, it's small and most of it you can see by looking down the holes from the top and the staff couldn't give a stuff. The Salt Cathedral however is fantastic; we went without a guide as you need a minimum of five people to get an English speaking guide and we were there too early for the tour buses. So we made our way underground through the changing colours of the entrance tunnel. Inside we walked past many creatively lit stone crosses each set into large rectangular sections of the old salt mine. Deeper inside the huge pillars and massive Chapel were majestic even with the building work that was going on. Next it was onto the money making area where shops and stalls sold everything from Emeralds, jewellery, t-shirts, crafts, coffee and popcorn for the 3D underground movie that we were about to watch. The movie was ok it could have had a lot more information and while the English subtitles were good they confused your eyes a bit during the 3D parts. Finally we watched a huge ceiling light show about Colombia before making our way back to the surface. That afternoon we drove back to Bogota and convinced the man at the nicer parqueo opposite the Panamericana book shop to let us sleep in the car while parking there. He took a bit of convincing but said we defiantly wouldn't be safe parking on the street so eventually agreed. This time our parqueo accommodation had clean smooth asphalt for us to cook dinner on and a nice new toilet for us to use, still no shower though. In the morning we drove into town, found yet another parqueo to park in and walked a few blocks to the famous Gold museum. Here we paid extra for the English audio guide which was very good though a little too detailed in places. The displays were very extensive housing a huge collection across the ages all showing different methods and styles of using gold to make ornaments and clothing. After two and a half hours in the museum we were done and then spent a while walking around the downtown area. Lunch involved grabbing a oily deepfried meat empanada that did not at all resemble the baked pastry empanadas we had come to love in Chile, but all the same they still taste great. That afternoon we had a vague plan to drive back south then west to the coffee region where we had two nights to kill before going to stay with the family from Armenia. We left Bogota around 3:30pm and by dark we had made it to the town of Ibague. I was driving so it was Wills job to hop out and ask about motel rooms and prices. After the fifth time he found a place that suited our budget and included parking so we checked in. The car parking was around the corner so the owner called an armed security guard to escort us both there and back. We then wanted to go out and grab some dinner but the owner wouldn't let us leave explaining it was very unsafe. Instead he phoned up and ordered in pizza for us which we ate room service style in bed. We weren't sure about his advice it didn't seem so bad not compared to some of the streets we had driven down in Bogota thanks to google.
In the motel room the time had now come for a hot, private shower with a mirror… heaven. An hour later I emerged clean as a whistle with smooth legs and two eyebrows. But the hot water was over rated as I was sweating again in the heat within two minutes. It wasn't until morning that we found the switch for the fan. We had finally driven away from the rain and cold into the sun and heat. In the morning we were allowed out for breakfast all be it with many cautions. Then we picked up the car and hit the road with the wondrous air conditioning that hasn't yet broken on full blast making a bee line for Armenia. Oh yes an I'll mention it quickly because your probably sick of hearing about the Dodge problems and I'm sick of writing about them. In Bogota we heard more strange noises coming from the rear wheels and a quick inspection showed that now both sides of the hand-break cable have broken off. We also lost a rams head wheel nut cover for one of the wheels so the Dodge looks as ruff as ever. Additionally because of our stolen side mirror and the impossibility of seeing out the back window Will backed into a car who had sneaked in behind us after only pulling over for two minutes. Eventually this resulted in us paying $80us to the owner who had a tow bar sized hole punched in his bumper. To top it all off when we drove from Ibague to Armenia we used the engine to help brake behind the thousands of slow trucks on the winding up and down roads to save our badly worn brakes. At some stage the electric cooling fan stopped working so the Dodge over heated and our anti boil coolant boiled and started spewing out all over the road. After letting it cool for a while we went back to using the brakes but the front ones that were doing all the work over heated and we came close to rear ending a truck that stopped suddenly. Don't get us wrong through we still love the Dodge, its going to go all the way to Alaska whether it likes it or not! Rochelle & Will Colombia had been highly recommended by almost every traveller we had met, only our parents and those that hadn't been there were concerned for our safety. We heard comments about the friendliness of Colombians, who unlike other more popular South American countries had not yet gotten sick of the never ending flow of tourists. We wondered though if Colombia was so well liked by many overlanders coming from the north as its their first taste of South America similar to how we felt about Bolivia. So far we've had mixed results. Before entering Colombia we had to wait in a huge line of people to get our Ecuadoran exit stamp, but because we had entered at a remote border we weren't in the computer system so we had to get three photocopies of our passport photo page and entry stamp. But it was 6:30 at night and for some reason all the Ecuadoran photocopiers were closed so we had to walk across the border bridge into Colombia to get them done. Then it was onto the Colombian customs where the whole process went smoothly but of course required yet more photocopies. However we did receive a very friendly "Welcome to Colombia!" with our entry stamps. At 7:30pm we were officially into Ipiales, Colombia and looking for a place to stay. Luckily this was one of those rare occasions where we checked the guide book for a cheap place with parking, found the street on google maps and drove straight to it! It was a pretty run down place with a cold shower but we didn't complain, instead grateful we had found a bed so easily we called it a night. First thing the next morning we got the mandatory SOAT insurance for 66,000 Colombian pesos (COP) which included a commission, but later our friends pointed out they recorded our car as having only a 1400cc engine, oh well. Next we brought a SIM card for my iPhone our first since Bolivia to use to help organise our shipping to Panama. Then we brought some bread and got in trouble for throwing away the receipt before leaving the shop and proceeding to get lost looking for the famous Las Lajas Cathedral not far away. Once we found it the next problem was a carpark as the place was chocka full even on a Tuesday morning. Eventually we paid a lady to park in her driveway but frustrations were starting to run a little high. The parking task over we walked down the busy path to the Cathedral and wandered around for a while enjoying the fairytale views of the gothic styled church set on a bridge spanning a steep river valley. In need of a paper colombian map we drove the 90km to the town of Pasto. Having read in the guide book about a map store we stopped briefly to check it out. This was one of those times where we drove round in circles looking for the place then got out of the car for five minutes to look for it and still couldn't find it. But after seeing a hairdresser lock her and her client inside the barred salon we got the feeling that this was a somewhat dodgy area so walked back to the car. As it turns out it was a dodgy area as five minutes was all it took for someone to steal the glass/mirror out of our passenger side mirror! There had been other cars in the street so it didn't seem like a bad place to park but clearly it was. Good luck to the person who stole it as yet we haven't seen another similar model Durango in Colombia. The town certainly gave us a bad vibe so after a lunch of radish sandwiches in the car at a gas station we pushed on not knowing where we would spend the night. Will found Laguna de la Cocha on google not far away and we decided to check it out. It had been raining the whole time we had been in Colombia and when we took the turnoff for the lake we discovered a flooded river that had broken its banks across the road in many places. The locals waved us through and we eventually found a little flooded tourist village offering lodging, trout meals and boat rides to the island in the middle of the lake. In between the downpours we went for a walk but decided not to go on a boat ride because of the rain. We really just wanted to sleep in the car and not a flooded hospedaje so we drove back out again. Soon though Will found a place to stay in the camping log that we got from Ruined Adventures which we use regularly. The place was a flash Swiss owned hotel and events centre but they let us sleep in the car for free without showers as long as we had dinner at the restaurant. Dinner was good but the portions were small and a little over priced though the table right in front of the big open fire was lovely. In the fading light we even cleaned out all of our food boxes and promised to start eating more of the food we had been carrying in the car; some since Argentina! The next day we planed to drive to the Tatacoa Desert but it took six hours just to drive over the mountain range to the ex FARC controlled town of Macoa. The high winding road was appropriately named in Spanish 'Trampolín de la Muerte', translated to English its the 'Trampoline of Death'. The single lane gravel road hung onto the cliff edge the entire way and required at least twenty flooded stream crossing as well as driving through many hastily cleared landslides. But it was nothing we weren't used to by now and I was happy to drive. Certainly the locals in their Mazda Familiar took in all in their stride and quickly got out to push after they got stuck in one deeper river so they didn't lose their place in the massive queue. At one point we were held up for two hours waiting for a slip to be cleared. Logic suggests traffic should wait in line on either side of the slip in the order in which they arrived until the slip is cleared. But not around here… each new driver just drove past anybody stupid enough to wait in line filling up all and any available space and inching further forward at any opportunity until there was a humongous traffic jam on each side of the slip. Unfortunately we didn't get any photos of them really tightly packed. Once the slip was finally cleared to the standard of a four wheel drive mud track the far side gunned it and straight away got stuck in our sides mess of cars, trucks, motorbikes and pickups. No one seemed to be in charge and no one was prepared to move out of the way and give up their place in the line so cars had to creep through gaps with millimetres of space on either side. Eventually our side overwhelmed the oncoming traffic and it was all on so I joined the locals and raced past as many jammed trucks as possible to get through in front of them. No driving in New Zealand will ever surprise me again, even a car coming around a corner on our side of the road no longer bothers us and passing on corners isn't a big deal most corners are wide enough for three vehicles anyway so why not make use of all the space? Passing lanes are non existent despite the thousands of big slow noisy trucks on the road so you end up passing in places you never would back home but mainly because the NZ trucks travel so much faster. It seems to be a game for trucks to take the corners so wide that oncoming traffic has to stop on the other side, where as in NZ it would be called bad driving do you really need 5m between your truck and the bank? And don't get me started about buses they are in a league of their own and must be able to predict any oncoming traffic as they don't slow down for anything. Another thing we have come to accept in South America is that to follow road rules is entirely optional and the same goes for compliance. It seems to be ok to drive your truck even if the left side is almost on the road and the right is way in the air or the wheel is wiggling so violently it could come off at any moment. The lighting configurations of late have been especially interesting flickering blue brake lights no problem, flashing multi coloured number plate lights why not its all part of the anything goes driving experience in South America!
Rochelle & Will |