Bus ride to Cali

We decided not to take an overnight bus out of Bogota for fear that we would have the same experience through the mountains that we had going in. Instead we got up at 8:00am, packed up and got a taxi to the bus terminal. The bus schedule online said that the bus would leave at 10:00 but the ticket office said they only had a 10:30. We had gotten to the terminal at 9:40 so we were not thrilled to have to wait almost an hour. In the interim, I stopped at he Dunkin Donuts to grab a donut.

Alyssa always makes fun of me for doing stuff like eating a donut (which I normally wouldn't do) but on these bus trips it is absolutely impossible to find any edible food so I eat whatever I can, wherever I can. At 10:20 we headed to the bus to board. The guy took one look at my ticket and informed me that our bus had already left. We said we didn't understand how that was possible considering the bus was supposed to leave at 10:30 and they obviously knew we were in the terminal since that's where we had purchased out tickets. The guy hurriedly called the bus and made them turn around to come pick us up. The guy made us run out to the street (more like a quick hobble considering we were each carrying 50lbs on our backs) and jump on the moving bus. All of the passengers thought this was hilarious and must have thought we were stupid American travelers but I didn't care, I was just happy we made the bus.
We made tons of short stops along the way to pick up passengers and at one point stopped for lunch. The bus drivers always say we have 20 minutes but that means 45. Sadly, once again it was just a sketchy cafeteria so Alyssa and I didn't eat. Luckily we had the PB&J ingredients so when we got back on the bus we made a sandwich that counted as our lunch and dinner. I get a little upset about the lack of good food which annoys Alyssa because she doesn't eat much and could care less.

It was supposed to be an hour bus ride to Cali, Colombia. We had been told that it was the salsa capital of the world and so we were excited to go out in the town but the bus ended up taking 11 hours so we didn't get in until 10:00pm. Cali was clearly a sketchy town and would not be safe to walk around in at night. We hailed a cab but realized that we might not be able to fit inside with our bags since it was legitimately the smallest car I'd ever been inside. He piled our bags in the front seat and even though they were covering the stick shift, he said we were good to go. We asked him to go to "Pelican Larry" hostel and give him the address. He clearly had no clue what that hostel was or where that address was located. We drove around for 20 minutes while he asked very person on the street where the place was located. Finally we gave up and gave him the address of "Calidad House". The cab driver couldn't find this address either but finally a different cab driver drove with us to the hostel. I didn't even care what the place was like, I just wanted to be out of the cab with that moronic cab driver. At first glance the place was fine.

I went down with the guy running the hostel to look at the room and although it definitely wasn't nice, it was clean enough and I didn't feel like going back out in that crazy town to find another place. And it was $10/night so I didn't care. Alyssa was horrified by the place but also too tired to come up with an alternate plan. Then we tried to lock the door...and realized that it didn't lock. I told the guy and he said that they would fix it tomorrow. At that point, Alyssa lost it a little and asked for a phone to call another hostel. Instead, he offered us the dorm room that had four beds but would be just for us (and had a lock). I went up and checked it out and decided it was fine since it was already midnight.

We settled into the room and were trying to get ready for bed but these two Japanese guys and girl from Colombia kept barging into the room to talk to us. The girl was trying to teach the boys Spanish and wanted to help them talk to us. I was not in the mood but tried to be cordial. At one point, I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and someone kept knocking at the door. I figured it must be Alyssa since who would knock three times after they heard someone was in there. I opened the door and one of the Japanese boys was standing there. I said, "si?" and he just stared at me open mouthed. I was finally really annoyed and shut the door in his face. We got to sleep at around 1am and resolved to leave Cali and most importantly that hostel, as soon as possible.

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