On the road again

Hola todos! Today I’m writing on the bus between Manizales and Bogotá, the next blog or so is about my short stay in Manizales.

That said getting to Manizales was quite the experience. It was a 12:30 bus out of of Terminal sur in Medellin and about a 6 hour ride to Manizales. I arrive at the station in good order and we are off. Once you leave Medellin the climb starts properly.

Now to say these roads are mental is an understatement. Pretty much the entire main road between Manizales and Medellin is built into the side of mountains with a 1000 meter sheer drop either side in many places. Want to have a kip on the bus? Forget it it’s a white knuckle journey through these mountains and colinas. To add to the fun it started raining halfway through and by that I mean chucking it down Welsh tap style as we go round all these cliffside bends. It gets even better as being sat near the front of this bus I can see that there’s only one wiper working – luckily the one on Drive’s side but still not ideal. Drive seemed pretty unphased by it as if that has been the state of this bus for quite a long time. Fair play though he got us there smoothly.

Getting into Manizales it was still raining but had eased off a bit. I message my Airbnb host of my arrival and he tells me easiest way from the bus station to him is to take a cable car 🚠. Yes that’s right to get from one side of the city to another the easiest way is to ride a cable car a mile up a mountain. I initially take one the wrong way but after some shenanigans I’m there and I check in.

On the way in I see it’s the annual feria – a sort of Eisteddfod type event in the stadium. I didn’t go in but taking a walk round everyone was dolled up for this event and was approached by a few touts selling tickets. I am able to easily get some scran and a gentle few beers near my gaff and I end the night at a rock music place right next door to the gaff. There was a band playing but they weren’t that good. I end up turning in about half 12.

Not a bad travel day all round. Good to be back on the move. Tomorrow we explore this crazy place.