Medellin Living

Eating...Waiting for the bus.

So, I needed to leave the country since my tourist visa was up.  Venezuela was the closest and cheapest option, and that’s where I decided to go.

With my limited Spanish I knew that I would need some major help for this trip.  I recruited my friend JD for the trip, and he was kind enough to leave his store for a day just to make the trip with me.

We met at the Parque Barrio Metro Station at 5:30 on Sunday evening, and then made our way to the North Bus Terminal that is connected to the Caribe Metro Station.

At the bus station we found a company with good buses that was leaving at a time we wanted. JD negotiated the price, and we paid 80,000 COP each for our tickets.  With the bus not leaving until 7:30PM we found a place to eat and relax as we waited for the departure.

Once on the bus, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to sleep well, but I did bring some rum just in case.  Having the bus only about half full was nice as well.

Sleeping with my teddy bear. He was the most useful thing I brought!

I knew it was going to be an interesting drive when the bus driver started talking.  All I picked up from the driver’s speech was something along the lines of, “Normally, we would show a Jackie Chan movie…but that has so much violence, sex, and drugs…”  After that I was pretty lost, but he sure was animated about what he was saying.

It turned out that the driver was a super religious man and decided to show Fireproof, a Christian movie, instead of the normal movie.  I had not seen it, but heard a lot about the movie, and honestly wasn’t super excited about it.  Good for me that it was easy to not get involved with it, since it was in Spanish.

The bus was completely freezing the entire time, and I was so glad that not only did I bring sweats, but I also had a blanket and a friend to keep warm with.  I really wished that I had warmer socks, though, because my feet were so cold the entire time.

After a few hours talking with JD we both drifted off to sleep.  The bus stopped a few times for dinner time and at the Bucaramanga bus terminal for many passenger to get off and to pick up a few more people.  At one of those stops JD said that he was excited for the sunrise because we would be at a very beautiful place to watch it.

I woke up right at sunrise, and the view was absolutely amazing.  I tried to get JD to watch it with me through the crazy fogged up window, but he was out.  So I watched for a while and drifted back asleep.

Around 10:00AM we arrived in Cucuta.  We went to the tiny restaurant and had a nice, typical breakfast.  All was calm, an we were happy to be off the bus.

Somewhere near(ish) the border. "Sunrise, and your brown eyes..."-Snowed In, Broke City

Post by Holly. Currently living in Medellin, Holly is getting to know the Colombian culture through music, language, and base jumping!