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| Bus Stop. The adventure begins. |
Today I got on a bus to go to Popayán (affectionately called PopaYork), which is usually a non-eventful trip.
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| Waiting at the bus stop. Even in this rural area buses run every 15 minutes. |
Today's bus ride was a bit different. Police motorcycles blocked the PanAmerican highway and a police truck arrived to set up orange traffic cones and connect them with yellow tape. The bus driver was not very happy about being flagged to stop, so he slammed on the brakes. Immediately the rear of the bus was slammed by a car behind. The driver got out, negotiated with the driver of the damaged vehicle, and surreptitiously tried to encourage truck drivers to continue on through the police road block, but the police weren't having any of it. All traffic was diverted.
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| Crédito Foto: Martín Anaya, El Liberal |
Our bus driver did not take the detour route indicated by the police. He soon went off onto an unpaved road through areas I had never seen, past houses made of all kinds of scrap material, including some made of caña de guadua and bahareque.
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| By weaving in guadua the earthen construction becomes more earthquake resistant. |
Eventually the bus arrived in a Popayán neighborhood I also did not know, and life continued normally.
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| Inside the bus. |
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| Outside the bus, in the narrow streets of "PopaYork." Horses are not for tourism. |
Later I learned there had been some disturbances, apparently related to students of SENA, possibly related to a national strike by the judicial branch of government, and that's why the police had diverted traffic. The trip home by bus was uneventful. As the bus passed SENA all I noted was a big pile of rocks outside the entrance, of the size students use to throw at police.
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| Arriving at Popayán's only modern mall, Campanario. |
