Wonders do happen

Originally written for CoolWorks.com

There we were, sitting for hours on the tollgate short before Neiva, Colombia. We spent the previous night already here. Something seemed to keep us from getting further. About once every hour we stopped a car, which was not going further than Neiva. After five hours waiting and no result, I spoke out of my feeling: “Let´s go to Ecuador!”

Francisco taking fully dressed a bath in a dirty river

We settled on the other side of the tollgate, towards Cali. One more hour waiting and we got a ride directly to Cali. Francisco was unique, funny, and a man of unexpected actions. Once he stopped, jumped fully dressed into a dirty river. Smiling he came back and sat, wet as he was, straight down on his chair. During the ride heavy rains happened upon us. Knowing our backpacks without rain protection on the outside of the drivers cabin, we prayed they would stand it. Due to the rain, Francisco took us into his motel room that night. Arriving at the motel, we got soaked with water within seconds after getting out of the truck. After unfastening our backpacks, we had to run towards the motel entrance. I ran, of course, directly through the deepest puddle. Seemed I was not wet enough.

cheese - the delivery Francisco brought to Tulua and Cali

The next day Francisco delivered his cheese. We wondered who in the world would need that much cheese. Passing a bakery, I knew the answer, because all bread in Colombia seems to be made of cheese. Bad place for lactose intolerants, I can tell. It was a bad day for Francisco. He discovered his truck being hit. Must have happened during the night at the parking lot in front of the motel. The last delivery turned out a disaster. 450kg of cheese were missing. Francisco felt broke, he saw his one week old job threatened. On top of that, he delayed about 4 hours after leaving us in the shopping center nearby his hometown. Happily, he could repair the truck in his hometown Pradera. After spending a night in his house, Francisco finally brought us to the road towards the Ecuadorian border.

After several rides, we ended up with the last one in Colombia. Rene was crazy. Driving as if being hunt by guerillas or paramilitars, he speeded along a terribly curvy road, right through the Andes mountains, with at least 38mph. His tacho didn´t work anymore. Feeling near death, I avoided to be afraid. I didn´t want to face the negative consequences of the law of attraction. Instead, I thought of useful strategies how to survive in case we would jump over the edge and fly down the mountain. I knew we would survive the worst-case scenario. We did survive, without worst-case scenario.

Passing the Ecuadorian border, we managed to get a ride on the back of a pick-up straight to Ibarra. Dark, windy, and cold, we crept in our sleeping bags, watching the wonderful night scenery of the Andes mountains. Lights everywhere, life everywhere. Simply beautiful.

perfect accomodation in the Imbabura police department

We asked the driver to leave us on a police control point. Instead, we ended up in Ibarra, in front of the central police department for the whole Imbabura region. Standing in front of its gate, we hesitated for a short moment, but we had no choice. Good we did not have. We got the best accomodation since long. We could stay in a lectures room for police officers. We enjoyed sleeping on a wooden floor, inside a building, with private – disgustingly dirty – toilets. We were in heaven. In the morning we were just about to leave, when a group of 100 police man rushed inside the lectures hall before we could escape. Some were shocked, many surprised, a couple of them laughing. Nobody understood how we white fellows made it into their lectures room. Before they could ask, we were gone.

Ecuador greeted us with wonders. Everywhere along the streets we could find overdimensional statues, for example Jesus with lifted arms and hands showing open towards the sky. The night before we passed fairy tale figures and a beautiful butterly on top of a bus station. The butterfly reminded me Kinga Freespirit. It was made for her, I was sure.

Without waiting long we got a ride to Quito. From there it was a small hazzle getting further, because a train accident blocked the road. Luckily, we found two men, who were determined to get through anyway. Continuing with two adventist church pastors and a young guy we made it to a tollgate before Riobamba. Waiting was not waiting anymore. Cars stopped in seconds, offering lifts to Riobamba. We wanted to get to the end of it. Accepting the promises of the seventh driver, we ended up right in Riobamba. We had to take two buses to get until the crossroad, where we could continue straight towards Cuenca, while the bus headed to Guayaquil.

The road was empty. No cars, only countryside. We still managed to get a ride on a red pick-up, which would bring us 30km closer towards Cuenca. Still a long way to go, and we wondered where we would spend the night. “Now a wonder must happen that we arrive in Cuenca today”, I said. We sighed. A bus appeared on the horizon, following our pick-up. ‘Just a tourist bus’, we thought. He would probably never take us “home”. The bus came closer, and Augustas recognized it as the one we had seen in Riobamba. This bus must have had a bad accident, and was probably going to the repair. When the bus was close enough we hitch-hiked. Both holding our hands to the right, thumbs up, I formed with my mouth the word C U E N C A. The driver nodded, and by means of non-verbal communication, we agreed he would take us.

hard to see the road

Our red pick-up finally stopped in a gas station, and while I ran to the bus to get the verbal confirmation for having the ride, Augustas struggled with the three pick-up guys demanding a payment for the ride. I saved us, running back with a huge smile on my face, eyes shining brightly, and shouting: “He is taking us to Cuenca! Thank you guys very much!”

Fast like mice escaping a cat we appeared in the bus and set off. A whole tourist bus only for us. Who cares about the broken window and the destroyed front. We were delighted, confirmed in our opinion that wonder do happen. The bus was one of them. The ride was long, through dark, curvy roads with attractive views into the deep valleys surrounding us. Suddenly, a couple of front lights turned off. A dangerous moment. Javier stopped the bus and took about 40 Minutes to repair them.

reparation of front light in the night to avoid getting to know the depth of the valleys

Provisory. Short time later, while driving again, Javier became tired. He was likely to fall asleep on the stiring wheel. We tried to keep him awake with food, drinks, sweets, and endless talks. Unfortunately, Augustas, sitting right beside him, could not stand the tiredness anymore. His eyes fell asleep, thus Javier offered him to have a rest on one of the many other chairs. I was alarmed, watching Javier whenever possible. Once, I looked too long out of the window, and when having the next glimpse at him, he just managed to escape a frontal crash, nearly caused by him drifting to the other side of the road while his eyes closed for a second. Augustas didn´t really notice what was going on, thus I decided to entertain Javier until the bitter end. I succeeded. We arrived alive, happy, and healthy in Cuenca the same day at 10.30pm. Good we had a host arranged, thus we were taken care of soon after our arrival.