Last night, I got on a bus to Colombia. I decided to skip the south of Colombia to have more time for the north. I therefore went straight to Bogotá - a thirty-hour journey, including two nights and one entire day on the bus.
We crossed the border at about 4 in the morning - which had the advantage that there were no queues and the process was rather quick.
I was the first to come back to the bus from Colombian immigration, but unfortunately the doors were closed. So I just stood around shivering - and what did I see? One of the drivers opened the luggage compartment, a man climbed out of there and got into a waiting car. The car drove off towards Colombia, presumably without the man ever going through migrations. Had I just witnessed illegal immigration? And if so, how much had the man paid the bus drivers for their services?
A couple of hours later, I woke up to the feeling of sun rays warming me - as always, the bus drivers loved their air conditioning just a little too much. The landscape that went by outside the window was fantastic, full of lush valleys, creeks and banana plants.
Along the road, I saw quite a few police and military checkpoints. They did check some vehicles and inspected cargo, but always let our bus pass without a second look. After the incident at the border, I wonder if that was the wisest strategy - who knows what else the bus was carrying?
Anyway, the bus ride continued rather uneventfully, and I continued to watch Colombian landscape pass by until it got dark again.
We crossed the border at about 4 in the morning - which had the advantage that there were no queues and the process was rather quick.
I was the first to come back to the bus from Colombian immigration, but unfortunately the doors were closed. So I just stood around shivering - and what did I see? One of the drivers opened the luggage compartment, a man climbed out of there and got into a waiting car. The car drove off towards Colombia, presumably without the man ever going through migrations. Had I just witnessed illegal immigration? And if so, how much had the man paid the bus drivers for their services?
A couple of hours later, I woke up to the feeling of sun rays warming me - as always, the bus drivers loved their air conditioning just a little too much. The landscape that went by outside the window was fantastic, full of lush valleys, creeks and banana plants.
Along the road, I saw quite a few police and military checkpoints. They did check some vehicles and inspected cargo, but always let our bus pass without a second look. After the incident at the border, I wonder if that was the wisest strategy - who knows what else the bus was carrying?
Anyway, the bus ride continued rather uneventfully, and I continued to watch Colombian landscape pass by until it got dark again.
