Of course the 7 hour bus (as usual in Colombia) turned into an 11 hour bus ride and we collapsed into our dorm beds that evening. I took massive advantage of a nearly empty hostel with cable TV, free coffee and a roaring fire for the first day…fantastic when the rain is hopping off the ground outside. After my fill of Friends, Seinfeld and the Office we went to explore the city with visits to museums and galleries and massive supermarkets (which are a luxury in South America) to make delicious meals. Bogotá was much more fantastic than we’d heard and went down as one of our favourites of South American cities. After a few days we flew from Bogotá back to Cali to begin our 2 weeks of volunteering in the mountains outside. We got pretty clear instructions on how to get to the goat farm we’d be volunteering…get on a bus to Buenaventura and get out at the 28th Kilometre then ask someone where the Finca las Cabritas (Goat Farm) is…hmmmmm?! Anyway, after a lot of queuing in the bus station (apparently the ticket people were on strike) and getting taxis here and there we were on a bus towards Buenaventura (and were nearly thrown off with people roaring “no gringos, no gringos, no hay espacio!”)…space or not I was getting on that bus! And we were off!! I explained to the ticket girl that we needed to get off at Kilometre 28…at which point she explained to me that, yes, we were on the bus towards Buenaventura but it was not the direct route – that route was closed. Super! So after 8 hours of standing on a bus we arrived at Buenaventura (the second rainiest place on the planet receiving 8 metres of rain annually). I won’t go through it but that journey was nothing compared to the bus back to kilometre 28 the next day. Eventually we arrived at the farm and settled into our little cabin nicely. We had the weekend to chill out and got our instructions that Monday morning for our farming jobs for the next 2 weeks.
We quickly relaxed into the stunning surroundings and feasted on fresh fruit and veg (which was badly needed) and managed to buy the local shop out of all their beer pretty fast. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay for longer than 2 weeks as the 60 days on our visa was coming to an end and we had to get an extension back in Cali. So back to civilization it was…first things first…mega large popcorn and coke and 2 tickets to see Harry Potter! Bliss!! After a few panics we sorted out our visa extension – which meant we had to hang around Cali to wait for them for another week and a half. But we that also gave us a chance to visit the other farm in the valley (owned by the couple we were volunteering for) in a little town called Jamundi which was good fun…I also got to feed a baby goat so I was delighted! But soon enough it was time to move on again so we packed our bags and hopped on a flight back up to the Caribbean coast for Christmas week to await Mitch’s mom and brother’s arrival. Exciting stuff…!!(pic 1: Mitch & I with 1 day old goats; pic 2: Feeding a baby goat in the farm in Jamundi)
