A trip to South America in Columbia

Hi, guys.

As I might have already told that I went for a very rough trip to South America from Vancouver on Oct. 10th to 29th. It was adventurous and fun, but rugged and problematic too. 

 It was kinda in a rush on the last day in Vancouver as I had a tight schedule with the last practice for my soccer academy there. And as you know, We had to arrange everything we needed during the trip - Travel insurance, hotel booking, visa requirement for each country and transport. 

And of course we had a lot of infomation and tips for a trip to the most dangerous continent to visit in the world, according to faceless writers online.  Anyway, we flied over to Bogota, Capital in Columbia.

As soon as we landed and got out of the airport, we realized that we could hardly connect into the internet. Even though we had booked a hotel in Bogota to stay for the first night, but it was a really tough mission to localize it without a wifi. The only one thing we did in this situation is that we asked random people on the streets to figure it out.

In addition, we had heard heaps of rumors that it was never safe. So we were severely aware of anything anybody around us in downtown to avoid any disastrous events like a pickpocketing, robber or attack. 

　今日からこの前まで行ってた南米旅行のリポートです。

　バンクーバーを出たのが10月10日で日本に戻ったのが29日なのでおよそ20日間の滞在でした。行く前も結構バタバタで、出発の当日までサッカースクールをしていたので、準備に追われていましたね。滞在先のビザの確認や、ホテル、航空券に保険、やることはたくさんあります。ネットを見れば「危ない」しか書いてませんからね。この大陸はどんだけ危険なんだと。そしてまずは飛行機でバンクーバーからコロンビアの首都ボゴタへ向かいました。

　上がボゴタの中心地です。

　着いたやいなや、ネットがないのでホテルまで到着するのが大変でした。ボゴタの人たちにどれだけ聞いて回ったか。そして一発目の国ということで、スリや強盗、暴行などありとあらゆる事に警戒しながら緊張しつつの滞在でした。日本人どころかアジア人もほぼいなかったですし、英語も通じない。けど旅行は楽しいですね。

Luckily, we happened to see a bunch of people watching a soccer game Columbia vs Uruguay for the World cup qualifiers on the first day. I sneaked myself into the crowd and support them as if I had been a Columbian. Who knows?

We couldn't relax at all in this country because we were suppose to leave for the next destination on the next day. We rushed to catch a bus next morning to go to Ipiares where is a gateway town to Ecuador. 

We had much more of moving hours on the buses than touring around the cities we visited!! Who set this ridiculously tight schedule for the trip? 

Stay tuned for the next episode.

　ちょうどコロンビアとウルグアイがW杯予選で試合していたので、一緒に見てました。コロンビア料理は失敗。街並みはカラフルでイイとこでしたね。子どもたちも町中でサッカーをしていて、南米に来たんだと思いました。

　観光もそこそこに、次の日にはコロンビアとエクアドルの国境へ向かうためにイピアレスという街へ。バスでなんと２１時間。そこからコレクティーボという乗り合いタクシーで国境へ。

　移動はすべてバス、観光以上にバス移動が多く、シャワーも２日に１回しか浴びれない日程が続いた過酷な旅の始まりです。