We also got to see Pitalito, the teensy tiny pueblita where Gabe’s Colombian grandparents, Estrella and Gentil, were both born.
But the wildest thing for me was the bus ride home. Before we took off from Pitalito to Alta Mira, an employee of the bus company got on board with a handheld camcorder. He took a long still shot of each of the seated passengers so he could have a record of everybody on board. You know. In case one of us was a bad guy.
They also often do this at the checkpoints, which are run by el ejercito y la policia local. (A few years ago, bus passengers used to have to get off the bus at checkpoints in order to be patted down by military, so this is quite an improvement.) We hadn’t seen this on any bus rides yet, but we have also been very careful to ride during the day, so that may be why. At any point, it was la freaky deaky. No me gustan estas notificaciones de la violencia.
