I am gradually realizing that I don’t have a lot of time. In about 2 months, my brother will be getting married and I will be starting out my professional career. And I have yet to set foot on another South American country…
So I’m rushing through Colombia, having gone through Cartagena fairly well. I’m currently in Ipiales, which is 500 below 10000 feet, and it definitely feels like it. I’m glad I wore jeans today, but I could see why so many people here wear thick jackets. I ventured out with my T shirt and I was regretting that I didn’t take the altitude into consideration.
I think I made a substantial mistake last night. I backed up into the hotel’s parking lot and apparently the tire bumps are not high enough for it to hit my bumper, but definitely high enough for it to hit my gas tank below. So I think I lost about 50-75 miles worth of gas as the gas tank is definitely smaller now.
I made a discovery earlier today, though, while looking underneath the car, trying to see if anything else was damaged. One of the rubber O rings holding my exhaust together was completely broken. I was thinking about going over to the next biggest town and getting it fixed there, but I decided to turn around and go about 300 meters to a local mechanic shop. He put up a ramp and verified that I can buy some O rings at the Almacen across the street. It costs me 50 cents each, so I buy 3. I replace another O ring that seemed to be cracking as well. The mechanic was especially friendly. He tells me to pay him whatever I want to. I give him about $3 (5000 pesos) and he is satisfied, and waves at me and says in English, “bye!”
I got pulled over today on my way here to Ipiales, Colombia. I was passing by some police check point station when some policeman started motioning to me. It was very odd sight because I was right behind a truck and I had but a split second to see what they were trying to do. And even then, they were telling me to turn left, when clearly there were cars behind me and cars to the left, so I couldn’t stop or turn. So I’m like, well they will probably understand.
No. They don’t. They hop on a car and follow me and tell me to pull over. One old dude and a younger cop, looking like he just graduated from high school. He speaks a bit of English, asking me where I’m from and the like. The older guy looks around, and even looks in my freaken wallet, and asks for my passport. He doesn’t just look at it. He keeps it with him. He’s done this before. Later on, while the younger guy’s checking out the trunk, the older dude tells me to sit on the driver’s side as he’s sitting on the passenger side. He tells me to give him money. He even goes into my wallet and starts pointing at it when I tell him I don’t understand. What the hell? And he was about to take everything. I tell him I need some money for gas (and toll stations which are many). I’m about to give him $10 worth (some 20,000 pesos here), but he looks extremely disgruntled and says more, much, much more. I hated this feeling. He was nothing more than a robber with a badge. He left me with barely enough money to get through the tolls. I gave him about $30 worth of money, and I barely had $10 in Colombian to pay tolls. By the end of the trip I would have barely $3 left. He points towards my dollar bills and says I can exchange it at the next city. This was by far the most unpleasant experience in all of Latin America. $10, fine. But $30? And I’m sure he didn’t share it with anyone.
My brakes are starting to go. I’ve posted some questions and did some research online today and it looks like it’s my bomba, or my brake master cylinder. I gotta push about 3-4 inches on the pedal before it responds in any way. It’s definitely getting worse as time goes by. I went to a mechanic late today, hoping they can help me out. One of them is extremely resilient in trying to help me. He gets in my car with his younger son, and we go to some shop where they say they can look to see if he has a part that matches mine in the morning. On the ride back, the guy says the better option would be to go to Quito. There, I can get the right part in new condition because there are several Mercedes cars there, at least much more than around here. He will be downstairs from my hotel at 7 AM.