' (un)certainties: July 2013

Tuesday 2 July 2013

Smuggling Contraband: Our First Hitchhike in Colombia

Our kitchen at Palomino
"You don´t have any contraband do you?" Alex asked with an ambiguous smile. We had spent about thirty idle minutes in the sleepy, dusty town of Palomino up in the north east of Colombia, trying to thumb our first ride in Colombia. This was my first proactive attempt at hitchhiking and so I was as excited as a kitten with its tail when he pulled over and waved us in. It´s harder than I thought to lift 18kg of everything you own over a ten foot gate on the back of a truck whilst clinging on with the other arm, twice. But our massive bags eventually relented and fell heavily the other side onto some covered cargo. By the time we settled into his cab the 30 degree heat, two days without showers and excitement of it all had brought my armpits to a boil.

"You don´t smell too bad." Alex assured us, with that same smile.