The bus from Salento to Medellin

I had to interrupt the previous post to show you live (almost) our trip to Medellin.

The bus station is getting busy first thing

with all kind of strange passengers waiting patiently. And then our bus

arrives in its dedicated space.

And amazingly we left almost dead on time. Seats 1 and 2 behind the driver. Across the classic lady (that I remember from my childhood in Greece) talking to the driver non stop and singing to the music that had started promptly 10 minutes into the trip. Then she started sharing videos from her phone with the driver who fortunately did not entertain her much and even better she got off at an impromptu stop.

The bus crosses the mountains of Zona cafeteria, where Salento belongs, towards the short lnterchange of Pereira.

10 minutes stop and on our way. Good driver, amazing scenery, and the necessary music. It reminds me of the bus travels in Greece in the 70's without the smoking fortunately.

And on we go, with tunnels, giving a lift to the occasional local seller, or admitting some unexpected friends (police and sniffer dog) .

Stop at a restaurant on the way with free lunch for the driver. Couple of empanadas did the job for us along with great views.

And on we go, with more sellers riding the bus for few hundred meters without selling anything. There were some queues when multiple lorries get stuck after each other, and more great places to see

And at 14.50, less than 7 hours since we set off, we arrived as scheduled to the Bus Terminal de Sur. Not bad for 83000 COP (≈£20) each. Amazingly we were out of the bus without any pains or feeling stuck after the long journey. It passed quickly thanks to the scenery and felt part of the trip rather than just transport. Off to our hotel with a taxi. This time unlike in Bogota we are staying at La Poblado a bit off the centre and the places to see but close to good food and a couple metro stops from the centre.