One minute we were enjoying the bus ride through the river country of northern Colombia (cows, cowboys, water birds, flooded plains, free range pigs, sleepy villages, lush blue and green as far as the eye can see), the next we unexpectedly found ourselves out of the bus, one backpack on the back of a burro, the other on the back of the driver, walking down a muddy road in the blazing sun to a ferry landing where we boarded a wooden canoe for a 15-minute upstream trip across the Rio Magdalena to a waiting 4X4 that took us the rest of the way to the El Banco bus terminal.
Walking down the muddy road. The burro is ahead in the distance.
The canoe and the driver (with Sun-Ling's backpack on his back); my pack in foreground.
Sun-Ling adds:
1. This special program is only available during the rainy season, August to January.
2. I saw more birds in this one morning than in a whole season of paddling in Florida. John thinks this must be what the Everglades was like 100 years ago.
3. I have never seen better lives for domestic animals, free roaming in beautiful landscapes, abundance of luscious food, total respect from cowboys and drivers. Maybe I will eat some meat here. Only kidding!
2 comments:
That movie Food, Inc showing the treatment in this country of chickens was horrible. Free ranch definitely seems more ethical. Progress is definitely subjective.
Hmmm, I've been contemplating trading in my backpack for wheels (I'm limping again), but that's definitely backpack travel!
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