Photos

While hitch-hiking in Colombia we got into a road accident.

Having had some caldo d'huevo (egg broth) in Pamplona we headed for Bucaramanga in the same car that picked us in Cúcuta (on the border with Venezuela).

It was rather late (around 10 PM), dark and foggy, and the road gave dangerous curves every now and then. Our driver got distracted at the prettiness of his girlfriend, Lorena, and we hit the border stone. The girl didn't clip on the safety belt and broke the windscreen with her forehead - fortunately, it was only the glass that suffered. We could not move on, as the front axle of the vehicle was bent, so we were standing in the middle of nowhere, staring into the darkness, waiting for help to come (my Venezuelan number wasn't working, and the phones of the Colombians were either out of balance or battery).

Luckily, Lorena and I jumped in a truck that was passing by half an hour after the accident, but the driver and my travel companion had to stay there till 4 a.m. before a tow car came to rescue. My knowledge of three-and-a-half words in Spanish kept me awake all the way (150 km) to Bucaramanga. We stopped at some roadside market where the driver treated us to hot aguapanela (traditional sugarcane drink in Central and Northern South America). That's where I saw this creature guarding meat =)

Frankly, this is one of the few shots left from that crazy night, as my travel mate lost his flash-card with three days of our journey in it... But at least we remember the experience!