Headed back to Bogotá, HIVEColombia

Today I headed back to Bogotá, jumped in a car at 4:25am this morning, a door to door service, and headed down the mountain before the sun came up. We were gassing up at 'el cruce' and heading across the plains of Tolima with the first light.

Its not a bad trip, it costs a bit more than the bus but you get picked up and dropped off right where you are going, while the 'terminal' in Líbano is just the central park, capital city of Bogotå's transport center is absolute hell and the additional cost for a taxi can make that option even more expensive, especially travelling solo as I was today.

Once on the plains the going is quite smooth for awhile, eventually crossing the Magdalena River into Cambao, Cundinamarca.

I had a baby saint bernard in a box between my legs, and was chatting up the driver, the traditional job of co-pilot to keep eyes open and make sure the driver is awake.

In the back, the other three unknown persons took turns sleeping.

When we started up the eastern mountain range, the so-called 'curvas de Cambao', we were hitting our stride now as the sun started to come up. Soon, over my right shoulder, I saw the most spectacular site, and started getting unusually jealous of the people living on the eastern mountain range.

Do they get this view every morning?

As usual my cellphone camera does not do it justice, but the wide, snow covered peak is Nevado del Ruiz, the mountain we live on, and on the left the Nevado of Santa Isabel is clearly visible as well. There is a third, Nevado del Tolima, that wasn't visible today.

But what a view it was! I spent the next 30 minutes looking out the window and catching glimpses of it through the trees and around the corners. Eventually we stopped for some coffee.

We continued on up the mountain, finally reaching la alta de la Tribuna (The Tribune Heights), the guardian gates of the Savannah of the altiplano cundiboyasense. Colombian geography/topography is spectacular and special.

Here we stopped for some breakfast.

From here all we had to do is cross the heavily trafficked western edge of this region, crossing Facatativa into Bogotá. We made it, but into the mouth of a terrible traffic jam.

While in the jam, the car suddenly broke down. As co-pilot I did my duty: helping to push the car to the side through luckily just one lane of traffic, listening to the affectation, going through the checklist with the driver, even occasionally starting the car while he had his head under the hood.

Then, as magically as the problem occurred, it disappeared, and we were on our way once again, to the land of Fontibon, an ex-independent industrial suburb of Bogotá which was swallowed up by the capital in 1954. In 2011 I spent a lot of time around here teaching classes.

We wound our way through the city streets, and finally found the secret hideout of the Hiveans. @fermionico greeted me at the door with the secret sigils and handshake, and we headed up, each of us working diligently on our daily post while we prepare for an upcoming meeting.

There's more to come from us, keep an eye on the HiveColombia team because we have a lot in store for you!

Freedom and Friendship