REFLECTION 4: Zona Roja/Planadas y Ataco

Zona Roja/Planadas y Ataco

8 hours after Ibagué on a bus is Planadas. We left at 3 am, and continued south for 4 hours before a first break for breakfast at a small restaurant on the edge of the road, then 4 hours more, bumping along at maybe 25-30 miles an hour, max 40. The roads were not paved. Dust layered on. Sitting. Thinking. Watching. We got off twice for military personelle who stopped the bus with their AK 47s (I think that is what everyone carries around down here) checking for god knows who or what. They seemed confused why I was there, a gringa with a cedula extranjeria in a zona roja, but didn't ask me questions, and I didn't dare open my mouth for fear the other passengers would realise I didn't speak the language so well. Didn't want to fall asleep for fear of being robbed. I arrived exhausted and dying of thirst, but the profesor from Batuta was there awaiting my arrival- ready to take me to the Centro Musical to work with his students. I walk into the room full of kids, 40 or 50 bright eyed, dark skinned beautiful Colombian children, ready to learn and sing and smile at me, and I felt at home, so far away from home. They were so joyous. And they loved music. We played, and sang and learned, I sang for them, they sang for me, they asked to touch my hair and what were those specks on my face? (I guess they had never seen freckles before). They ate up every word, and we finished with the dramatic beautiful landscape of mountains- dark blue and dark green jungle around us, the scent of rain in the air. I slept in a small hostel seeming hotel, the nicest in town. Tired, and happy.

I stopped in Ataco on my way back. There it is so hot, and they fight cocks. They are all chained up in the middle of the road. The atmosphere was different, really conservative, and a bit judgemental there- less curious. But of course the kids were beautiful, I worked a day with them. But for example, I'd been there for 4 hours and the kids saw me walking with the profe and asked if we were dating. The lunch that was prepared for me was great, and I sat with the teacher and ate, with kittens, little chicks and a few parrots around us, watching. What a trip. Worth it? Sure. But I was glad to be on the way back to Bogotá, I'll be honest.