When I was on the bus, a Colombian woman sat next to me. Her name was Ana. The trip on the bus was about an hour long and we had plenty of time to talk. Eventually I got her number and we decided to meet again a few days later. She told me not to take any walking tours of the city, that she was willing to show me around any place I wanted to see. And that is what we did. We saw each other almost every day during my stay and she showed me almost every place I could think of, and even some places I’d never heard of before. Like El Pueblito Paisa, which is an imitation of a traditional little Colombian town. The sunsets are really good, she told me. It turns out El Pueblito Paisa is on top of a hill in the middle of the city. And she was the right – the views are spectacular. 

After a couple of days in Medellín I traveled to Colombia’s coffee region. I decided to take a bus and left in the middle of night. It was to be an eight hour trip and I thought I would be able to sleep through the ride. I sat alone at first and, just as I’d hoped, I fell asleep when the bus began to move. But as the bus stopped to pick up and drop off people, an older man sat next to me. He woke me up to say that the window seat was his and so I moved into the aisle instead. Later he woke me up again to help him find a place to charge his phone. Things turned from annoying to weird once he fell asleep. He talked to himself and I’m pretty sure he was dreaming about his wife. He hugged me and eventually got extremely close to my face. I pushed him harder every time but he would not wake up.