A brush with the Police

Sunday. A quiet day in Colombia. I left Tunja to head to one of the most picturesque villages, Villa de Leyva. It was a minibus ride through the mountains over a main road (which is about as wide as Day Ave.) with gorgeous mountain view. This is an old colonial city with a huge central square (again no outside cafes) and some very nice architecture. Basically it is used for movie shoots and TV and pictures becuase it is beautiful and nesteled in the mountains.

I jumped out of the minibus for the day of leisurely walking around taking in the ambiance and perhaps having a nice lunch and a good cup of coffee. One of those lazy days. I was digging in my backpack to pull out my camera when I am suddenly surrounded by the Police. Two guys had video cameras, and another had a regular camera. I could only imagine I was going to be in a Colombia version of Cops...bad boys, bad boys, watcha gona do, watcha goon do when they come for you....

They surrounded me and started asking question in Espaniol. Well since earlier in the trip I had forgotten that Nombre means name and not number. I was at a loss. They finally grabbed the English speaking "star". It turns out that I wasn´t being arrested but they did need my help in creating video...a training video for the Tourist division of the Police. Of course all of this was on tape, but not the "good bueno tape" that they would use.

So feeling the opportunity to be a star (and always looking out for my kharma with the police) agreed to be in the video. I had to approach the cop and ask him about a hotel and how to get there. Then about the square, and then a history question. The cops were supposed to be polite and friendly and helpful. Overall it took about 30 minutos, but it was fun and the gaggle of police seemed really happy with it. Most of these guys were pretty young and it could have been pàrt of their compulsory service. I couldn´t find out too much, limited Spanish here.

I left to journey on to Villa De Leyva with a bunch of high fives and cheers, and with the Colombian star smiling. Then I had my cup of good coffee.

Currently, I am in San Gil, the adventure capital of Colombia!