Quito to Tulcan to Ipiales to Cali was 21 hours, minus about 3 hours when I crossed into the border town of Colombia. We were stopped in Colombia about 3 times by the police who came on the buses to check everyone's ID. All carrying machine guns, of course. No troubles at all. They just checked ID.
When I got to Cali, I went to buy tickets to Bogota and was asked for ID by a police officer. Except he didn't show any type of ID. So I ignored him and was quite rude to him. "Police officer" scams are common and I should say I acted appropriately. As I walked away, he grabbed my pack. At the same time, a security guard came over. I showed the guard my ID. Meanwhile, I was still glowering at the "cop." I heard the security guy say to the "cop" that I spoke English (because my passport is from Canada). They left, satisfied about discovering my identity - or something - and I went about my business. It's funny how things work out... I had run into one of the guys I met in Mancora on the Quito bus and, him being over 5" taller than both these guys, made me feel all the safer. Although, in hindsight, both these guys had guns, so it wouldn't have mattered anyways.
Alfred is a filmaker from Iceland. The whole time in South America, he was making a video blog of the places he had been to. Interesting character who likes to talk a lot. We stayed in Cali for about 14 hours. We went to a hostel for a day, just to drop our things off and to recoup some of the sleep lost.
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