Popayán

Today I had my first personal experience with corrupt policemen. So, I am riding in a truck with an austrailan guy and we are on our way to the hotsprings out of town. We pass by cops who pull us over, which is completely normal and common in colombia. The cops ask for our passports, and we both hand over the copies of our passport while my austrailian friend gets patted down and our bags get searched. The first cop is asking us where are we from, what are we doing here, where are we going, where are we staying, etc, and I am speaking for both myself and my friend. It seemed pretty standard, and then the first cop walks the copies down a few steps to the other cops waiting in the van. They call us over, and one evil looking one with a huge scar over his lips and has a considerably more angry tone starts repeating all the questions. He seemed very angry that we did not have our original passports, and was asking us how we got into the country, where our stamps were, etc. I told him that we never carry around our original passports because they could easily be stolen and its dangerous, and he says well if colombia is so dangerous then why are you here
? how much are you paying your driver? are you paying him in dollars or colombian pesos? where are you going? And he just has this like menacing attitude going on, and it was hard for me to shake off my flippant attitude and be respectful, but I was basically trying to handle it by smiling and making him realize that he really has no reason to harrass us. Then he is like well what should we do... should we take you guys down to the immigration office so they can deport your friend? or...... (at this time I kind of realized he was asking for a bribe, but since I had never been bribed by a policeman I was kind of in disbelief that it actually happens), so I said no there is no reason for us to go to the office, we can turn around and go get our passports at the hostel, but we just want to go to the hotsprings. Then the cop starts asking 'well why didn't you invite us to the hotsprings???' and I'm like well you don't have your bathingsuits... and then the cops are asking me for my cellphone number, for my chat screen name, what hostel i'm staying at, and i'm trying to deflect the flirting and turn it into more of a silly joke type situation, and they keep asking for a 'regalo' so they can buy sodas, and I'm like are you kidding... so finally I think he was like ok you guys can go on, so we get back in the truck, and one of the cops comes over to my window and demands that I give him my ROOM NUMBER at the hostel and I was like how dare you!!! And the driver ended up giving them 5$... then we drove off... but it was just like... so annoying the way these guys abuse their power, and how unprofessional and flirtatious they were being, and how they made such a big deal out of it even though everyone knows you do not carry your passport with you to remote locations... during the whole interaction I kind of felt jittery and nervous because of all the movies I have watched, but I suppose it turned out the best way it could have.

So, then we got to the hotsprings, and the plan was to ride the bikes 30k back to the town, but some black clouds rolled in just as we arrived, so we got the driver to stay and wait for us while we bathed in the lukewarm water and went down the waterslide. It was a very pretty and green location, up in the hills, and the air temp was quite cool (especially with the rain).
On our drive out of town, I spotted out of the corner of my eye, Yogenfruz!!! The frozen yogurt we were obsessed with in Santiago.. I didn't know where it was so I basically just set out blindly and walked through some pretty shady areas of town, but once I arrived it was so worth it! I got watermelon flavor, and then I got coffee oreo flavor. Yum Yum
Then I went to eat dinner at a Mexican food place, and I got the veggie burrito and asked for a side of rice and beans. The waiter said they didn't have rice and beans, and I was like...and you dare call yourself a mexican food restaurant???
After that, we went to... the circus!!! Seriously! It was the Mexican circus in town! It was pretty cool, I have a vague memory of going to a circus a long time ago in Austin. At this circus they had baboobs doing tricks, tightrope walkers, dogs playing soccer, horses, a guy dancing with ribbons, etc, and 7 huge tigers! oh and 3 guys in a huge wire ball cage riding motorcycles around inside the ball (coolest part).

So, all in all it was quite an eventful and interesting day.