Swimming

Today the water dried supply dried up. Apparently this is not rare in this barrio and it can stay off for as long as five days. I have only seen running cold water in Colombia so far but that is no matter, Barranquilla is as hot as hell and very humid. The showers are refreshing and the water is good for drinking. It's quite easy to get bags of drinking water delivered but for hygiene the family seem to use it as an excuse to visit accommodating relatives with working showers. So it was off to 'Aunt Gloria'.
The children came along and were very excited because Gloria has a little restaurant, she sells Arrepas and Empanadas to passers-by from a heated glass cabinet and serves sit-down meals and soups. Gloria herself is tiny, rotund woman all smiles, always busy and with kids hanging off her apron. If there's a problem throw food at it. Food as a subject will require a whole post of its own, so I don't want to go into that too much here. Food turned out to be something of a sub plot anyway.
The intersection where Gloria's is situated is fairly busy so it was a treat to sit and watch the colourful and overfull buses come thundering down the hill, trying to catch the traffic lights. By the time we were showered water and fed it was dark. We were all chilling at the table you see on the photo below, when one of those chundering chappies blew out a back tire, hit the curb opposite, taking the small tree with it. The small tree hooked up in the overhead power cables and caused an explosion that plunged the whole barrio into darkness with passers-by and those seated on the terraces screaming and wondering which way to run. The bus hurtled towards us, twisted radiator-grille grimacing, like Thomas the Tank-engine's mad latino cousin; Chacha Charlie. The sparking of the trailing cables that had wrapped around the axle and the side mirrors was the only source of light but it was enough to help the terrified passengers effect their escape. The bus came to a standstill about a yard in front of us, we had had just enough time to bustle the children inside. (I sincerely beleive it was only the height of the kerb that saved us.)
To be fair the evacuation of the bus was nothing short of miraculous, someone smashed a few of the back windows, which caused another bout of screaming since it seemed that someone had let loose with a firearm. Children, smaller and older people were quickly lifted out to safety and within three minutes flat everyone had disappeared into the night, leaving only the bus driver scratching his head and wincing occaisionally as the last sparks sputtered and crackled and the power died. The power company arrived with a bus full of hard-hats with torches but We didn't stay to see how they sorted it out, after helping Gloria get the furniture and food inside, beyond the reach of the opportunist arrepa bandits, we carried the kids about ten blocks to the nearest lighted barrio and took a taxi home.
When we got back to the appartment the water supply had been resumed. The trip turned out to be unecessary but I wouldn't have missed it for the world. My first experience with the Water Company, The Electricity Company and the Bus Service all in one day.