Bus Travel Issues

[JimD]

This embassy message didn´t indicate what time of day this occured but it was probobly at night. I´ve heard people say they like to take long bus trips at night so they can just sleep through it but the risk factor increases many fold.
...
"The U.S. Embassy would like to remind all U.S. citizens that the use of public buses can be dangerous.  U.S. Embassy personnel are strictly prohibited from using public buses.  Recently, two private American citizens were traveling on a public bus from Bogota to Cali when it was attacked by unidentified gunmen.  The two American citizens were unharmed but the bus was burned and they lost all their personal belongings during the incident.  The U.S Embassy discourages the use of public buses."

[benjio]

This embassy message didn´t indicate what time of day this occured but it was probobly at night. I´ve heard people say they like to take long bus trips at night so they can just sleep through it but the risk factor increases many fold.
...
"The U.S. Embassy would like to remind all U.S. citizens that the use of public buses can be dangerous.  U.S. Embassy personnel are strictly prohibited from using public buses.  Recently, two private American citizens were traveling on a public bus from Bogota to Cali when it was attacked by unidentified gunmen.  The two American citizens were unharmed but the bus was burned and they lost all their personal belongings during the incident.  The U.S Embassy discourages the use of public buses."

I've never rode the bus at night in Colombia, especially when traveling from one city to another. If the trip is more than 6 hours and I can't leave in the early morning, I fly. I've never had a problem during all the trips I've taken, but I did see men armed with AK's on the side of the road during a bus trip from Pereira to Cali. They were not Colombian Military or Police.

[Kenrik]

The entertainments - the bus offers several opportunities except reading an fascinating book or magazines, which you may bring with yourself. There's maximum TVs installed in the buses or even a number of them have TVs installed in the headrests so you need only to plug in the headphones, relax & enjoy the film.

[V_Man]

On my first trip to Colombia, with my limited Spanish, I travelled on all sorts of public transport. Always with a local. However for long trips between cities I went by private car or flew.

[JimD]

From what I've read here Dennis Levy may be the most experienced bus traveler amongst us. My longest bus trips were from Cali to Bogotá (eleven hours ufff) and Cali to Pasto. I've taken shorter trips like Bogotá to Guaduas and Bogotá to Villa De Layva,  Cali to Buenaventura, Cali to Manizales and Cali to Popayán and the bus from Barranquilla to Cartagena and on the other side B/quilla to Riohacha. I've always traveled in the daytime though and never had any problems except for a couple of buses breaking down.  I don't really like bus travel that much though because it's often long and boring and the scenery goes by too fast for you to get a feel for it.