The ever-bizarre quest for WiFi

Now in the country, WiFi access has become a rare event for us. There are certainly no coffee shops with free WiFi, no easily accessible schools, and no airports. Even if a network does show up on my phone, it most likely needs a password.

Pedaling through a small hot town yesterday, we saw an orange building, with "Internet" painted on a post by the door. Ah ha!! We park our bikes on the porch and a large-eyed little boy regards us. "Internet here?" we ask in Spanish. "No hay internet" he says, giggling. Soon a group of his little friends gather and peak at us out the window; they were laughing. "Hehe, look at these ladies! They think there's internet here! How funny!!"

I'll write posts and hold them on my phone until I do get a signal. The latest form of garnering WiFi just tickles me to pieces, even better than a school yard or an airport.

The other morning we sat at a gas station, eating cheese Arepas and drinking coffee. I had checked my device with misplaced hope to scan for any open networks--highly unlikely but a habit--and of course nothing.

And then, in astonishment, a network appeared, PREMIUM it was called, and a joyful array of messages fed into my phone: friends, parents, AND a note from Cornell that the grant I had written was funded. (!!) One of those messages you hold in your palm and just regard it in success. Premium indeed! And just as I had finished jumping up and down about the grant, providing the Colombians with yet another reason to stare at me, the WiFi network slipped away, as quietly as it had arrived.

How did that happen? An inexplicable gift, de Dios? How could such a seemingly strong connection just falter out like that?

On the road later, the revelation came to me. A tall first-class coach bus roared past us in a cloud of dust: "PREMIUM" it had written on the side.

A bus with an unlocked WiFi connection! Incredible. It must have parked briefly at the rest stop, just long enough for my emails to come in.

This unlocked WiFi is not on all buses, just this one company, which when I see pass by flares to me like recognizing a crush from afar. Just another reminder that travel like this is about turning inside out all you take for granted in your home place, things like cold water from a tap and available WiFi.

In the town of El Dificil we stopped for some cold bags of water and sat for a while. Long enough for a Premium Bus to stop nearby to unload passengers. I grabbed my device, jumped up, and hurried over to hover hopefully nearby. The network symbol on my phone lit up; I loaded my blog post, willing it to fly. Just as the bus pulled away: "Your post is successful."  YES.

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