The crowd that wanted to get close to the famous singer Juanes was multitudinous, as were the arms that tried to reach with their mobile phones, hoping to photograph the moment when the star of Colombian song was going to transfer the attributes of the World March to his Ecuadorian counterpart. Conversely, both the security forces and the media, stationed at the border from the early hours, were weak, that when the moment arrived – and by fluke with a downpour of that kind of rain when the sky falls in – nobody managed to see more than a crowd overcome by its own enthusiasm, speakers stuttering because of defects in the sound system, pacifists and the non-violent who were losing even the shirts off their own backs in the swollen river of people, humanists who in this Macondo were lifted by the air while they continued waving their flags and Rafael de la Rubia, tireless and amicable as ever, who with undoubtedly instructional skills was exciting Juanes with the greeting “peace, strength and happiness!”.
This was how the base team crossed – or tried to cross – the border between Colombia and Ecuador on the Rumichaca bridge as it followed its route through Latin America, towards Punta de Vacas.
