Colombie - Des trains pas comme les autres - Salsa - Cali - Bogota - Documentaire - SBS

In Colombia, when you're on the rails, you have to expect everything. There are bicycles, trucks, cars, but not a lot of trains. There are buses that try to play on the little trains. There are huge cities, but where the rails are useless. And if you go down to the train station, you'll see the Virgin. But when you dance, it's with a train. So, to wait for the train in comfort mode, and to try to get back on the rails, in Colombia, the train is not bad! For a lover of trains, not like the others, Colombia is like a kind of nirvana. Because in Colombia, there are no more trains for travellers. But there are a lot of disaffected tracks. And since Colombians are very inventive, you just have to walk along the old tracks to make discoveries, not like the others. They're doing a rail show. Hello. How are you? Good. What are you doing? Are you doing a little rail show? A rolling lounge? No, no, no. It's for my house. It's a little move. Oh, really? Yes, sir. You're moving on the railroad. It's the only means of transport to go from one place to another around here. The only one. What do you mean, the only means of transport? There's no road? No. No, everything goes by train here. We invented this system so that we wouldn't have to carry everything on our backs like before. Today, fortunately, everything is easier. Do you have a lot to carry? Just this. Do you need help? Can I help? Of course. Yes? Yes, that's good. It's a solid move. Are you going far like this? Yes, about six kilometers. But six kilometers, how are you going to do it? With strength. With strength? How? With the palanca. With the palanca? That's it. That's not bad. It's a kind of move. It's not easy to write. A move by gondola, but on the railroad. It's a gondolier-mover. It's funny. Is it hard to push? Sometimes, but you have to train. Is it difficult? No. Do you want to try? Yes. Okay, go ahead. I want to try. It rolls by itself. Put your foot here. This hand up. And the other one here, a little higher. And you're going to press the tip of the stick against the rail. Okay. It takes strength. That's it, I got the hang of it. I can feel the rhythm of the crossings. But there's no brake. No, it stops by itself. I'll show you. With the foot? Yes, with the foot. On the rail? Yes, but it shouldn't go too fast. Can I come with you? Yes, of course. I'm off on the Colombian rails. At Colombian rhythm. Here, things are done very slowly. And I'm putting more weight on you. With me, it's heavier. That's clear. Hello. You're pushing with your foot. Yes, I'm pushing with my foot too. Double traction. I don't believe it. We have a special bus on rails coming right in front of us. It's terrible. Everyone is coming down to let us pass. Why do you have priority? It's because we're heavier. We're loaded. It's not easy to handle. For them, it's easier to move than for us, with all this loading. There are 50 people coming down from these transport machines to let us pass. They have a motor. There's a motorbike that's pushing. We call that a witch. They're motorbike witches. A motorbike witch? Why a witch? Because she flies. That's it. She flies. Ah, okay. It's like a witch on her broom. Yes. Okay. And why don't you have a motorbike? Why don't you put a motorbike? It would be less difficult. A motorbike is expensive. I don't have the means. I hope to have my motorbike one day. And moving around as a witch is very common in the sector. There's the witch for the building, the witch for the plumber, and the most common one, the witch for the people. This railway is both disaffected and very common. As long as we have priority, everything seems simple, fluid. But when the person in front of you is more busy, all of a sudden, alas, you have to move. What a hell. It's complicated. It's very complicated. Yes, it's complicated. How do you judge that he has more load than you? Because the sofas could have been very, very heavy. It's not just a matter of volume. There's also the number of people. The majority wins. Do you sometimes have quarrels? Like, it's not easy, no, I'm the priority, no, it's me. Do you fight sometimes? Yes, very often. Yes? I have more weight, no, it's me. It happens a lot. How long does it take to find a solution? It takes a long time. But there's always someone to meddle with and who serves as a judge. In the end, it's simple. Yes, simple. There's always a solution. OK, well, we're going to have to reload everything now. Oh, yes, yes, it's physical. Oh, yes, yes, you're doing the sport of the day. In fact, the hardest thing is to start. You can't stop. In fact, I feel the sensations of a locomotive. It's quite rare in a life. Oh, it's going up. It's hard, huh? It's hard. And there's really no road to get to this village? Nothing, nothing, no road, no path, nothing but the forest? No, there's nothing. It's the only way. But how do you build a village without a road? Even if there is a railroad, how is it possible? To tell the truth, I don't know. But there are still 350 families. Ah, still? Ah, that's crazy. And you, you chose to live there? For tranquility, nature. I'm very quiet there. But a little physical on the move? But the reward is nature. Oh, yeah? This region is beautiful. We arrive at the village. It's still crazy, this village, completely lost in the forest. Just a small abandoned railroad. Here we are. This is your village? Yes. Tired? Tired, tired, tired. Oh, but at the same time you have muscles. A lot of muscles. There's something coming there, but huge. And what is it? He's carrying a truck on the track. It's a truck? We've seen everything on these rails. How does it work? We have a big truck that can support the weight of the truck. It is raised with planks. The wheels do not touch the ground. The truck can no longer slide on one side or the other. It is very well fixed. What a crew! How does it work to push all this? We need two bikes. Two bikes? Two bikes. Why do you transport a car here when there is no road? To transport the equipment we need for construction in the village. Otherwise, everything would have to be carried to Dodome. There is a road in the village, so we finish the last kilometers by truck. Is there a limit? Is there something you can't carry on these rails? With our imagination and our know-how, we can carry everything we want. No problem. What do you recommend for the move of Albeiro? We'll help you. I found you help. It's super nice. It's a really good day. The atmosphere is definitely very cool. The move takes place in all lightness. In a few minutes it is folded. Here we are good friends. Life resumes its course on and around the rails. In this country where trains are no longer like the others, I wonder what the railways in Bogota, the capital, can look like. At first glance, a lot of bikes, buses, cars, but not a lot of trains. It's almost a pilgrimage. This road, which looks like nothing, which is used by bicycles and pedestrians, is the railway of Bogota, which serves 7 million more inhabitants. In fact, it does not serve much. It's just a tourist train that passes from time to time. And to tell you how much the train here is not a big priority, is that right there in front, you see a kind of big beige block, it's a shopping center called GE. GE means Gran Estación, the big station. Because it was the place of one of the three main stations in Bogota that disappeared. I can't help but go for a ride in Gran Estación. There's really only the name that makes you think of a station. So that's funny. There is a passage of priests and virgins in the middle of the temple of the Consumption. Hello. What's that? I don't know where they're going. That's crazy. It looks like there's going to be a religious office in the middle of the shopping center. There are people waiting there, I don't know why. I'm going to go see. Hello. Can I know what you're waiting for? I'm waiting for my turn to go confess. Confession? Yes, sir. You're going to confess here? Yes, sir. That's incredible, because it's not a very intimate place to confess. Yes, that's true. It's a little weird. But who cares? Because faith adapts to everything. That's incredible. And you have very... Excuse me for the question, but I can't help it. Do you have very serious things to confess? No, but even if I only make a small mistake, I prefer to go confess. Well, I'll let you confess. Thank you. That's not banal. I'm not going to get too involved, because the priest will think I have things to confess. Which is impossible, of course. Excuse me, excuse me. Can I come in just before you pass? Hello. But it's just incredible to see you here like this, making confessions in the middle of the mall. Is that normal? Yes. This is a place of passage. People come from different parts of the city. It's like a crossroads. And it's important that everyone can find God everywhere, even in this kind of place. That's really amazing. And it's not a very intimate place to confess, to say what's on your mind. Can people hear you? It's convenient. Even if it's not very intimate, today a lot of people come and open up naturally. They speak in total serenity. They don't feel intimidated. I understand. But is this really the place, the place of a priest, to be in a temple, but more of a place of consumption? Today, the church doesn't have a choice. It has to adapt to people's daily lives. And in this place, there are people of all kinds of religions, of all kinds of beliefs. That's why it's interesting to offer such a place and to bring faith to it, even if it's neither usual nor traditional. Okay, I understand. But you're in the middle of the temple of temptation, almost of evil. The world is like that. You can always separate good from evil. But in the end, there are always times when they have to coexist. You can't think that the world is all black or all white. You have to find good everywhere. It's all about understanding how to recognize it. And so, even in a place like this, we're here to help people find the right path, to make the right choice. Can I ask you, people who come to confess, what do you hear most often? What do people generally have in their hearts? People often ask to be guided on the emotional level. For example? They have questions about their partner, about extra-marital relationships. These are things that worry them a lot. What do you say to those who worry about their own infidelity? In the case of infidelity, you have to remember who you're cheating on, and above all, why you loved her at first, the basis of this love. In most cases, when a relationship is broken, I invite people to rebuild it. Because often, it's just a matter of misunderstanding. The human being is weak. But if you give him the right keys, then he has the possibility to progress. I didn't expect to talk about all this, between a shoe store and a glasses store. Thank you very much. Sorry to keep you waiting. Bogota is a fascinating city. It's the city of all contrasts, and to get around it, you know, the train is not that. But in Bogota, we don't lack imagination. In this city, perched at 2,600 meters above sea level, to serve this popular neighborhood, hanging in the mountains and very colorful, we preferred to go through the sky. Here, the subway is a cable car. It's also called the cable subway, and it makes a lot of noise in the neighborhood. It's not bad, actually, because it's soft. It feels like you're floating above the city. You can only hear the wind. It's the opposite of the noise of the city down there. It's not bad, actually. Getting around here is a real hassle. To get to the top by bus, in the mountains, it takes an hour, an hour and a half. The bus takes a lot of time to get down and up. It's true that there's a crazy relief here. It's true, it's really a mountain. That's why... It climbs! Yes, it's incredible. That's why the cable car is so interesting. The cable roads for the buses must be terrible. Yes, but with the cable car, we can get there in 20 minutes. It's even faster during rush hour. Sometimes we get to the station down there in 13 minutes. It changes our lives, and we can spend more time as a family. This system is really great. I have my garden up there. There's a lot of culture, too, and business. Aren't you afraid of taking the cable car up there? No, I'm not afraid. We get used to it quickly. We're here. The neighborhood is called Ciudad Bolívar. It's very popular, and it's a kind of refuge for people in the countryside who fled violence and guerrilla warfare in the 1990s and 2000s. Even today, many Venezuelans who flee their country settle here. It has more than 750,000 inhabitants, and the cable car is part of the development efforts to help this neighborhood. I heard that in the small provincial town of Bucaramanga there's a train like no other. It's 8 a.m., it's already 34 degrees, and I'm on my way to the station. The sign near the station is La Loco, and the station's buffet, which seems to be popular, is called La Locomotora. There's people everywhere. This train is very popular. I like it. It's a bus transformed into a South American specialty. Behind, there's the trailer for the sofa and the living room table. It's beautiful. It's a real bus with room for luggage underneath. It's not bad. It's comfortable. Hello. Can I speak to you? Yes. Do you feel more like a bus driver or a train driver? I feel like a train driver. I've never even driven a bus. But not many train drivers have a steering wheel. A steering wheel like this is classy, and it helps me brake. And I can hold on to it. It protects me. But you said the steering wheel is used to brake. When you turn it, does it brake? No, no, no. I don't brake with the steering wheel. I use this lever to brake. It's a handbrake. So the steering wheel is useless. The indicator is the brake. And what's the gear lever for? It's for the gears. First, second, third, fourth. So it's for the remaining gears? Yes, up to fifth. Very good. Watch out, straight ahead. In Colombia, you see all kinds of things on the rails. You always have to remember that. Anything is possible. You really see everything on this railway. Yes, exactly. There are a lot of trains like ours, but there are also motorcycles on the rails. But there are people who do it anyway. There are collisions. Yes, you have to be very careful. You don't know what can be hidden behind the trees. Sometimes there are people or cows. All kinds of animals. For me, it's a great pleasure to serve the community. I would like to see machines like this everywhere in Colombia, and not just in this region. It would be great if the culture of the train came back. And if the driver is proud to serve his community, it's because this bus train leaves some villages that are only connected to the rest of the country by rail. There is no road. This bus train is a vital, essential link. The trains disappeared because of bad decisions of the Colombian government. In fact, there was a liquidation of the national enterprise that managed the railways. Many people found themselves unemployed, and some decided to found a cooperative. Everyone gave what they could, a little money or a little time, to continue to provide the service. It was a generous gesture. It's a field action, it's social. I wish you with all my heart that it works, and that you can continue to serve all these passengers. Thank you. This little bus train runs not far from a capital region for Colombia. A long time ago, the indigenous communities of the sector, the Yarigi Indians, used a kind of cream taken from the ground, a black cream, which they applied on the body, theoretically to strengthen the muscles and fight fatigue. Well, this black cream, it was oil. The region was full of oil, very accessible, shallow. Today, there are more than a thousand oil wells here, an essential sector for the economy of Colombia. This is one of the hottest places in Colombia. It's really, really hot. It's sweating. And so, of course, working the oil in this heat is not easy. And one day, there was a group of oil workers who said to themselves, we should pay tribute to all these efforts. So, well, there were ideas that were confusing like that. Why not make a museum? Why not make an exhibition? But nobody was involved. And then, all of a sudden, there was one who had an idea. And if we made a huge Corcovado Christ, like in Rio, a Christ who would protect the oil workers, well, they did. He's here. A Christ 26 meters high, who they decided to build with the materials that the oil workers use every day. He made it with recycled materials from the refinery which is across the street. And so, every day, here, the Christ watches and looks into the eyes of the oil god. When we talk about Colombia, we often mention Bogotá and Medellín, and we often forget the third city in the country, Cali. And yet, Cali has many advantages. It's not as high in altitude, it's only 1,000 meters, while Medellín is at 1,500 and Bogotá at 2,600. The climate is more pleasant there, and life is quieter. In short, Cali is pretty nice. How are you? Good. And you are very fit to come and dance here at 11 o'clock in the morning like that? Yes, we are rumberos, salsa enthusiasts. And then the hat, tied with the shoes, it's on purpose, of course. Yes, we prepare well in advance. We think about what we are going to wear before going to dance. The outfit is important to please the public and to feel good. With a good outfit, you are invited to dance. Otherwise, no. You mean that if I dance like a foot, but I have the right outfit, I go everywhere? Yes, that's for sure. And then, can I ask you if you are married? Yes, we are married. Does dancing salsa regularly with his wife, does it strengthen love? Is it good for the couple? Yes, it's really an integral part of our life. It keeps a good energy in the couple and it maintains love. We even dance in our kitchen. Do you dance in the kitchen? Yes. Everywhere? But we dance everywhere. We even dance in the whole house. Ah yes? In all the rooms. And did you choose him because he danced salsa well? No, it was not thanks to his level that I cracked. But salsa has helped a lot because we met while dancing. We had a beautiful alchemy on the dance floor. It made a beautiful point in common. Salsa has created a bond between us and since then it always works for our couple. But I don't know how to dance at all. That's how it is in Colombia. There is always a little grain of lightness somewhere. A little grain that takes you very, very far. In my big tour of trains, not like the other Colombians, there was a lack of it in my painting. Rails, benches, a canvas to protect yourself from the sun, but above all, a rather unique route. On a long dig, an improbable thread of land stuck between the largest river in Colombia and the Caribbean Sea. It's to avoid derailing. The track is damaged, there is a risk of derailing. Yes, there is always a need for volunteers to help. Sometimes it is enough for a person who pushes a little, like me. Other times we all have to go down and help. We often have to participate to avoid derailing. The driver can't do everything alone. In fact, in Colombia, we always end up finding a train. It's rustic, it's not very comfortable, but it's nice and it's really not like the others. I think I'm getting to the end. All right? See you later. Good evening. See you later. This is a real end of the world. A place I would never have come to if there hadn't been a little train in the corner. I like that a lot. Just a throw like that between two waters. On the right, the Magdalena river, ocher color, full of sediment from the Andes, and on the left, the Caribbean Sea. It's not really the Caribbean as we imagine them. It's more like the Caribbean the day the pirate ship crashed on the rocks, with the waves and the wind. And then there's her watching, protecting the navigators, or rather the fishermen, I like that. There are a lot of fishermen around here. There's always someone watching you behind the window. Hello. I'm going to go see them, they look nice. Hello. You were watching me, weren't you? I thought you were lost. Really? Because if I'm here, I can only be lost. There's no other reason. No, but when I saw you there alone with your bag, I thought you were probably a tourist who came to discover the landscape around here. And you, do you live here? This gentleman, yes. He lives here. Is that you? Do you live here? Yes, that's me. And why do you live here, at the end of the world? Because I live from fishing. I've been living here for 48 years. Why? I'm one of the oldest fishermen. Here, in this area, there's nothing else to do but fishing. OK. And there are a lot of you here. What's going on? Is there a meeting? Yes, we're preparing the meal. We're going to have a barbecue. We're all going to eat as a family. You can come and see if you want. We often have a barbecue together on Saturdays. Really? Where? Here, just behind. It's over there. Oh, yes, there's a little party. Hello. Hi, how are you? There's fish on the menu. Fish, potatoes and manioc. These fish are huge. What are they? When they're big, they weigh 70 kilos. It's the same as that. 70 kilos? Sometimes more. Some weigh 100 kilos. No, they're whales. If they're small, it's because they're caught when they're young. We don't give them time to grow. Oh, OK. What's the name of this fish? Zavalo. Zavalo? Zavalo. I don't know the name of the animals in Spanish. But it's good. The problem is, when they're small, they have a lot of fins. I don't like that. But when they're big, it's like eating a pork rib. A pig that's like a pork rib. Everything's fine. Do you often have small barbecues on the terrace? Yes, whenever we can, we have a barbecue together. Yes, of course. It's rare to live exactly between the sea and a gigantic river. There's no place in the world that looks like this. Why are they laughing here? We make fun of him. His wife even has too much money. And he never has enough. Thank you. It doesn't look bad. As you said, there are a lot of fish. I'm extremely wary. It's dangerous. It's a very good fish. Excellent, right? It's the best here. It's very good, but it's extremely dangerous. There are 57 fish. There are a lot of fish. There are a lot of fish, but it's good. How do you eat that? You have to eat it slowly. It's a fish that learns patience and slowness. And how is it to live like this, at the end of a river, between two huge rivers? It's very special. Here, we live very happily. Because it's calm. There's the sea, the river, the fresh air, the friends, and we always have fish. We live from that, the whole family. Do you go to the city from time to time, at the end of the jetty, on land? I stay here about 20 days. Then I spend a week in town with my family. I bring them fish, and I take advantage of the children. And where do you prefer to be, here, at the end of the jetty, or in town? I prefer to live here. I'm used to it, and I have everything here. It's difficult to be locked up in town. Everything is polluted, the air is bad. Here, it's quieter, and I'm never sick. You prefer to be here, while your family is over there. Yes, but I see them often. But my job, my livelihood, is here. You live in an incredible place. Really incredible. It's paradise. Paradise? A paradise with good fish. Thank you very much. It was super good. Thank you very much. It was great. I love Colombia. This country is a permanent surprise. On this land, which has gone through dark times, the idea is that, to live better, it's always better to try to arrange things quickly, to do the best we can with what we have, and especially with the people around you. There is a kind of good mood, spontaneous solidarity, and overflowing imagination. Colombia is worth much more than we imagine.