by Jane | May 9, 2014 | Colombia, My travels |
I know that some of you are following my route and you may be a little bit confused about where I am now and how I reached this place as my reports have been jumping around a bit.
I am currently living more or less in the middle of Colombia, about an hour outside Medellin and I am working on a permaculture farm for the next five weeks. We have no access to the internet unless we walk for about thirty minutes down muddy lanes and then tackle the nearby town’s free Wifi in the central park, so you can have a bit of a breather from my adventures.
sugar white buildings of Popayan
After Peru I galloped through Ecuador so that I could travel into Colombia with M. Once in Columbia we steadily worked our way up through the country. Our first stop was at Ipiales with its fairytale church and then we went just a few more hours north to the town of Pasto. There is not a lot in Pasto itself – it is just like any other large town in Latin America but it is the jumping off point for some really good countryside. We stayed an extra night so that we could watch the lunar eclipse and then we went on to Popayán. The Semana Santa festivities were in full swing at this special little town so we decided to stay an extra night before moving on to Cali.
Depending on which report you read, Cali is the fifth, seventh or tenth most dangerous city in the world but it is also the capital of salsa. Me and M parted company here for a week whilst I moved in and stayed with a family and she did her own thing although we did meet up a couple of times and I am pleased to say that we stayed here without incident
it looks modern but is ancient.
We joined forces again at the end of that week and then we took a bus to Armenia. This town is one of my favourite large towns to date and it is the perfect hub if you want to visit the coffee region. Whilst here we did trips out to Salento and Buenavista; we rode horses, hiked lots and visited a coffee finca. I could have stayed here for another three weeks or more but I had a prior appointment on the permaculture farm and M had to get to Bogota and the airport. We explored Medellin for our final couple of days and then on the Sunday after a journey by bus and then a jeep I settled into my new home which is where I shall be based for the next month or so.
by Jane | May 1, 2014 | Colombia, My travels |
Leaving Ibarra behind we set off on a bus for the border. I have to admit that me and M were both a bit jittery about travelling into Colombia, after all, you should read the Foreign Office website; ” The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advise against all but essential travel to the following parts of Colombia…there is a high threat from terrorism“. We were going in!
Me, being me, I had already approached a couple of backpackers at the bus terminal at Ibarra for a natter and they had the same feelings as us, so we agreed to team up. There is after all, safety in numbers. We had to get a cab from the last town on the Ecuadorian side to the border, check out of Ecuador, walk about five hundred meters across a bridge over a river, check into the Colombian side and then get another cab to the closest town of Ipiales. We were all expecting the worst because both me and M had already had some not so nice border experiences (check out this link to see how we fared in Bolivia) and the Dutch couple had also had some hairy border crossings previously.
As the four of us negotiated the various stages of the transfer we kept glancing at each other and raising eyebrows and frowning. Something had to go wrong in a minute. There were no screaming, jostling cab drivers trying to scam us and no rogues trying to steal our bags. The border police on both sides were happy and smiley and immigration in Colombia chatted and winked at us. We were all a bit shell-shocked and kept wondering why it was so easy. Walking across the bridge over the river which divided the two countries the experience was the polar opposite of our bridge experience whilst going into Bolivia at Christmas but none of us were complaining. The only explanation that we could think of was that both Ecuador and Colombia are desperate to change their image and want to attract more tourists. Tourism is booming in Ecuador and it has been a great success story, but now that I have been in Colombia for a couple of weeks already, I think it is because the Colombians are the smiliest, chattiest most inquisitive people. You can’t get on a bus in Colombia and expect to keep yourself to yourself. Everybody chats to everybody else and if you are different in any shape or form then even more so.
We parted company with the Dutch couple who set off further north whilst me and M went over to our hotel which was directly opposite the bus terminal in Ipiales. To be perfectly honest it was a bit of a dump. We expected a bit of a dive, after all, one of the travel websites warned of the local ladies of the night who would hire rooms by the hour. It was adequate for a very quick visit although the room was freezing cold and the promised Wifi was useless. The staff on the front desk were as grumpy and unhelpful as hell and M wanted to know why on earth we had arranged to stop here, but I had been given a tip off that there was something that we shouldn’t miss close by the town and she should trust me.
The fairytale church
Setting off to find a collectivo which wasn’t heading back to the border, we journeyed about twenty minutes away from the town. And there was the little gem as recommended by my Russian friend Mishka. Snuggling deep in a gorge and spanning a small river was a bridge. But this was no ordinary bridge. Tall arches propped up a church at one end. And this was no ordinary church either. It was a fairytale castle/church and as the afternoon sun set behind the mountains it appeared to float in the amber light. There was an unusual little museum set deep in the bowels of the building which displayed religious icons. I personally didn’t find the exhibits especially interesting but the location was atmospheric with the brick barrel ceilings and little dark alcoves everywhere. Las Lajas was built on the sight of an eighteenth century miracle and the number of healings here are said to be second only to those at Lourdes in France.
Las Lajas church
The church part of the castle/church was quite beautiful and it was full of people preparing it for Semana Santa. Large flower displays were being fussed over and fairy lights around the altar checked, much like we check our Christmas tree lights when you get them down from the attic every year. The frustration was the same when a bulb failed to light, but to me, it was very odd to watch people deciding whether to drape the lights over Jesus’ ear or not.
Back in our miserable hotel (I refuse to name it here and give it any advertising at all) we piled as many blankets onto the bed as we could find and settled down to what was to be a dreadful nights sleep for the both of us. The next day we checked out as quickly as we could and we trudged across the road to find transport to the town of Pasto.
Arriving in Pasto with no accommodation our cab driver came up trumps and we found a nice hotel with a private room on what turned out to be one of the main streets. The following day we took a collectivo (shared cab) to the Laguna de la Cocha. During our journey the two ladies that we were sharing with asked if we would like to alter our journey plans slightly and go to another part of the lake and take a boat trip over to the small island with them. Never one to turn down an opportunity to see something else, me and M agreed and we ended up spending the rest of the day with them, although I do have to confess to missing the bit about the boat or I would have questioned them more closely.
Laguna de la Cocha
The boat turned out to be nothing more than a canoe with an outboard engine. These tiny little craft were buzzing around over the surface of the lake (the second largest in South America and weirdly shaped like the continent). I was pleased to see other passengers wearing life vests but then found out our canoe didn’t contain any. Our man was wearing a red poncho and really looked the coolest Colombian but that wouldn’t help him if we ended up in the water, so I wasn’t that impressed. The island was small but quite cute with a boardwalk up through the middle of jungly stuff to the other side. We did survive the boat trip and had a late dinner together with our new acquaintances before heading back to Pasto.
We were told that the following night was to be a spectacular lunar eclipse, and if we would like to delay our onward plans by twenty four hours perhaps we might like to watch the eclipse (weather permitting of course) from Lady’s wooden cabin in the countryside. Me and M thought for all of twenty nine seconds about this and decided that yes, of course we would love to accept Lady’s offer so we went back to our hotel to pack our bags once again.
N.B: By the way, when revisiting the Foreign Office website for the quote for this blog, I realised that me and M have already inadvertently travelled into, and have come out unscathed from one of the areas which is blacklisted. Oops!!
