Aug 11, 2012 - Popayan Cali cartagena tolu

Ok I'll zoom through my 6 days in the south of Colombia. Pretty Un eventful. Cali for one night, nothing was going on since it was Sunday, so I wondered and found some gross chicken. Fried. They give plastic gloves to eat it with so your hands don't get greasy. A bit of Olympics then the next day to popayan. Also proved to be a quiet city. Most everyone was unsocial so I had a lot of quiet time. Walked around town, pedicure, much needed. So much dirt and dead skin came off my feet, I was embarrassed. Pretty town in the mountains. Colonial...

Jun 25, 2012 - The final country

Border crossing! We were expecting long delays and lots of check the reality was quickly out and even more quickly into Colombia with a cheap meal of soup and meat? thrown in. As per usual the vegetable soup was delicious but also as per usual no meat just meant that it only had chicken in it - our vegetarians weren't impressed. Ipiales our next stop just across the border has one saving grace about 17kms out of town is Santuario de las Lajas a wedding cake church set on the side of a canyon in a place where an image of the virgin Mary was...

Jan 9, 2012 - Popayan, Columbia

Yesterday was a down day, I was exhausted. Two nights in noisy cheap hotels did me in! I pretty much did nothing until about 9 when I went to dinner. After that I went to the central park and shot pictures. I don’t know if I have ever seen such a tasteful Christmas lighting display. This is a very beautiful city; it is a lot like Trujillo, Peru. I will do the same tonight except I will use the little camera. This hotel is an old mansion with not a lot of rooms. As far as I know, besides myself, there is only a young couple and an old lady...

Jan 8, 2012 - Popayan, Columbia

1-8-12 SUN After I wrote the last time (Friday morning) I continued to search for a hotel. The third one that I tried the receptionist told me every place was sold out because the President was visiting Tulcan. I was considering backtracking to Ibarra 2 ½ hours. Pasto is the town with the festival and it is five hours. The next town is Popayan which is eight more hours and the LP doesn’t recommend travel on this route at night. Then I remembered Ipiales just across the border. After the border formalities and a short taxi ride into town I...

Sep 20, 2009 - Popayan

Popayan is known for its whitewashed colonial buildings. They are very pretty and serve as the model of colonialism in Colombia. Other than that there wasn't a whole lot to do there other than wander around and see the few historic sites it has to offer. We stayed in a hostel that was attached to a guy's home. His name is Sebastian and he is quite a helpful and chatty fellow. He helped us out with buses to San Agustin and Tierra Adentro. That is mainly why tourists come to Popayan...to catch the bus.We also heard all about his self...

Jul 18, 2009 - Popayan

Well it has been a few days that I could just take a moment to sit on a computer as we have been busy.. The 16th July was our last day in Pasto.. Pasto is cold as it is about 3000m above sea level.. high on a mountain. Leonor took us to the family farm in a placed called Consaca nearly 2 hours drive from Pasto. The landscape on the way down was breathtaking ..we were surrounded by beautiful mountains and valleys.. On the farm they mainly grow coffee, plantains and corn for production...and lots of other fruits for eating mandarins, lemons,...

Jun 8, 2009 - Popayán, la ville blanche

La prochaine grande ville aprés Pasto est Popayán. Durant le trajet de six heures nous nous sommes fait contrôlés trois fois avec fouille complète ; deux fois c’était la police, une fois les militaires. Il ne manque plus que les farcs … ! En vérité on entend très peu parler de la guérilla, seule la forte présence militaire sur les routes témoigne qu’il se passe quelque chose. Nous arrivons le soir a Popayán et nous mettons une heure a marcher avec les sacs pour trouver un hôtel raisonnable. Le lendemain nous visitons Popayán, dit la ville...

Feb 13, 2008 - Colonial Popayán

Popayan is a beautiful colonial town in the south of Colombia. We were only going to spend the night here before we made our way to Equador but the welcome we received from Tony and Kim at the hostel, the beautiful colonial buildings - and our need for a rest made us spend another night. We strolled the white-washed streets, and climbed the dome shape hill (which was apparently the site of an ancient pyramid) to see beautiful views of the town and surrounding mountains. We also had a lovely steak and crepes meal to celebrate Valentine's Day...

Dec 11, 2007 - Popayan, The White City

Next, I was off to the white city, as Popayan is known. Unfortunately, getting there from San Augustin proved to be an ordeal (not totally my fault) and in the end I had to settle for sitting on the floor of a shitty bus for 6 hours. Every half hour or so I would have to turn around and look forward to fight off the motion sickness (which tells you how bad the road was, as I NEVER get carsick). Six hours to go 120 kilometers (=80 miles) In Popayan I did hikes to nice vista points, visited some hot springs in a rustic mountain town named...

Aug 28, 2007 - Popayan: Passing through Popayan

Making my way down from Medellin to Popayan ended up taking up the whole day as the early morning bus I wanted at 730am was full so I had to wait til 9am. Did I mention that I'd planned on doing the overnight bus last night but after checking out of the hostel and arriving at the bus station at 10pm or so I find the bus to be fully booked so end up spending £10 in taxi fares just for a tour of the city ending up right back where I started. To add insult to injury I find that someone had slipped me a fake 20,000 bill (about £5 but a lot of...

Oct 17, 2006 - Colombia

Ecuador zeigt sich noch mal von seiner Besten Seite auf dem Weg zur Grenze zu Colombia. Schneebedeckte Vulkane und die imposanten Anden machen meinen Plan ein wenig zu schlafen im Bus zunichte. Der Grenzueberschritt ist ein wenig enttaeuschend fuer mich. Keine Kontrollen, alles relaxt. Und das soll nun das Land der Drogenbarone und der meisten Entfuehrungen weltweit sein? Die Fahrt geht weiter durch absolut grandiose Landschaften bis zu meinem ersten Stop Popayan. Sie gilt als eine der schoensten colonialen Staedte Colombias- und mit recht...

Aug 3, 2006 - Popayán

Supposed to be 2 hours from Calí but it took 3 after police checks along the way. I've had enough of cheapo divy hostels with rubbishy beds and noisy people... so I went for a more upmarket place (Hostal Colonial) costing USD9 a night with cable tv, hot water and private bathroom! It was nice. The son of the owner of the hotel, Cristian, 13 years old, offerred to take me on a guided tour of the city. As with most people he guessed I wasn't Colombian when I started talking, he looked at my flip flops and thought I was Brazilian and just for...