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Published: November 11th 2010
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To the Border!! I can't believe I'm out of Ecuador...and luckily with no fines! I had miscounted the days on my visa and actually arrived in Quito the day my visa ended. As I did not know the actual laws I went straight to the airport to try and get a flight out before midnight. Thankfully an immigration officer informed me that there are no longer $200 fees if one over stays the visa, but a 9 month entrance restriction is imposed...which I will bypass by buying a volunteer visa. Anyways, after all that excitement I made my way to Ibarra and ultimately to Tulcan. The border crossing was not what I expected, however, I did have to wait hours for a boss man to show up to give me a proper leaving stamp since I had overstayed my Ecuadorian welcome. The guys working in customs were nowhere near professional but at least they kept me entertained. Calling each other nicknames such as "gordo" was only the begining...It led to "Let's go get a beer" to ¨how about shots of whiskey" all while waiting on the boss. After getting away from their stares and one-liners I literally strolled over the border
into Colombia. I swear, as a solo female traveler, all the horror stories were inside my head as I apporached Tulcan but quickly passed once I crossed the bridge. I even found myself lucky enough to meet Laura, a fellow American and my travel partner for the next 6 days or so. We caught a bus to Popayan together and it turned out to be an overnighter, with 3 different passport checks. I could sense a little profiling going on, but hey, at least we felt safe. Her carry on bag was also cut while it was down by her legs but nothing was taken.
Popayan Anyways, we arrived in Popayan about 2:30 am with no reservations. The first hostel was closed and the taxi driver started driving around but all were full! Finally he got out and walked up to ask about availabilty. Turns out there was one single bed we could share for about $9 total. We agreed. After paying his ridiculous finders rate we climbed the stairs and were greeted by a woman saying "you're foreigners, he didn't tell me that. I don't take foreigners". Somehow we worked our way in by promising to leave by 8am.
Even though we had just met that night and she didn't even buy me dinner we shared a bed. So that was our welcome to Colombia, but after that it was as if we met the nicest and most welcoming people. We stayed the next few nights at Hotel Pass Home and were treated like family. The owner, Carlos, and his son Sebastian took us out to breakfast the morning we arrived. His daughter then joined us and we recieved a tour of the city. It was cool being with them as we entered a few small museusms right near the hotel that even they had never been to. And the city was just gorgeous. Popayan is the Colombian town that has yielded the most presidents; it is full of white washed colonial houses, the life of university students and the best street tamales (for only 1500 COP) that I have ever eaten!!! They took us up to the Moro to see the vista of the city and enjoy some homemade ice cream. The view wasn't that great but the company was. Carlos just had such a charasmatic personality...and watching Sebastian try out his magic tricks on us was just
entertaining. That night Laura went out to search for a vegetable stand. She asked a local couple but they said there was nothing open nearby. If this had been in my hometown I would assume that to be the end of the conversation. But no! They invited her over to their house where they proceeded to give her enough veggies for soup for the both of us...and refused money. The next day we woke up early and took off for El Parque Nacional de Purace. On a side note; One thing that I have found somewhat irritating is bus prices. They are all negotiable and I'm pretty sure we are still getting ripped off even when we haggle, or try to. Anyways, we paid 10,000 COP for the ride after trying to get a reduced fair. Instead we got a lecture how if you don't have money you shouldn't travel (we later found out the going rate is about 6,000-7,000). Jerk. Our driver woke us up to tell us we had reached our destination and just had to walk up to the ranger station. So we hop out in the chilly rain and giggle as we begin our walk to an unkown destination. Shortly thereafter I whisper to Laura, "There is a man with a large gun in the bushes". Comforting. Apparently the area has a lot of forces present to maintain order and whatnot. We even stopped at one of their outposts to ask for directions and recieved a few strange glances but lots of smiles. Well we finally arrived at the ranger stand and are told that since there was so much rain and clouds we couldn't climb the Volcano Purace rather we had to return to where we started to take the trail, which was actually along the road! Park ranger Juan Carlos accompanied us, even though we insisted we were fine by oursleves.. We were going to walk the 16km to the thermales of San Juan and pass a few viewpoints and waterfalls on the way. At one point J.C. put out some raw meat to try and entice the re-introduced Andean condors to make an appearance, but they didn't take to it. The scenery throughout the park was pretty but monotanous. We continiually climbed up a slight, rocky slope that was lined with frailejiones, paramo and altoandino forest. As we reached the Lago de San Rafael we saw a few kids milling about . The tour guide face left and the ranger Juan Carlos came out. Turns out there was a chiva (a HUGE bus with no doors and lots of music) full of students in a vocational school and only two teachers, both of which were not present. To make matters worse one of the students needed medical attention and no one knew where the first aid kit was. I'm not exactly sure what happened but he turned out to be ok and we all rode in the chiva to the thermales. One of the girls asked me, "Usted entiende Spanish?" from that point on no matter what Laura or I said in Spanish people listened and usually laughed...but it was lots of fun. I'd love to see one of those on the road in the states. We returned to Popayan exausted only to wake up for another adventure. Our lovely hosts dropped us off at the bus station in the morning as we took to haggaling once again for a bus to San Agustin. The final offer was $20,000 each and the bus was about to leave. Turns out is was actually a large van and we were put in the back...where we felt every single pothole (and there were SO many that I actually got a headache). The whole 5.5 hours we listening to various cumbias, salsas and talked with Diego, an 18 year Colombian that had an interest in knowing Disney World.
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