Adios Colombia...Ola Ecuador

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Although it is tough to come to grips with...a month has just passed by on my trip, meaning that it is half done, and with every passing day, I will have travelled more than what I will be able to travel. Colombia was amazing. It is a real shame that it has the reputation that it does, because there was never once when I felt in danger. I think that it just needs more people to travel there, and spread the word, and eventually, people will be able to travel to Colombia without the stigma of Colombia being such a dangerous country.
We decided to fly across the border to try and eliminate any hastle that can occur when crossing the border by land. Our flight was from Cali to Tulcan (an Ecuadorian border city), and then Tulcan to Quito. We originally thought that out flights were back to back...but we overlooked the schedule and turned out that our flight into Quito was the day after. So we had to spend a night in Tulcan, not that it was a problem...just another minor wrinkle encountered in travelling. We met up with a Kiwi in Cali who was on our same flight from Cali to Tulcan, so we shared a cab with him to cut costs slightly. Turns out, when he came across the border from Venezula into Colombia, he never got an exit stamp, as well as an entry stamp into Colombia. Technically, he was never admitted into Colombia, and was an illegal immigrant. This caused some chaos at the border, and we tried to help him out as much as we could. We all made the flight at the last minute, and the end result was our friend having to pay approx. $250 US dollars to get the stamp to be able to leave the country. It was an experience for us as well...and taught us to make sure you ask questions in a situation where you are kinda unsure about something.
So as I said, we are in Quito. You would think for a city being pretty much on the equator, it would be pretty hot, but this has been the coolest city so far, simply because of the high elevation. From wandering around the city yesterday and today, you can tell a distinct difference from Colombia, but it is nice, and interesting to be able to see these differences and compare them. We climbed some bell towers in a couple of churches today, and were able to get amazing views of the city. Neither of us took out cameras with us for some reason, so there won't be any new pics on here right now, but some should be posted soon because tomorrow we plan on heading to the equator. Another blog will follow shortly, until then...

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