Goodbye Colombia!

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This is going to be a very short one-sorry!! Well as Terry already said, we didn't really have any impressions of Colombia before we came here and after spending the best part of 2 months travelling around, it was hard to leave in the end. On the last part of our journey towards Ecuador we basically spent some time travelling through the Andes and skipped past a couple of the bigger cities. The Salt Cathedral outside Bogota was really amazing, an enormous underground cathedral built inside a huge salt mine. On our way towards the small town of Salento, we ended up in a town called Honda waiting for a bus the following day. Spent the evening playing the Colombian version of bowls with a group of old guys, it was a very funny night-great game too after a few beers!

When we got to Salento we finally met some other gringo tourists, since we hadn't seen anyone for a couple of weeks while hopping through the small towns in the Andes. Did some nice hikes (although we got ridiculously lost on one of them), ate some delicious trout since there was a festival on in town and then had to head off on the road again on an overnight bus to get to San Agustin where there are tons of strange-looking carved figures all over the place. Spent a couple of days there visiting different tombs and waterfalls around the countryside before finally making our way to the border town of Ipiales. It was sad to have to leave Colombia cos we really fell in love with the place, but it was definitely time to move on!!!

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Photos

Inside the salt mine cathedral
Zipaquirá, Colombia.

At one of the huge altars..
A really cool place

In a very random town playing a very random old man
You throw the lead weight into a pile of mud which has these explosive paper triangles...get points depending on where the weight lands but the big scores are for exploding one of the triangles! Free to play as long as you keep supping beers!!

The opposition..
Didn't like it at all when he was beaten (total fluke) by a learner!

And you all thought we were living it up over here...
Recession cuts mean we can only afford the really cheap beds.

Lost on a trail near Salento
One thing we found that we're really good at is getting totally lost.

The size of them pints!
First paddies we bumped into in Colombia

Legend value breakfast..
Baked chicken, rice and beans (as always), soup and coffee for about 1.25

Not your usual in a church
The lovely 8-footed calf and his brother the 2-headed calf