Blogs from Ipiales, Colombia, South America - page 2

Day 212 Thursday 10th May We had an early breakfast and were at the hotel reception for the 9.00am Coffee Tour which was done by Tim the owner of the hostel and for the past 3 and half years the proud owner of a coffee farm. The farm was well on the decline when they brought it but is now slowly improving, with them implementing many new things e.g. worm farm for organic fertiliser, solar panels and water management making the farm more self-sufficient. The talk on the coffee production was very interesting and we learnt a lot and even thought of buying his neighbours farm for a split second a shame it is overpriced this is a beautiful part of the world. We learnt about some of the different types of coffee and ... read more

The trip from Bogota to Manizales was through some of the most consistently beautiful and spectacular country we have travelled anywhere in the world. Beautiful mountains, villages that made you want to pull up and stay a while – except that rural areas are subject to all sorts of (Australian and maybe other government) warnings around here. Green and lush for almost the entire length of the trip. It would have been nice to be able to pull up and take photos at many, many points. But we could only pull up for pick -ups and drop-offs. Not for photos. It was a long and, just a bit, gruelling bus trip but the scenery made up for it – most of the time. We walked into the bus station at Bogota with no settled view on ... read more

The last city, Popayan, was to be the last Colombian city we visited. However, it was still quite a hike from the border with Ecuador. We tried to figure out a way to get down to Quito in one trip, but it was impossible. So, we ended up stopping for a night in Ipiales, the border town. I won't waste too much time writing about this city except to say that no one should bother staying here unless it is absolutely necessary. It is cold and blustery. It rains a lot... a cold, miserable drizzle. It´s rundown, grimy, dingy, unwelcoming. The guide book describes it as ¨uninspiring.¨ After spending about half an hour looking around town for a restaurant, we ended up at one of the only ones still open (and it was only around 7 ... read more

was a hilarious experience. It was basically two days of being dirty because as soon as you got out on the street, someone would come and paint your face (or sometimes by accident your clothes too...) with color, spray foam on you, or throw flour at you, especially if you looked kind of clean. The Carnaval was held over January 5 and 6 and represent the older days of Colombia when slaves were allowed to celebrate on January 5 and their masters painted their faces in black to show approval of the festivities. The following day, the 6th is the white day. However, as you can imagine, the colors were not respected and during the two days of celebrating, watching concerts and parades, I felt like a cameleont, going from black, to green, to orange, to ... read more

Day 735 (03.04.09) Having recharged our batteries it was time to make a move and face the bone thumping journey back to Popayan - not a prospect that brought joy to our morning. We could have carried on south from here but had been advised that both the condition of the road and amount of Guerrilla activity in the area made it better to retrace our steps to Popayan before heading south to Ecuador. Picking up the bus at a military police check point, it seemed that they had upped their activity from our previous journey down with everyone already travelling on the bus getting pulled off and searched before we could carry on. We were lucky enough to avoid the police pat down on this occasion. Another stop further on and we were not so ... read more