Popayan - Silvia - Santuario de las lajas

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Popayán is sold as the white city and again as one of the most beautiful cities in Colombian (I gave up counting how many most beautiful cities they have here). To cut a long story short I didn’t like it that much. It has a lot of old buildings which are mainly white and the usual thousand churches but I’ve seen better in Columbia. Spent only one day here so there is not much more to say about it.

One nice thing about stopping over in Popayán was that I could go to the Tuesday market in Silvia which lays 1 1/2 hours away from Popayán. The Tuesday market is famous because the Guambiano Indians which live in the proximity come to town on that day. These Indians are considered one of the most traditional groups in Colombia. They still speak their own language, dress traditionally and still use old techniques to farm their land. On Tuesday they come to town to sell their vegetables, fruits and handicrafts. Quite a colourful gathering and I like markets anyway so I was happy. Unfortunately they don’t like to be photographed so I had to take a few sneaky shots.

The last stop in Colombia was the Santuario de las lajas (a church). This church is slightly different to all the other churches in Colombia as it is build on a bridge spanning a deep gorge. The church is build right up to the rock and the rock face is part of the main altar. Many pilgrims come to this church during the year as many miracles happened here. Well nothing unusual happened to me.

That’s all for Colombia. Tomorrow I will leave towards Ecuador. Didn’t know what to expect from Colombia in the beginning but those expectations where more than met 😉 No seriously if you are planning a trip to South America put Colombia on the top of your list. Its great, has friendly people, lots to see and do, next to no tourists and feels safer than most other countries I visited so far.

PS: Thanks to all the people who write comments to the blogs. Unfortunately there is no way for me to reply apart from writing an email. Sorry guys cant do this all the time as I’m sitting in the internet café too long anyway to write these blogs. Hope you understand. Keep on writing anyway I’m always glad to get feedback 😊

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Photos

Street in Popayan
Most of the houses are painted white hence the name white city.

Yet another church
When I come back from South America I don’t want to see another church for at least one year.

Funky bar in Popayan
The bar was established 40 years ago and I think they still play some of the original LPs from back then. The sound quality is maybe not up to scratch but the music is good and the beer cheap.

Market day
As with every good market you can buy everything from bananas, funny hats (the ones the Indians wear) to DVD player.

Indian girl with traditional dress
Really every Indian wore this type of dress mostly finished with a bowler hat.

Inside the church
Note the rock face which makes up the main altar

If that is not a nice looking church then I don’t know
If you look closely you can see the many thank you plagues to the right of the church. Every time someone things a miracle happened to him he puts up a plague.

Different angle still gorgeous.
A bit like me ;)