Into Colombia - 16-17 Feb 2014


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South America » Colombia » Popayan
February 17th 2014
Published: May 25th 2014
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The local ladies preparing some pork
Sunday 16th February (Odyssey Day 100)







We departed the camp at 0800 this morning heading for the border with Colombia. It wasn’t too strenuous for us and we managed to cross the border just before lunch. A very easy crossing here, and now we will be in Colombia for a little over a month. This is a country everyone has been looking forward to for various reasons, it is one country that always got surprised looks from people back home when it was mentioned we would be visiting. The question was always ‘is it safe to visit?’ and now we have a chance to form our own opinions first hand.







We arrived in to the town of Pasto at 1600, a reasonable hour for a change since the border crossing had been an easy one. Here I ended up sharing a hotel room with Ellie and Ann up way too many stairs to count, then our first order of business was walking a block down to a bank to withdraw some money. Almost 2000 pesos to the US dollar, so we will have to get used to
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Some beautiful scenery
all the zero’s again. Ann had a bit of a panic thinking she had been short changed since the 50000 peso notes have 50 mil written on them instead of all the zeros.







After an easy dinner of fish with Joanna in the restaurant/bakery next door, I then went back to relax at the hotel and took the time to get some washing done – a never ending chore if I want clean clothes to wear. Being Sunday, it’s quite quiet outside and we have another drive day tomorrow as Pasto is just a stopover town.











Monday 17th February (Odyssey Day 101)







Departure was 0900, after finding our own breakfast, as apparently Colombian hotels don’t generally include it with the room. I had some pastries from last night so I could save some time and instead did a really hurried shop for an electrical adaptor, since Colombian power points are slightly different. Now I’m one of those people who have an appliance plugged into an adaptor plugged into another adaptor and plugged into the wall.
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Through the mountains of Colombia
Rather inconvenient and possibly not the safest way to do it but at least this one is really small and will also be useful for Central America as well.







Getting out of town was interesting, I don’t envy Simon his job at times like this. We couldn’t seem to find the way out and at one point had to reverse a couple of kilometres back down a very high track that wasn’t wide enough to turn around on. We also were relieved for the empty roads as it meant we could cut across a one way street (only going the wrong way for about 3 meters) to get onto the road we wanted finally. Road signs are not too common here and the GPS not much use when it is as lost as we are.







We stopped for lunch at a very small town and a few of us ended up having a chat with some local police officers after they came over to see the truck. They obviously found it fascinating and were really friendly as they asked us about our travels so far and
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Lunch top in a small town along the way
gave us advice on where to visit in Colombia. They didn’t speak much English but between what they did know and our small bits of Spanish, as well as a lot of talking with hand gestures, we actually somehow managed a conversation.







The roads we are travelling are long and winding, with some absolutely beautiful scenery. The flat plains of Peru are but a distant memory now as everything is hills and green.







We arrived in the small city of Popayan at around 1700. Finding a place to pull over and offload was interesting and in the end we had to walk a couple of blocks to the hostel. This place is clearly a hostel rather than a hotel even though it is quite a nice one and it is odd to have a communal bathroom when not at a campsite. I was sharing with Hannah and Joanna again here and Jo drew the short straw for the top bunk.







Joanna and I went out for dinner and after walking around in circles for a little while, trying to
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Scenic fuel stop
guess at the odd street system, we eventually found the Italian Restaurant that we were looking for. Highly recommended and rather close to the hostel as it turned out. The streets here are numbered instead of named but don't seem to be in the right order. I am sure there is some logic to it but its obviously lost in translation.





Dinner was beautiful and consisted of pizza, served with a nice salad as an entrée. The wine was also surprisingly good. It cost us COP71000 for the meal which is still a bit cheaper than we would spend at home, but a lot more expensive than most Colombian places (or at least Colombian places not aimed at tourists).

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