Blogs from Popayan, Colombia, South America - page 2

Als ich aus Cali abreisen will, steht in der Einfahrt ein riesiger SUV mit laufendem Motor, bewacht von zwei schwer bewaffneten, grimmig drein blickenden Söldnern. Im Garten ist offensichtlich Druglord-Konferenz, und ich frage mich, ob es so weise ist, diese durch meinen Abreisewunsch zu stören. Schließlich gelange ich jedoch heil und ohne Umwege zum Busterminal und bin bereits drei Stunden später in Popayan. Die Hauptstadt der Region mit einer der weltweit höchsten Biodiversitäten (sic!) ist – zumindest im kolonialen Zentrum – vollständig weiß getüncht. Nur das Militär, was vermutlich wegen den Cauca-Separatisten überall rumsteht, hebt sich in grün von diesem feinen Stadtbild ab. Ansonsten besteht die Stadt aus etwa 50 Kirchen. Auf dem Hauptplatz, der wieder mal Plaza Bolivar heißt, werde ich mit einer Playback-unterstützten Panflötenversion von Sound of Silence begrüßt, während mich... read more

After a few sunny days in Mancora I took a bus over the border to Cuenca, in Ecuador. For a country that had considered skipping entirely, Ecuador was actually great. Although small, it has a little bit of everything South America has to offer: white sand beaches, pretty Andean towns and wild jungle. It's a lot greener (and warmer) than Peru and Bolivia, and the people demonstrate a mix of the indigenous culture of the Andean countries and the vibrant Latin feel of Central America. I wasn't particularly thrilled about leaving the sunny beach to go back into the mountains but Cuenca was a pleasant enough place. It had two lovely cathedrals, a small flower market and a pretty central square where I was interviewed by some local students as part of their project on tourism. ... read more

The past few days have been a whirlwind of events. Our first stop: Purace Volcano. We thought it would be a quick day hike to the crater of a volcano. We forgot one minor detail though - it is in the Andes Mountains! And the top is at 4700m! Which is about 1000m less than Kilimanjaro. We camped at 3300m in a beautiful area, with a view of the volcano. A fellow ¨gringo¨ (what the locals here call foreigners), Benjamin, joined us. There are no shops nearby, so we had come well prepared food wise. After asking Benjamin whether he thought there were any wild animals about, he commented that there could prehaps be a dog or two but no wild animals to worry about. That night Marco got up to go to the bathroom, aka ... read more

Na vier dagen Quito was het tijd om naar Colombia te gaan. Het land dat al snel associaties oproept met geweld, guerrilla, paramilitairen, Pablo Escobar en cocaine. Maar zowel voorafgaand aan onze reis in Nederland als gedurende de laatste vier maanden hadden we vrijwel uitsluitend enthousiaste verhalen gehoord van mensen die het land hadden bezocht. Zo hadden we bijvoorbeeld vernomen dat er relatief weinig buitenlandse toeristen zijn, dat Colombianen de aardigste mensen van Zuid-Amerika zijn en dat het landschap prachtig is. Met name vanwege dat landschap wilden we graag met de bus Zuid-Colombia in en niet met het vliegtuig meteen helemaal naar het veel noordelijker gelegen Cali vliegen. En net als over zoveel van de eerder bezochte plekken, hadden we ook ditmaal een hoop spookverhalen gehoord over de grensovergang met Colombia. Zo zou het grensgebied onveilig ... read more

First of all, sorry for the blog overkill. We have finally arrived in a town that is so laid-back that there is actually nothing to do because the weather is bad today, so I finally have time to catch up on the blog. I hope to actually catch it up to date, but my butt might fall asleep on this plastic chair before I get to it. Secondly, thanks to everyone who is following the blog and I always appreciate reading your comments!! We spent our first hour in Popayan checking out probably all 5 hostels there. We ended up at Hostel Trail, one of the nicest and cheapest with a super nice employee named Edward. We checked into a shared room with Benoit and Amelie. Popayan is another small town with not a lot going ... read more