Blogs from Popayan, Colombia, South America - page 3

Hey gang, the theme of todays entry is bus rides. Officialy last day in Colombia! In the last ten days we have wandered our way through the Andes, stopping at the cities of Medellin, Bogota and Popayan. Bus rides in South America are to say the least, very interesting... after standing inline behind a man and his chicken, we boarded a bus from Cartegena to Medellin. Looking on the map, you would give a conservative figure of 8 hours or so... reading into it you realize your in for a 15 hour marathon.. when it comes to reality it turned into an almost 20 hour marathon, which halfway through one of the windows decided to shatter and leave me feeling as if i had just cannon balled into a lake, a cold one resting at 4000 ... read more

Friday (2nd April), Yissel and I decided to try to get to the Volcano that we'd tried to get to the previous Saturday (when we actually ended up at Lake Calima instead). Of course, by the time that we'd both gotten organised enough to leave to the bus terminal it was about lunchtime. As we arrived we found the one company that seemed to run buses to the place that we needed to go to - Puracé (about 36km to the east of Popayán). The volcano was some 20 minutes or so from Puracé itself, from what I can gather. Unfortunately there wasn't anybody at the booth where we needed to buy our ticket. One of the reps of the other company informed that the bus wouldn't leave until 2pm so we had a bit of ... read more

Thursday morning I awoke and showered. I caught sight of my back in the mirror - I was peeling so badly that it looked as though somebody had taken a huge bunch of dried white flowers and prit-fixed them to my back. I was shedding skin like a snake. Urggghhhh.. I breakfasted and finally got into town at about 11am. It was a warm day already. Myriam (the owner of the hostel) had given me some literature about Popayán which included a map. Apparently my best bet was to head to Parque Caldas (which serves as the central plaza of the town) and basically wander from there. So I called a cab (it's a 15 minute ride from my hostel to the center) and headed into the old town. The first thing to strike you about ... read more

Popayán, or the White City, was my last proper stop in Colombia. Although with a population of nearly a quarter of a million people, the centre feels more like a tranquil provincial town rather than a bustling city. In fact Popayán, which used to be one of the main political hubs of the country, has given Colombia more Presidents then any other (a fact the locals seem proud of), though these days the city is only a provincial capital. The architectural splendour of the city is unquestionable; the cobbled streets with white-washed building on either side link the city’s many historical buildings, predominantly churches, of which there is no shortage in Popayán. The main square, Parque Caldas (not Plaza Bolivar for once!) was one of the few places where I actually saw a lot of people; ... read more

New years 1/1/2010 So last nite was new years and I celebrated with juan jose and his fmaily. Here, you celebreate with family and at mid night you burn a model person, kindof like a scarecrow, but with fireworks inside. They were more like bombs and it blew the “muneco” to smitherines, as well as my eardrumbs. Every time one went off the car alarms of the cars nearby would go off from the force of the air wave. After that we went out, first to hang out with some friends and drink aguargiente and then to a house party which was f. n weird. They were playing like trance music from europe and it was pretty crazy. After that we went outside when it was light where the kids I was with chose to drink ... read more