The Road to Popayan

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From the US State Department web site travel warning on Colombia (Feb 2008) "U.S. government officials and their families in Colombia are permitted to travel to major cities in the country, but normally only by air. They cannot use inter- or intra-city bus transportation, or travel by road outside of urban areas at night. All Americans in Colombia are urged to follow these precautions."

So, of course, I had to do part of my trip by road. Tony and I hired this great taxi driver named George to take us from Cali to Popayan, a little colonial town about two hours or so from Cali. Turns out, Colombia seems to have its major highways under control. Every 20 miles or so, we passed random highway patrol pullovers. George informed us this was to check papers, licenses, and to keep a check on FARC activity.

(History note for those of you who have been living in a cave: According to wikipedia, FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) is what the US State Department and the Colombian government has deemed a terrorist organization. The FARC originated as a guerrilla movement in the 1960s as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party. It later became involved with the cocaine trade during the 1980s to raise funds and at that time, there was an official separation from the Communist Party. Over the years, the FARC has continued to give Colombia a bad reputation by doing some very bad things. Like hijacking planes, bombing towns, assassinating people, plantong land mines, and kidnapping foreigners in exchange for political prisoners. So terrible is there reputation that many of my friends were absolutely insistant that I shouldn't travel to Colombia for fear I would be kidnapped!)

Now, to continue with the blog ... Under the watchful eyes of the Colombia highway patrol and our capable taxi driver, we relaxed and enjoyed the incredible scenery Colombia offered. From Cali, we climbed from the farmlands of sugar cane and fields of skinny cows up into the mountains. Rain clouds that were moving in provided a dramatic backdrop. The temperature dropped as we continued to climb to 1,760 meters. Just as we were cresting the ridge to drop into the town of Popayan, a highway patrol pulled us over. George handed over all the various papers and licenses that apparently taxi drivers must carry. The minutes and exchanges between George and the highway patrol rolled by. Other cars and motercycles were pulled over and released. George got out of the car to continue discussions with the patrol. But, we just sat there. After about 15 minutes or so, it became apparentent something was wrong. George finally returned explaining that one of the licenses had expired the previous day. The penalty was to impound the taxi for two weeks while the license was renewed, impound fees for the two weeks, plus a $500 fine. After a few calls to his boss, he offered a 50,000 peso bribe, which the officers accepted, and we went along our merry way to Popayan. Despite this little setback, I am glad we chose to make the drive. The countryside was georgous and I'd like to return someday to explore more of the Cauca region.

In a few minutes, we were in Popayan and had found our hotel, La Casa del Virrey and checked in. The hotel was quaint and contained a beautiful courtyard! Our room was on the corner overlooking the central park, Parque Caldas, with two balconies to people watch and view the city activity! "This is perfect!", I thought! And, it really was. We were in a perfect location, right in the middle of the city. Complete with all the street traffic and vendor noise. Not a problem for me as I came prepared with ear plugs, but, Tony slept fitfully the next few nights!

Del Virrey is also located above a bakery. Bakeries in Popayan are like Starbucks in any major city in the US. There is at least one on every block of each street. Ours was in the process of baking bread, so the sweet smell wafted into our room as I opened the doors to our balcony. We quickly raced down to check it out. Asking them if they had anything sweet, the girl pointed out some chocolate bread! I was in heaven!

After our snack, we set out to explore the city before it got dark. I fell in love with Popayan. It is known as the 'white city' because all the buildings are white. It is also home to many of Colombia's presidents, poets, painters and composers. It reminds me alot of Cuenca, Ecuador, with its colonial architecture and focus on culture. Being late on a Sunday, not much was happening, but we discovered the roman style Puente de "El Humilladero" de Bolivar named for the humility it induced on those carrying cargo on their backs on their way to Popayan. After the trek to Popayan, they had to ascend up this long bridge to get into the town.

We also explored the Parque de Caldas which was named for Francisco Jose de Caldas, a famous Colombia naturalist and scientist. We strolled around the little town admiring its many cathedrals.

We visited the tourist office to find out where to go horseback riding. Here, the tourist office arranged one of the strangest horseback riding tours I've ever taken. The woman arranged for a taxi to take us to a small indigenous reservation called Poblazon. An unofficial "taxi driver" was called to take us to the reservation. We talked about California and he offered up his favorite Hollywood actors -- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Jean Claude Van Damm! We drove for about 30 out of the town, up an unimproved road, to the reservation. One small horse was tied up in the center of the small reservation. As we pulled up, he pointed to a small boy and proclaimed in spanish "the Arnold Schwarzenagger of Poblazon!" We got out and introduced ourselves. Further conversations with the boy we learned he was 19 years old and was the official governer of the reservation! He explained that the tourist person said there was only one rider and they had to send for another horse. Confused, I asked if there was a guide. He replied that in addition to being the governer, he was also our guide for the day. "Where was his horse?" I inquired. "At the farm", he replied. Or, I thought he replied. With my sub standard spanish skills, I assumed he had sent for his horse from the farm. While we waited, he gave us a tour of the reservation's chapel, cemetery and school. We were apparently quite an attraction because as we walked from site to site, more and more of the reservation's tribe joined the tour and followed us around.

Another horse finally showed up. Just one mind you. For me and Tony. We were accompanied by the governer and guide. On foot. Along with another council member and a small boy from town. They walked with us while we rode about an hour on a lovely old road through the reservation to a delapidated farmhouse. More of the council had taken a shortcut to join us there to tour this place they were very proud of. We dutifully took pictures and exclaimed how nice it was. Then, got back on our horses and rode back. They were very excited to have us visit. And wanted to know if we could return the next day so they could take us to a lake nearby. We explained we had only a short time but would perhaps someday return and visit them. Our "taxi driver" returned to pick us up. Money was exchanged between the taxista and the governer. And we climbed into the back to return to Popayan, still wondering exactly what this was all about!

On Tuesday we also took a side trip to Silvia, an indiginous village even higher up in the mountains famous for its Tuesday markets. I was expecting another market such as the one in Otavalo, Ecuador. It was interesting, but, did not even come close to having the variety and quality of crafts you find in Otavalo.

Popayan is also a UNESCO City of Gastronomy. I must confess, we found it difficult to find some really good food there. On our last night, we discovered our favorite restaurant so far -- La Cave, a delightful french restaurant. The food excellent and delicious. The atmosphere cozy. The only improvement they needed to make was to their music selection. Tony did serenade me with a melodeous rap/reggae song - Shaggy's 'Angel'. I've never posted a video on my blogs, but, this was so sweet, I couldn't resist. Feel free to sing-along ("Girl, you're my angel, youre my darling angel. Closer than my peeps you are to me, baby. Shorty, you're my angel, you're my darling Angel. Girl, you're my friend when Im in need, lady ...."

In addition to our adventures described to us, other activities we enjoyed during our four day stay -- we visited a Museum of Religous Art (Museo Arquidiocesano de Arte Religioso), strolled up to the high point of El Morro de Tulcan where we found the equestrian statue of Belalcazar and great views overlooking the Popayan, strolled through Rincon Payanes, a sector devoted to minature replicas of places in Popayan, climbed up to the Belen Chapel and walked many miles of Popayan streets.

I continued to learn much about Tony and myself by observing our street dog interaction. I have found that I've grown immune to the plight of the stray, street dogs. Just a few years ago, I recall insisting to my travel partner at that time, Susan, that we needed to roam the downtown streets of Tegucigalpa, Honduras at midnight looking for a stray dog to feed left overs. Tony has now taken over this roll, insisting we get our leftovers to go and find the stray dogs to feed them to. It's quite charming.

Popayan is my favorite Colombian city so far. It is (relatively) small, beautiful, safe, clean and very inexpensive. And home to my second favorite restaurants of all time! And there is so much to do here. I'd love to come back and explore more of the countryside, preferably by horseback. But, with our time running down, we must board our plane to Bogota, where we will spend our last day in Colombia.

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Photos

Popayan
View from Morro de Tulcan

View from our Balcony Room at La Casa del Virrey
C 4, No 5-78

The White City
View of a Popayan Street. The Cathedral in the background is Santa Domingo, used by the Univesidad del Cauca

La Cave French Restaurant
C 4, No 2-59
My favorite restaurant in the world after Geha's - a fondue restaurant in Chicago.

Chiva Bus at Silvia
Tony and I surmised that there are probably many reservations in this area similar to Poblazon. We think that they all probably have a communal Chiva bus that they take to the market each week to get necessities. This one apparently needed a baby calf and a sheep, among other items.

Comments

[barrygahan]

Glad to hear this road is safe...
as we'll be travelling along it very soon. I hope your State Department is being paranoid about Colombia!