Eating Dust!!

Hola from Popayan, a kewl preserved colonial town, about 9 hours from the Ecuadorian border.

Had a brilliant time exploring the tombas in Tierradentro, the town close to the ruins is called Sand Andres De Pisimblia. Its a pretty small place with some super cheap guest houses and restaurants that were all pretty much empty. The only other tourists i meet in my two nights there were are really nice Chilean couple travelling around Colombia. I actually had a good chat in my spanglish! Think a lot of travellers are put off by the fact that this used to be a big FARC area and its a long and dusty ride to get there. The tombs were excellent and are unique in the Americas. Some were 7m in diameter and a lot of paintings and carvings are still intact. Some are in a staffed park and others are 2 hour walk away up a ridge with spectacular views of the surronding countryside. The dust eating, bone jarring ride in and out was totally worth it!

A story..On the way out of San Augustin, i caught what is called a collectivo and is basically a shared ute or a van that takes passengers were the buses don´t go. So anyway i was sitting in the back of the ute with my pack in its packsack on the roof rack, speeding along when i noticed this huge black ufo flying overhead..Hmm well the ufo turned out to be my pack and in a few seconds it was a couple of hundred metres on the road behind us! Luckily drivers in Colombia are used to swerving to avoid the many potholes, rocks etc on the roads here so it didn´t get squashed and i was able to stop the ute and get it back. Lesson learnt!

So yeah arrived in Popayan yesterday arvo with all my luggage and did some cool recon off the place. Lots of whitewashed old buildings, churches and great leafy squares. The place was half destroyed by a earthquake some 15 years ago but has been remarkably restored. Its quite a big place and modern with heaps of bars, cafes, internet cafes and a uni. This place is totally undeveloped but modern at the same time..

Last night some familiar travelling faces, that keep popping up in my travels and I went out to El Sotareno, which is this great old bar that's been going for 46 years and plays nostalgic old tunes including tango, bolero, ranchera and milonga from scratched vinyls. Not normally my style of music but atmosphere was awesome and everyone there was super friendly. It also has the cheapest beer in town! A top night was had..

Went back into the hills today to check out ´market day´in a little town, a couple of hours away called Silvia. It was cool. Lots of indigenous indians, rock up in the chivas (big old painted truck/bus thingies) to trade their wares and veggies so was very colourful and buzzing...

Tomorrow am leaving Colombia (sob) and going to Ecuador (yeah). Should be about a 9 hour bus ride but on good roads with spectacular views. Have already decided next time i´m coming back to SA am going to do it on a motor bike. Got inspired by a Japanese girl i meet who travelled from Chile, all the way up to Colombia by bike on her own! Impressive...

So signing off from Colombia. It has been a truly brilliant experience with the friendliest and most generous people i have every meet. Not to mention the spectacular country side and archaeology and colonial history...Get over here ASAP!

Hasta luego,
d.