What is the most common colour in Colombia? Green! Where is the greeniest grass in the world? In Colombia! Andies´ landscape in Colombia is amazingly shaped and rugged. This becomes noticable within first hours on bus from the Ecuadorian border.
There was only one reason to stay in a border town Ipiales overnight. After 30 minutes ride from the town by local bus we see a beautiful catedral Las Lajas built in very unique place. Its construction must have been difficult as it overhangs a cliff above river. From here we board a mid-day bus to Popayan and we are told this trip would not take more than six hours. In fact we arrive to Popayan at around 10pm after an exhilirating and exciting bus-ride through several huge canyons. The road winds around cliffs with many hundreds of meters below and above us. Looking out of the window deep down is a bit scarry but somehow we want to see more. Is adrenalin perhaps addictive? We feel very comfortable in Popayan which is a nice colonial town having all buildings painted in white colour. Next morning we meet Tony and Janz while we search local information tourist center. Tony and Kim operate their HostelTrail and Janz is an edditor for Lonely Planet. I always wondered how Lonely Planet gets updated and now we know. Approx 10km hike with Tony and Janz to nearby Purece national park next day ended with small adventure - upon return to the main road we only see back of the last 5pm bus dissappearing in distance. How do we get back to Popayan which is about 45km from here? It is quite cold, rainy, getting dark quickly and we are hungry. Impossible to walk all the way to town! We wait for a while and we are lucky! In half an hour a pick up truck comes down from hills collecting plantation workers. The ride was rough but we are glad to be back. I think we deserve nice and warm dinner. Morning on 12 Sept we head off to San Augustin which is the most important archeological site in Colombia. Hundreds of statues from pre-Incas times have been found here scattered across hills. A six hours ride on dirt road goes through nice cloud forrest and it is here where we experience yet another military check. This time all male travellers were body searched for guns, and that includes me as well. The first day we enjoy beautifull surrounds of San Augustin while horse riding and the next day we take a jeep tour seeing historical sites and the second largest waterfalls in South America (about 300m tall). Here we also see coffee plantations for the first time. It is time to move on and we follow the highway to the north stopping in Nieva, some four hours from San Augustin. We do not feel very comfortable while walking from the main bus station through industrial part of town and looking for a hostel. The same afternoon we take a short trip to small but very unique desert in nearby town. Colorfull and shaped mud formations we see in this dry place are more then compensating for not so good vibes in the town and we gladly leave town by the first bus next morning. By mid-afternoon Bogota welcomes us with cloudy and cold weather and frankly we are not surprised any more for not seeing sun. Did anyone think there is a lot of sunshine at the equator? Wrong! Our attempt to find a bed in australian owned hostel in the downtown was unsuccesfull and we have to settle for an alternative place. We are not very impressed with this capital city of Colombia and on Wednesday morning we leave westbound for a coffee region around town named Armenia. Planned eight hours trip extended by two hours took us through yet another amazing canyon with rugged river at bottom and lush green steep hills. We have to stay overnight in Armenia as we missed all connections to our main destination Salento which is famous for its coffee plantations and wax palm forrests. Salento is small colorfull and unspoiled village in hart of Colombian Andies where locals still ride horses to a restaurant. Shortly after we settle in hostel we hire a jeep together with english backpackers Phill and Cay to go to the Valle De Cocora national park where we have only about four hours to explore the hills and valleys. The last pick-up jeep leaves at 5pm and this is not the place to be stranded over night. Wax palms grow up to 60m of height and their silluets blended with low clouds create impressive sights. We are taking many fotographs from all possble directions and that puts preassure on our 5pm deadline. The last part of hike we need to strech our legs and even to take a shortcut through paddocks. Not only we made it in time but we managed to take few pictures with always present military guys. Waiting jeep is already filled up with several locals and we start to wonder how we are going to get on. Jeep driver did not seem to be concerned and to our surprise we all fit in. Alltogether 17 passangers with few sitting on the roof and others just hanging on sides. What a ride! Back to Salento we have fresh trout for dinner washed down with good chillian savignon blanc. One cannot leave Salento without seeing a coffee farm and hence next day after brekfeast we walk for about one hour to see how coffe beans are processed. The owner unfortunatelly had to go to the hospital and we walk dissappointed back home without knowing secrets of cafe making. Well, we can not have everything 100%. It is Friday 19 September and tonight we decide to leave Colombia rather sooner upon realising we are running out of time if we want to make it to Patagonia by the end of October. As we need to be in Quito by Sunday the only alternative is to spend next 30 hours on the bus. We arrive to Quito on Sunday afternoon a bit tired from lack of sleep but happy and just in time to start Monday spanish classes.
Our summary of Columbia: The most beautifull landscape we have ever seen so far characterised with deep valleys and canyons. Steep and very high hills covered with lush green overgrow rise to the cloud level so whole landscape has very mysterious feel. Realising that this country was under guerilla attacks for many decades the tourism industry is in somewhat primitive form but at the same time the travelling experience is very authentic. People were extremely nice and warm and we never felt any danger or discomfort while travelling here. We can strongly recommend Columbia to any adventurous travellers.
