Wednesday was another drive day, this time travelling from Popayan to Ipiales. Unlike the previous day however the roads we're mountain roads which made it difficult to get any speed together. It's really hard on mountain roads as you get slow lorries and it's just a bendy single carriageway which makes it difficult to overtake. Breakfast in the morning was tropical fruits and cereal, and prior to leaving I took a walk to the main square of Popayan, filled with big white colonial buildings.
When leaving we the scenery got noticeably more arid for some reason compare to the luscious green hills in previous days, and after a while we stopped in Cumbitara for lunch where I had this beef stew thing. I never know what I'm ordering so I just hope for best by saying Pollo or Carne which means meat or chicken. There was also a nice little market here which was worth looking round.
After lunch we continued climbing, stopping for a viewpoint en route for the scenery, and also stopping at this cafe where I had this big monster cake which turned my mouth blue. We didn't arrive to Ipiales until dark and it was quite a long day. Ipiales itself is the border town between Ecuador and Colombia, famous for the nearby Santuario de las Lajas, a neo-Gothic church and bridge built over a river, because someone said they saw Mary on this rock so they built the church around it. Dinner in the evening with burritos at a local restaurant which was very nice.
Thursday was another early start for the border crossing, although before leaving Colombia we visited the Santuario de las Lajas. We stopped en route at this viewpoint where we got an aerial view of the church, before heading down to the view the church itself. There were lots of markets to look at, and many viewpoints around the church which I walked to. I was even able to look inside the church. It's amazing how they constructed it.
After exploring the church and surroundings, we drove to the border where we experienced a few problems. To put it simple we made it across to Ecuador minus 4 people. We had no problems getting to the border and on the Colombian side we stamped out without any problems. We then walked over the bridge to the Ecuadorian side where most of us got a visa without any problems. One person however had just gone under the 6 months remaining stage on their passport. This was a problem and the officials refused to give a visa. Our guides tried to bribe the officials with money but that was unsuccessful.
We sat in the truck for a while things were being sorted, without success, and as a result we lost that person, their husband, and two friends. It was very emotional saying goodbye to 4 people who we had got so close to over the last few weeks. There were further problems however for them, as the Colombian border wouldn't let them back in so they were effectively stuck in no man's land. They did eventually get back into Colombia although instead of leaving us in Quito, the British embassy is having to sort something out in Bogota.
We eventually left the border with a more empty truck, and stopped pretty soon for lunch where I had beef. Ecuador use the us dollars as well. We then continued onto Otavaldo, arriving in the dark again. The scenery was pretty stunning too en route. We may have played drinking games on the truck on the way though however. When arriving we checked into dorms and had dinner where I had spaghetti bolognese, and also someone else's chilli con carne. The evening was then spent in the jacuzzi which was very relaxing, heading to bed after a few hours inside!
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