Hosteltrail Guesthouse Popayan

Asaf We needed to break up the trip down to the Colombia-Ecuador border so we decided to stop in Popayan for our last night in Colombia. It would have made it easier for us if we had gone further south for the night (our trip the next day took 11 hours by bus) but we had heard good things about Popayan. It´s suppose to be the best preserved colonial town in Colombia next to Cartagena and furthermore, Hostel Trail Guesthouse, the hostel with the namesake of a great backpacker website is locate...

Forbidden country Its mere mention makes folks quake It's not what you think Colombia is, in a word, gorgeous. It boasts the most beautiful rolling green mountains, river canyons, and curvy, swervy roads that we've seen in South America. Add to that a diverse range of towns and extremely friendly people, and its clear why tourism in this once off limits country is growing exponentially. We began our Colombian adventure in Ipiales, a surprisingly calm border city where we spent one very comfy ...

I managed to take a night bus over to Popoyan so that I can see some archaeological sites nearby. The city itself didn't seem like much but I figured that it would be a logical stopover on my way to Ecuador instead of something like Cali which thrives on nightlife. After my night bus, I arrived, checked into my hostel and walked around town. The following day I decided to skip the archaeological sites and go straight to the nearby national park - thus requiring a 4 am wake up call. And now I'...

Just a quick blog - Our time in Colombia was up after only 8 days & what a treat it was - although not on our originally itinerary it has been one of our favourite places. It felt very safe, the scenery was more beautiful than most we've seen on the trip and the people we met were the friendliest we have encountered in South America. The nice thing though is that it really feels unexplored and you feel a long way from the traditional gringo trail!

One down side was the roads - ther...

In the morning we went to get our bikes at the garage under surveillance by a mother dog and her four puppies. We hit the road, running through the farmers market in Popayan and then down the road towards Pasto. This was one of the most beautiful routes of the whole trip. We went up and down in climates, climbing up to about 10,000 feet and back down to about 6,000 feet a few times. The landscape went from lush mountainous jungle, to rich farmland to high desert and bald mountains.
We arri...

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Horses + Hiking + Hills = Hamstrings. The bulging muscles barely fit into my pants now. I was hoping to slim down a bit with all of this rigorous exercise, but instead am almost splitting my pants with these huge muscles. If I could exercise this much during the school year I'd live to 115. So here's how I've challenged those hamstrings: On the fourth of July I went for a five hour horseback ride with some Brits, celebraing my independence. From them. It was amusing. The horses were fun and d...

Our guide book raves about Popayan, the pretty white city. I don´t really know why? The hostel was great, the ladies in the Italian restaurant were lovely and even let us pay the next day because, as usual, we ran out of money, and there are some great cafes but there is not much else. Somehow, though, we managed to stay for 3 nights. I have no idea what we did - watched movies? ate? internet?