Not bad as border towns go

  Ipiales, Colombia
Thursday, April 26, 2007

For some reason we´d decided to get out of bed ridiculously early again and catch a bus. We were at the station in Popayan just after 7am only to find that the one we´d booked on wasn´t running so we got switched to another company. We bought a few things for breakfast (considering the food is so good in Colombia the stuff on offer in bus stations is pretty dire) and settled in for the 7-8 hour ride to Ipiales, the border town with Ecuador.

01 Scenery on the Panamerican highway

The usual laws of Colombian buses were adhered to and we arrived in Pasto at about 12.30. There we had to change buses and so got to Ipiales slightly later than we were hoping at three o´clock.

We were driving along the Panamerica highway and when the driver wasn´t trying to kill us all by overtaking on blind bends we spent a large part of the trip marvelling at the scenery. It was stunning and surprisingly like home - obviously the banana plants, cacti and other tropical greenery were slightly different from Wales - but the rolling green hills could have come out of a tourist brochure back home.

02 Plaques by the church

Unfortunately so could the rain which did obscure some of the more dramatic valleys and the top of the large active volcano outside Pasto (quick question - who in their right mind builds a town just 8kms away from a highly active volcano? Answers on a postcard please...).

The Lonely Planet was its usual helpful self - it only had a handful of hotels recommended. For once we were lazy and just got the taxi to take us to what the book described as the best hotel in town. The Hotel Los Andes should have cost $20 for a double room according to the LP, but they´ve hiked their prices since then, so we ended up paying nearer $35.

04 Santuario de Las Lajas

It was worth it though. They apparently had a gym and a sauna, but after doing a bit of internetting in town (Galapagos here we come!), we had dinner in the hotel restaurant (not that great actually despite being the only LP recommendation!) and then retired to our room for scolding hot showers and cable TV. Erin Brockovitch and several trashy US imports satisfied our cravings and we slept soundly despite the altitude.

The next day we got up, packed up and had a good breakfast at the hotel - it was much better than dinner would have led us to believe. Then we walked through the town looking for a collectivo (shared taxi) to Santuario de Las Lajas, a Gothic style church built over a massive gorge about 7 kms from town.

03 Plaques by the church

We didn´t have to walk far to find a car and because there was a nun and another woman already in the car we set off straight away. We got dropped off at the top of a small hill and had to make our way down the side of the valley, passed an assortment of religious souvenir hawkers, to get our first glimpse of the church.

The current church was completed in 1944 and it stands on the sight of an alleged sighting of the Virgin Mary. On the way down the hill we passed hundreds of plaques stuck to the rocks thanking the virgin for various miracles she´s supposed to have performed - there were some from families, some from politicians and some from organisations (the local cycling team had paid for one).

05 Inside Santuario de Las Lajas

The church itself probably looks more impressive from afar than it does up close - it´s mostly made of concrete - but the inside is pleasant enough. Behind the altar you can see the original rocks where a picture of the virgin and two saints has been painted to show where she appeared.

After wandering around for just over half an hour we walked back uphill and caught another collectivo back into town. On the way we passed a whole row of restaurants advertising their speciality, little paintings of roast guinea pigs signaled they wouldn´t make good lunch spots for vegetarians.

When we got back to the hotel, we collected our bags and got into a taxi to the border. It´s going to be our final land border of the trip - something we both can´t quite believe - the time has just flown by!