COLOMBIA

Can’t believe we are finally in Colombia! New country…yuppppppyyyy!!! We are really excited to finally be here. In every meeting with every traveller Colombia has always come back as “the place” “the people”. It was also such a great relief to be moving north… as I jokingly have called the Ecuador passage the “Rivadavia entre Ciudadela y Ramos”… so many times we have come and go! (and funnily enough we will have to come back, as Aus will be calling and Colombia visa arrangements will not allow us to leave the motorhome here, go back to Ecuador to continue the trip!!!).

Las Lajas

First point. Slept in the very new monorail parking lot. On Christmas (how appropriate!) we did a big walk towards the Santuario de Las Lajas. A magnificent church set in the middle of the canyon! From aside it looked like one of those big European castles, all done with stones.

Laguna de Cocha

A beautiful drive, the Panamerican route, on the mountains. Lush forests, a river run in the canyon, and it is cold! We arrived to the lake, a strange place! A line of restaurants and souvenirs shops at one end of the lagoon, canals and little bridges a la Venice! and all decorated for Christmas! It was like a magic town coming out of a fairy-tale book! And the water pump is not working again!

Popayan

The white city. Very pretty. We were reunited here with Caro (a fellow traveller) and ended the year in someone’s house, celebrating someone’s 90 birthday. A very random and boring end of the year!

Sylvia

The interesting thing in this town was the people still dressing with the traditional clothing! It totally looked like as we had stepped into a time machine!

Pance River

I think all Cali is here! Holidays plus weekend plus 30 something degrees! I believe the whole city comes down to this glorious river with beautiful rock formations and small waterfalls. Picnics, families, a perfect place to be!

Cali

The salsa capital city. I must confess my apprehension as getting to big cities. Always. But if there is something I didn’t need to be was afraid. We parked in a nice suburb, on a little park. We were going to be there only 1 to 2 days, getting to know the city and then go. But our “neighbours” had other plans! 4 days later, a party with cuban band, sangria and paella, another night going salsa dancing…and the city was unexpected! It has so much life…vibrant, so many different places with bars and restaurants, it is a very cool city. All the parks at night filled with people, and the cutest one, San Antonio, on top of a mountain the cutest of all