Adrián lives in the South of Cali, so we figured it shouldn't be to hard to leave (as Popayán is inthe South) we just needed to look for a place that looked somewhat nice, in other words, a petrol station. I looked on Google maps and found one about 6km on the road to Popayán. The big question was that if it was a good place or not. After a couple of hours thumbing on the road, asking drivers and (once) turning down money, we found a ride to Santander, which is less than half way. In that place we waited a lot more but we found a ride straight to Popayán.
So we made it to town, now where do we sleep? I sent some CS requests but in Semana Santa is always difficult to find a couch. So we found ourselves walking around town at midgnight looking for a somewhat safe place to lay our sleeping bags that night. We found a group of 6 policemen and they agreed to take us to a "safe" place. Walking, I saw a guy standing by the gate of a some kind of apartment complex that had a courtyard in the middle. It wasn't his flat so he called the owner and I asked her if we could sleep there. At first Doris was hesitant so one of the policemen stepped in to help us and after a short while she agreed, and even didn't let us sleep outside but in her living room. We didn't stay for one night but for two!
Semana Santa in Popayán is like in Antigua but smaller. I mean, they have processions but they are 10X smaller (and faster). Popayán people would be impressed if they go to Antigua. I liked Popayán. I liked the city more than any othe town I have ever been in Colombia so far because it's small. Maybe you would have to walk a lot from one end to the other but for sure you cannot do that in Bogotá.
Actually, Popayán reminded me of Guatemalan towns where the main square is in the middle and the cathedral is on one of the sides.
While staying with Doris we met her boyfriend Julio and he invited us to his finca not far from Popayán, so we thought... why not?
It rained quite a lot but it's still a lovely town. We are getting closer to Ecuador.
