Hotel in Patía, getting to Pasto pt. 2

In El Timbío we found a ride with a protestan guy to ''El Bordo''. How do I know he was protestant? because he was listening to the day before's sermon to the top of the volumen. I don't really believe in religion anymore and I don't have anything against it (everybody is free to choose) but what I don't (and never will I think) understand is why the guy on the radio had to scream instead of talking normal and why the driver had to listen to it at such high volumen. Anyways, we were stuck in El Bordo. At the entrance of town. We walked to a petrol station where we met a woman whose daughter lives and works in Poland. She offered us a place to camp in the place she was staying if later we couldn't find a ride to Pasto.

In the early afternoon we started walking towards that camping. She said it was "only" 5 km away. After a while of walking we saw a car stopping for us. It was Constanza and her husband!!! They took us to the hotel and since it was raining quite a lot they gave us a room instead of a tent. By the way it wasn't 5 km and they are the owners of the hotel.

We spent two nights being pampered, eating amazing food, talking with Constanza. One afternoon we overslept and when we were about to go out the room I heard some people coming. Somebody knocked the door and I opened. It was Chucho with two plates that he brought for us because they were ''worried" about us not coming for dinner.

Constanza told us that her hotel is featured in some guide, probably Lonely Planet. The hotel is awesome and its location is in the middle of nowhere. But in terms of hitchhiking that is not so awesome, specially (judging from my own experience) since hitchhiking on the side of the road hadn't worked for me so far.

After a while of waiting a car stoppe. I was very surprised that I didn't know if the car had stopped for us but it did! I couldn't believe it. And even better, Andrés took us all the way to Pasto.

Coffee farm, getting to Pasto pt. 1

Julio invited us to his coffee farm so we left Popayán thursday at noon. We intended to walk to the Panamericana but Doris insisted in paying for the bus and even asked the driver if he could tell us where to get off. We had two options: walk a bit further down the road to the exit or town or try yo hitch from the traffic light a few meters away; the latter would mean to practically ask drivers standing in the middle of the street. We did this and after maybe asking 3 or 4 drivers we were on our way to the town of El Timbío only 10 km away.

We had the instructions to get here by bus (not many people hitch, apparently) so the driver left us in town and we had to walk back (uphill) about a kilometers. After walking some 4 more kilometers into the winding road inside the mountain we found a ride and drove us all the way to the finca. We spent a lovely two nights there. As in Guatemala, life in a finca starts very early (around 5) and finishes very early also (around 19/20:00).I have been to a coffee farm before but it was Paula's first time in one. Aside from coffee, Julio also grows plantain, avocado, oranges, guayaba, paprika, yucca and tomatoes among others. Coffee is the main crop though.

It was a great time spent there but we wanted to go. Well, actually we had to go because Julio was going back to Popayán. We were going to walk/hitch back to the main road but Julio offered to pay for the jeep back to El Timbío.

Semana Santa in Popayán

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.

Cali, as in Colombia

After spending two hours in the three petrol stations that hitchwiki mentions I asked if there was another one further down the road. Yes there was one. 20 minutes walk or 500 meters away. It was neither 20 min or 500m. Lesson: NEVER, trust a Colombian when you ask about distances. The distance will never be the one they are telling you, or multiply that distance by 3 or 4. Anyway, we walked a lot more than what we were told and after eating, resting, turning down 20 thousand pesos and asking around we found a direct ride to Cali... at around 16:00. 

We wanted to go to Pereira but we were in Armenia at around 1 in the morning. After trying to sleep in the trailer for three hours, the guy probably forgot that we were in the back and started the truck and we started moving. We mobed to the front shortly after. We made it to Cali by 8 in the morning the next day. I called Adrián (the guy Lisa put me in contact with) and an hour later we were in his house. I was asking hot to get there when a random guy heard me asking and he took us a few streets from Adrián's house.

Cali is a nice city in the valley of the Cauca river. Is still very big but not as big as Bogotá. You can walk maybe almost everywhere but we always took the bus back when we were going back after sunset. Some areas didn't seem nice to walk after dark. There's a hill call San Antonio where you could enjoy an awesome view of the city. There are so many trees but still you can appreciate the view. There was a concert of andean music and the park was full of people from almost every walk of life. Along the river Cali there is a small walking path with several cat sculptures. One big one that started the trend and several small ones made by different artists reflecting different styles.

One of the main streets is Calle 5, it runs from North to South. There is a small hill on the side of it,  La Loma de las Cruces where people gather to have a good time because it's close to San Antonio. It's also the site of a small handycraft market. It has very nice views of the city as well. 

If there's one thing I defintely fallen in love with in Colombia, that thing is the arepa.  They are not as awesome as baleadas but they're great. I think I wrote about arepas before... expect more. Staying with Adrián was a great experience. Not only he and his family are super great they treaed us as part of their family. We even had the chance to celebrate with him his birthday. We even were the first ones to congratulate him! But it was time to keep going South, to Popayán. So we said goodbye and started to head to where we thought it was a good place to hitch.

Tattoo shop city

Bogotá is one of the largest cities around the world, maybe not the biggest I have ever seen (that honor goes to Istambul) but it's definitely huge. Even though is one of the biggest cities, still had some charm. By the way, it's South America's third highest city after La Paz and Quito.

In total I spent two weeks in Bogotá Distrito Capital. One of those weeks with Paula, who finally arrived.

Two things I noticed in Bogotá, among other things, are that despite the fact that is quite safe I saw policemen everywhere. Or was it exactly because of that I felt safe?

The evening I arrived I asked a policeman in the Transmilenio station if it was safe to walk around (I was carrying all my shit) and he said "there's nowhere in Bogotá that is entirely safe..." nothing happened to me that night and now I'm writing this in Armenia almost two months later these letters.

The other thing I noticed was that I have never seen so many tattoo shop in one city alone. Walking around La Candelaria neighborhood in the center of Bogotá I saw 5 or 6 tattoo shops next to each other! I never walked into one and ask how was a tattoo or if they charge by the hour, but in theory, if there are so many, the price shouldn't be high.

Paula and I got up very early one morning and went for a walk around the neighborhood we were staying which is called Chapinero, it was before 7 in the morning. We wanted to see how people behave on their way to work, to school, to the gym, to wherever. Basically we went out to see people... the result: GREAT!

After two weeks in Bogotá, as good as it was, it was time to leave. I think that one week is more than enough.

I didn't know that Colombians were so nice people. I mean, my experience had been great but when I got to Bogotá and posted in the CS local forum that I had a problem with my laptop (I still  have a problem with my laptop) I was absolutely surprise with all the responses I got. Even within minutes after the original post. Mauricio even helped me remotely once! Now, that the laptop has died I'm going to take the offer of a CSer in Pasto to fix it.

Bogotá is a nice city, has lots of nice parks. It's nice to walk around. Has more or less a nice public transport system. The Transmilenio is nicer but more expensive and a lot confusing.