Victoria and Justin: Heading for Ecuador

After an amazing time around the coffee region, it was time to head south, into Ecuador.

On route, we stopped for a couple of days in Popayan, a well preserved colonial town in Colombia with traditional white washed walls and grand court yards. On the first night we were directed to the local steak house called "la vina", amazing food (and cheap). The following day we walked the streets, soaking up the sights, which included the usual dose of neo-classical catholic churches.

During our exploring we stumped on a beautiful courtyard which turn out to be part of the local english school (with around 700 students). We met one of the teachers who invited us back that afternoon to join her class and help the kids with their english. What an amazing experience, it was great fun. The kids asked us questions about everything, our family, our jobs, our travels, about Australia, you name it. At the end of the class, we reversed the order, with the kids asking us questions in Spanish. It got pretty ugly, with Victoria and I stumbling around on the simpliest questions, the kids thought it was very funny (and they all wondered how we could travel around colombia with no spanish). After spending over an hour with the class we departed, offering them our facebook details, we alread have a few "new friends".

The next morning we woke at 4am and headed for the bus terminal. Our journey to the border was tough, taking us on 8 seperate trips of different transport, including taxis, minibuses, collectivos and coaches. Our trip to the border took us past the "Santuario de las Lajas", a neo-gothic church built in 1926 to commerate the appearance of the Virgin mary herself. The church is built in a deep valley, with the alter set around the actual rock where the vision was seen. It was a pretty amazing sight.

The border crossing was relatively stress free (the guy with the rubber glove was surprisingly gentle, hehe). On arriving in Ecuador we headed straight to Otavalo, a market town 3 hrs south from the border. So, after 15hours of travelling we finally arrived.