Ecuador!

The queue to cross the border from Colombia to Ecuador was very long due to Colombian holidays and Ecuadorians returning after the fiestas in Pasto. I crossed by foot, carrying out all the usual immigration checks but there were no security checks until we were 10 minutes down the road by bus.  Getting transport from the border to the nearest town was a nightmare! People were literally fighting each other for a place in a collectivo and noone had heard of queuing! Eventually I jumped in a cab with some locals who felt sorry for me waiting as long as they did!

They had mastered the art of queuing in at the bus station in Tulcan but there were not enough buses for people which caused delays due to many angry customers. In the end I managed to get a ticket to Otavalo and spent my remaining Colombian pesos on snacks for the bus.

Chigonguna warning poster! Would have.been more useful on journey into Colombia!

Las Lajas Sanctuary

After the fiestas in Pasto, it was time to move on to another country: Ecuador!

I made my way to the border town Ipiales and left my bag in the left luggage at the bus station. It was noticeably colder there.  From there I took a collectivo to Las Lajas which is a cathedral built in the mountainside.  The legend is that a local lady and her daughter went for a walk and the girl said to her mother that she could hear God calling to her from the rock, so they built a cathedral there!

On the way I saw the local dish of guinea pig being toasted on a fire, yuck! I walked down to the cathedral and walked around, below and above. Inside it was busy with a service going on. I saw a family donate a plaque to the cathedral by taking out their own cement and doing a DIY job on  the wall.
The cathedral was very impressive but soon it was time to head onto Ecuador!

Pasto Carnaval de los negros y blancos

I went to pasto on the 5th to share a hotel with my friend Dave. We bought the traditional ponchos to protect ourselves from the enslaught of flour, ink and foam in the street! The fiesta is to celebrate the days where slaves and their owners swapped face colour for the day and the slaves had a day off. Now it a celebration of the diversity of Colombia with everyone painting their faces all different colours.

The 5th is dia de los negros which you are supposed to paint your face but if you don’t then it doesn’t matter as someone will smear ink over you the second you walk down the street anyway! The 6th is dia de los blancos where you are supposed to throw talc/flour/foam at each other. In reality both days and for the entire week it is just a massive ink/foam/flour/talc fight
everywhere!! As soon as you walk out the door you are attacked!! We bought ponchos to help protect our clothes and to join in with carnaval fashion!

The carnaval includes live bands in the square where you can dance salsa covered in all sorts amongst the talc war!  We were targeted a lot being the only foreigners around! People were excited we were there and many had their photos taken with us ( after covering us with talc of course!) Sunglasses are a must to protect your eyes!!

On the 6th there is an amazing carnaval parade with colourful floats with diffferent themes and moving parts. There are bands, dancers and everyone is very excited! People camp out all night to get a good spot and pay to sit on plastic chairs  it starts at 9am and takes 4 hours to get to the end. It was hard to find a place to see but I spotted a place on a high wall where we had to stand the whole time!

The day before we were invited by one of the artists to see the floats get finished and they were still hand painting late into the night to prepare them! If you are in the carnaval you have to prepare at 5am! A long day! We were proud to see the artist and his finish product in the carnaval parade and he gave us wave too!

Chachagui

I wanted to go to the carnaval in Pasto but there was no accomodation available so I managed to book a tent in the garden of hostel 30 minutes away from Pasto in a village called Chachagui.

I arrived at 12pm and searched for the hostal. Everyone was very friendly and gave me directions. I went to the village and they were celebrating their fiesta with a small carnaval parade featuring the elderly while everyone else was spraying foam and throwing flour.

I then went on the most amazing walk in the afternoon down into the valley. The views were stunning and there was a large community fruit where yiu can just take what you want from the plants including bananas, coffee and papaya.

In the evening they had a live band playing in the plaza with everyone dancing!

Popayan

On January 1st I went to Popayan by bus which is about 3 hours from Cali. Harry and I checked into a hostel called Caracol and searched to find anything open to buy food! Popayan is a quiet colonial city.

The next day we went to La Fresa to try their empanadas and had a CP3500 almuerzo. In the afternoon we rode bikes to the hill for a view ot the city and looked around. On the last day I  popayan we got the bus to the hot springs but we were too late so went for a mountain walk instead!

New year in Cali

After a rest in San Cipriano I was ready for the last night of la feria and new years eve! On the way back to Cali there were handmade dolls (like guy fawkes if you’re English) and people collecting money dressed as devils along the road.

On the 30th December I went to the last night of la feria to Las Tascas which is an outdoor party with Vincent,  Theau and Charlotte. We met a group of Colombian people who taught us a lot of salsa and then went with Ricardo to a salsa club for more dancing!

The 31st I had a lovely pacific dish lunch with coconut flavours at El Pargo Rojo and then had a private salsa lesson. The teacher taught me 5 basic steps of Calieno salsa which was really fun.  He said he’d taught many foreign students and apparently Israeli people are the most natural and German are the worse at salsa!

Then we each made a dish at the hostel and had a big international feast! Harry arrived from Medellin to join us. The hostel owner was toasting and dancing in the reception too.  At midnight we went out into the street and were greeted by a street party playing music, watching fireworks and dancing salsa. After everyone had wished each other new year, out came the doll and everyone had to pretend to dance with her! Then down the road, they strapped another one onto a chair, loaded it with gunpowder and fireworks, doused it in petrol and set it alight! The explosion was so loud and fireworks were going in all directions! This tradition is to symbolise saying goodbye to the old year and any negativity it had. After a car with speakers returned and the street party continued!

After a while we went with a Colombian girl to a house party with a great roof terrace where we could see the whole city, fireworks and of course more exploding dolls! We danced into the night to salsa, reggae and live bongo players!

San Cipriano

After a few late nights dancing salsa at the feria in Cali I decided to relax a little in rwmote San Cipriano.  I took the 2.5 hour bus to Zaragoza which is a village on the Cali – Buenaventura road. Then I took ‘La Bruja’ (the witch) which is the villagers homemade transportation system that uses the old train tracks. It is a wooden board powered by the motorbike engine and runs along the track. It goes very fast and there’s nothing to hold on to! There are 2 village entrances, one nearer Cali called Zaragoza and another nearer Buenaventura called Cordoba.

At one point a car going the opposite way was speeding towards us onbthe track. I had to get off while the driver took the whole car off to let the other
one pass!

After surviving la bruja I signed into the national park and walked into San Cipriano, a remote afro carribean village in the jungle. It began to rain so I  had lunch which was typical sancocho de pescado (fish soup) and fried fish dinner.

I started to walk to the waterfall trail called ‘sendero de amor ‘ only to be caught in heavy rain. I sheltered in a family restaurant and met 5 year old Darwin who insisted on coming with me on the walk! After

covering my rucksack with a plastic bag I contnued the walk with Darwin wanted tovrace most of the wayand tried to catch fish in the river with his boot!

Little girl watching the rain.

I was the onky tourist to stay in San Cipriano that night. I checked into hotel David in a very basic room for CP15000 and listened to the rain and the jungle noises outside.

The next day I went tubing with Camillo a local guy. You can rent a tube for CP5000 and walk up the river then float down back to the village. The water was crystal clear and the river was shallow with a few small rapids.

Then it was time to head back to Cali to catch the last day of the feria. I went to the Cordoba entrance which was a faster and more beautiful journey. I got the last space next the driver on the bus to Cali and the driver bought me a cheese and bocadillo (guava jelly sweet) to try!

Salsa in Cali!

As soon as I arrived in salsa capital Cali I felt the buzz of excitement in the air. I couldn’t find an available bed online due to La feria week long event from the 25th to 30th of December so I took the chance and turned up at a hostel in barrio San Antonio! Luckily they had one bed spare! Perfect!  I hadn’t had the chance to put down ny bags before I was invited to plaza San Francisco where a Pacific coast stage was based. A great band played while I treated myself to some carribean style prawn curry and rice and a beer.

Later that evening I watched the salsa band the hostel and got in the mood to go out to dance more salsa! La feria is all about one thing: SALSA! People eat, drink, talk and dance it!

I met up with Noel, my friend from Salento and his Calieno friends. We went to the oldest bar in Cali and then walked up the hill in San Antonio to the plaza with a little church on top where people gather. Noel’s froend bought me a beautiful bracelet as a late christmas present. Very sweet. After some food we went to a salsa club in a venue that was like a warehouse with two floors full of people dancing salsa!

The next day I moved to Casa Cameleon hostel and then headed to the carnaval parade with Vincent, Theau and charlotte from the hostel. It was very busy and everyone was in such a good mood. The Calieños welcomed us with open arms, lending us their chair to stand on and see, explaining the different influences in the parade and even taking me to find the toilets! The sun was shiing and we had a fantastic time watching the parade and dancing. We went back to the hostel for a break after 4 hours in the hot sun as we wanted to return later!

I went to a Spanish restaurant in a quiet street in San Antonio and out
of nowhere a band popped up and began playing outside which quickly led to start of a street party! La feria is all about music and dancing everywhere!

In the evening we went to the large concert site and saw various salsa bands and were taught some steps by the locals.  We saw the best salsa singer in Cali. A bottle of aguardiente later we moved onto Las Tascas which is a feria area in the city centre by the river with bars and restaurants all around and a band playing in the middle and of course everyone dancing salsa!

Christmas in Medellin

On the 24th of December I went to up on the cable car to Parque Arvi which is past all the poor communities up the steep hills.  Some people were living in nothing but small corrugated iron structures. The parque is a large forest with tall pine trees. There was even a vegetarian restaurant at the top! I also tried the traditional christmas food in Colombia which is buñelos (small cheesy dough balls) and natilla (thick stodgy creamy desert), neither of which I was particularly impressed with!

Christmas eve everyone from the hostel went out to celebrate to club in Poblado and from there I found a kareoke bar to sing Christmas and other songs in which was very entertaining!

Christmas day involved watching films I  the hostel and going out for an alternative Christmas dinner…falafel! Then drinking and singing along to guitar-playing backpackers!

Boxing day I went with the girls to the free botanical gardens, another fantatsic asset to modern Medellin.  Then I decided to brave the crowds in the centre of Medellin to revisit some of the sights on the walking tour in my own time.

In the evening I went to the bus station to go to Cali for the salsa feria. I bought a ticket for the 1am bus but was told that there was no room for my backpack by which time the 3am bus had sold out! Frustrated,  I bought a ticket for the first bus the next day at 6:30am and went back to the hostel to sleep on the sofa!

Guatape

From Medellin you can go on a great daytrip to La Piedra and Guatape. Ittakea about 2 hours by bus. You climb up a giant rock using the 600 odd steps and at the top you are rewarded with a fantasic view of the lakes dotted with little islands and towns. The area is next to a large hydro-electric dam.

After I walked to Guatape which os a quaint little village with colourful ful patterns and pictures painted onto the buildings.  It had lots of homemade recycled Christmas decorations and is very sweet. There were people cooking traditional christmas foods on  the streets in giant pots.