So, why? A few reasons. For starters, weather. South of Ecuador (and even just in the south OF Ecuador) it is winter. Buenos Aires recently saw its first snow in some large number of years. I know temporal concerns aren't a big factor for a number of the places I wanted to visit, but for me, there will be plenty of winter around the bend in Virgina when I get back to the states. Second, time. Three more countries was way, way too much ground to cover in the time I have.
Third, opportunity. South America in general has an appeal for me as a ¨road less traveled.¨ As an American (or Estadounidense if I don't want to sound ignorant or full of myself to South Americans...¨You're not the only Americans you know¨) this continent is like my overgrown backyard. Lots of cool stuff to see and do, but you have to walk through some rough patches to get to it. And part of what makes it great is that not everyone knows about even though it is so close.
So that's how I pictured Colombia. And I was right. It is great.
To keep score, from Lago Agrio I overnighted to Tulcan, the only overland border crossing area described as ¨safe¨ in the Lonely Planet guidebook. At around 7 AM I found myself walking over a bridge to officially cross the border.
I grabbed my entrance stamp, changed dollars to pesos in the small border town Ipiales, passed through another city called Pasto and grabbed another bus straight to a colonial city Popayan. There I was the inaugural first guest at the Hostel Trail Guest House. For anyone heading to Colombia (as well as other Latin American countries), this site is a great resource to keep you on track and it's direct reservation feature is pretty cool. Tony and Kim were also super helpful and receptive.Popayan. Such a great introduction to Colombia. Relaxed, safe, pretty, safe, university atmosphere, safe, and completely devoid of other tourists. Definitely recommendable. Two things to share:
1: peppered all over the very beautiful white colonial walls of the city (the Spanish really did know how to build a city by the way..I'm a fan) were graffitied slurs against President Uribe and other government figures, along with plenty of paint ball stains. Apparently university education is in the process of being privatized, which is not going over well with the student population. Lots of a recent protests. Just missed them.
2: The circus was in town. The bad kind (caged tigers, lions, bears in tutus on beachballs, everything) that the movie Dumbo pretty much did away with in the United States. Pretty amazing that that stuff still flies.
From Popayan I went to San Augustin, a southern town regarded as a tourist destination, but again, almost completely devoid of gringo tourists. Here and in Popayan, I really started to get to know a few Colombians, and I found them to be some of the warmest, funniest and most inviting people I've ever met. It really is a phenomenon. In general, they are thrilled to meet and talk with travelers. Until recently it has been very dangerous to travel in the country (even for Colombians) so the idea of knowing someone from another place still has its novelty. Additionally, increased tourism is a sure sign of a stabilizing and improving economy, something the Colombians I've met are very excited to see. It really works out well for a scrubby traveler -- you feel truly welcome and that the locals are actually happy to have you there and interested in your story. A far cry from street vendors trying to sell you fake rolexes and cell phone minutes every 50 feet in more touristy areas in Latin America.
San Augustin´s claim to fame is a chain of archeological sites located right in the middle of agricultural countryside. Beautiful. It's almost common knowledge there that no one knows where these artifacts came from (some not discovered until recently, many not properly carbon dated yet and digging at a standstill per World Heritage Site decree). BUT there is no shortage of opinion. You're pretty much guaranteed a different story depending on which tour guide you go with. This place helped me piece together what I think of Colombia: incredible and maybe very historically significant arceological finds, well preserved by government dollars pumped into the sites, but big gaping holes in knowledge because the land has been "off limits" for so long to researchers and almost completely lacking of actual tourists visting the sites. All framed in picture-perfect countryside.
One thing there has been no shortage of is interesting people with whom I've crossed paths on this trip. Case in point: Dejan from Slovenia. I spent a day with this guy touring San Augustin, but first met him the day before on the 6 hour, 60 mile bus ride to the town (the "roads" were THAT bad. He was on a bus that got a flat on the way there, our 15-seater wound up hauling about 40 people to San Augustin complete with screaming babies and a mystery sour milk smell. Miserable). Anyway, this was the first bus he had been on in a while. He decided in April 2006 to "tour the world" for 5 years. On his bicycle. He got up to Alaska last December, and had made his way through the west coast, Mexico, Central America and Venezuela so far. He was on the Slovene nat'l cycling team and triathlon team previously, and has accumulated a number financial sponsors for his trip. A friend of his, apparently cut from the same cloth, took it upon himself to swim the entirety of the Nile, the Amazon (first to do it), the Mississippi, and the Yangtzee (yes the incredibly poluted Yangtzee). He also made fun of the way that I negotiated barbed wire fences ("AHH you have not been in army!"), was all about having beers before noon, and was a master of finding ripe fruit to grab from trees along the roads. Pretty interesting guy.
Strange, hairy Colombian fruit that comes in pods. We are supposed to be holding like ninja stars. I dont really know.
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