Popayan, Colombia

Tuesday Dec. 15th 2009.

A few of the people I had met in Cali where traveling the same direction I was, so I tagged along. Its funny, even though your traveling alone, for the most part you are never really alone. I decided to leave Cali, with 2 Irish guys Colm and Taz, An Australian, Garnet, and a Californian, Joe. We got on a 4 hour bus ride to Popayan which is a little colognial village on the way to the Ecuadorian border. We decided to stay a night here to see the village and walk around. After dinner, we were walking to a grocery store to buy some food for breakfast and travels. We were walking past a church that was all light up with christmas lights and the doors where open. I walked over there to just catch a peak inside when a man at the door handed me a brochure. Looking at it, it turns out that in 10 minutes, a Christmas Choir servous was going to begin with 3 different choirs. My friend Colm, had been talking for days about finding some christmas music, so this was jackpot. 4 of us, walked in and sat down to listen to the beautiful music. We were also the only tourists in the whole church. They sang a few different xmas songs, a different version of Avi Maria, and were all amazing. After that headed back home to our hostel.

Wed, Dec. 16th 2009.
This morning we caught another bus to Ipiales which was an 8 hour bus ride to the boarder. We got in late at night and walked around trying to find a place to stay. There were a few hostels listed in the 'Lonely Planet' guide book, but they were a ways away from the bus station and we didnt want to bother with another taxi. We walked around and found a hotel. He should us the room, and it had 3 double beds in this big open room. It was kind of shady, but he only charged us $5 each for the night. So we bunkered down there for the night. We, or at least I was not going to go out side, I waited until morning to walk around the city a bit. We went out for breakfast then caught a taxi see a church.

Thurs. Dec 17th 2009.
There is supposed to be this amazing church that was built over a gorge. Apparently someone saw a vision of the Virgin Mary, and decided to built a church to honor her. This is the most amazing church I have ever seen. This church is built onto a brigde that comes out from the side of the mountain over a river. We spent a few hours walking around, and by the time we got down to the church, a service had just began. We walked in and sat down to listen to the Spanish church service. Right to the left of me was a confession box where people would just get up and go confess, then sit back and listen to the service. The 2 Irish boys I was with both went to the confession booth. Crazy thing, Colm, apparetnly hadnt confess anything in 15 years, felt it was the right time and place, and later found out, that back home, his name was called to be on a lottery game show, where the least of what you can win is 15,000euros. His mother was happy to hear that! A few days later, his sister was able to go on the show for him, and you spin a wheel and whatever number it lands on is what you go home with. I think he won 27,500 Euro! It was quite exciting.

After the church we got another bus to take us to the Ecuadorian border. For some reason there was a traffic jam, so the driver to an 'off road' route, that ended us up stranded where we had to get out and walk down the road and a very step hill down to the boarder. We felt like refuges! Finally getting to the office, we waited about an hour to get our exit Colombia Stamp, then another hour to get our Enter Ecuador Stamp! Then onto another 3 hour bus to get to Quito, Ecuador where we landed out tired selfs at Hostel Chicago for the night.