A night at the border

Trip Start Apr 06, 2010

Trip End Ongoing

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Where I stayed

Hotel Don Lucho

(Ipiales hotels)

Flag of Colombia Ipiales, Colombia
Saturday, September 25, 2010

Our 7am bus from Popayan terminal finally left around 7.45am (another precious 45 minutes of sleep wasted) and it was more of a mini-van rather than the bus we'd been promised when we booked our tickets. It was comfortable enough though and the 8 hour journey was pretty uneventful other than a half hour hold up due to a nasty accident on a sharp bend right on the edge of a sheer drop off a mountain - scary, especially as we nearly went with this company and can't even remember why we didn't. Luckily our driver didn't seem to be in too much of a hurry nor feel the need to constantly overtake everything else on the road like some of the bus drivers do.

We arrived in Ipiales around 4 in the afternoon, found a place to stay, and then jumped in a collectivo heading for Santuario de Las Lajas - supposedly one of the most spectacular churches in South America. It certainly didn't disappoint and the church was indeed spectacular

Santuario de Las Lajas

. It was built between 1926 and 1944, and is situated on top of a bridge over a big river gorge. According to legend the Virgin de Las Lajas appeared on a rock here and ever since pilgrims have visited the church, leaving behind hundreds of plaques thanking the Virgin for miracles that have occurred following their visit. Not so sure that the Virgin would approve of the poor guinea pigs that were being slow roasted up the road though or the lamas dressed in sparkly tiaras waiting for a camera happy tourist to snap on the way past. Oh well, Ipiales (an unremarkable border town) was full of life on a saturday night so when we got back from the church we had a cheap dinner out in a chicken restaurant, enjoyed our last colombian beer, and made some plans for our next stop - Ecuador.

Slideshow