26/2/23
Today was border day! We left Otavalo, Ecuador straight after breakfast and had been told by the hostel to take a bus to the next town’s terminal to take a direct bus to the border. Sadly, when we arrived there was only one bus a leaving nearly two hours later. We walked across town to where a different terminal was meant to be. When we got there, there was no terminal, so Narja asked the local bus driver and he told us to get on his bus, which we did since we weren’t really sure what else to do! After half an hour or so of standing up at the front of the bus, bouncing over each bump in the road with out large backpacks hanging from our backs, he eventually waved us to the opposite road side, where there was a minibus to the border. No terminal, no bus stop, but a small minibus with a sign tacked to it’s front window ‘Ibarra – Tulcan’. We ran to it and got on. We left pretty soon after that and got to the border town in no time. In the border town, everyone got off the bus and we headed for a collective, another small bus to go to the official border.
We were dropped off on the Colombian side so first we had to walk back into Ecuador to get our exit stamps. Afterwards, we walked back to the Colombian side to get our entry stamps. There was some form we were meant to do online, but it hadn’t been working fora week or so (Narja had been checking) and when we got to the desk they didn’t ask about it, only about where we were staying. The border stuff was remarkably quick – we were done with both side in less than fifteen minutes, with basically no queues – miraculous! After getting our two new stamps, we got another collectivo to the city centre of Ipiales. We checked into our hostel and the headed for lunch – I was starvinggg! We decided on a bakery, which had a menu del dia with fresh juice, soup, then trout with rice and plantains and then a small dessert. It turned out to be a fairly fancy place with the menu costing just over $4! It was worth it though!
After lunch, we took another bus out of Ipiales to visit the nearby church that was nestled in the valley, bridging the two sides of it. We got out the bus, waved off by the locals who were also getting off at that stop, all dressed up on their Sunday best ready for church. We then all walked the steep decline to the church. We passed one lady who was huffing and puffing way to much to be going down hill, arm in arm with another. I wondered how she would ever get up again, but perhaps they were hopeful that a prayer session would see to her health. We passed by and headed down to the church, peering in on the service, and admiring the nearby waterfall, the crashing of the water, mixing with church song. A beautiful place. We decided to get the cable car back up since it was verrrry hot and didn’t fancy too much of a hike, plus the view from the cable car should be good!
We got the cable car back up with a couple, who definitely wanted a cable car to themselves so they could make out fit the full thirty minutes that the cable car to reach the top. Tough luck! The view was pretty impressive looking back down at the church as we climbed up the valley. At the top, everyone was out, relaxing with tents and picnics in the park. We caught a bus back to the city from the road side. We chilled awhile and then went to buy supplies for dinner. I wanted avocado but sadly had left it too late – all the market folk and roadside sellers had gone so I settled for fresh bread with coffee. I would find my avocado the next day! I had a yoghurt and some chocolate too and then was antisocial, and read my book in bed. Narja chatted to some other hostel peeps.
27/2/23
Another moving day (my third in a row, arghhh)! After a hostel breakfast of huevos muy rico (scrambled eggs with onions and tomatoes) with bread and coffee, we walked to the bus station to catch our bus to Pasto. The final street was almost vertically down but we made it to the terminal and our bus was going in a few minutes. A couple of hours later, we arrived. Again, we went for lunch straight away, because I was starving, in another bakery. I asked if they had a lunch menu in Spanish to which she replied to Narja (who speaks far better Spanish than me), that she does understand ‘her’. Charming. She refused to speak to me for the rest of the ordering process and spoke only to Narja, which was funny when I knew what she was saying!! It seems Colombians are more sassy than Ecuadorians! While I was irritated that she had been so rude at the time, I realised afterwards that I just needed to bring back my Birmingham sass, which had not been required for a while (not in sleepy West Wales, nor in Ecuador!).
After lunch, we pottered about a bit and bought some fruit and then went to check in at the hostel. After waiting awhile to be received for check-in, it was done and we were free again. I went back out to mooch about and find a good coffee shop (of course) to read in and Narja sorted her stuff for the flight and chilled. Later I came back and we did a beer run and sat on the terrace with drinks and snacks watching the sunset. Sadly since we were so high, the sun didn’t seem to set exactly, more just disappear, but it was still nice. We also chatted to an Italian girl, who had just graduated Nurse School and was taking a break before finding a job. She was cute. I had avocado toast and a coffee for teaWe. went to bed relatively early since we both had to be up for flights in the morning.
wanderingwelshie2 travels 