Going solo in Colombia

I woke up the next morning, had breakfast, woke Hannah up for a final hug goodbye and off I went. I chose to cross from Ecuador into Colombia via the Tulcan-Ipiales border, as that's meant to be the safest option. The bus from Quito to Tulcan was fine (and a lovely lady helped me get two seats to myself) and although the ride only took five hours it felt longer.

The border crossing was very easy. I stamped out of Ecuador, walked over a bridge, stamped into Colombia, changed some money to Colombian pesos and got into a taxi. I needed to go to Ipiales to get a bus to my first Colombian destination, Popayan. I was feeling a bit dazed and very conscious of now being on my own. All the travel books and hostel tips had said not to take a bus at night on the Ipiales-Popayan route because of bandits robbing buses. It was about 5pm by this point and it would be another 8 hours to Popayan, which would take me well into the night. So, I took my first solo safety-conscious decision to stay the night somewhere near the border and continue making my way to Popayan the next morning instead. Hannah would have been proud :) 

I remembered reading on some travel blogs about a small town near the border that had a cool church-bridge so I thought to make the most of my time and stay there. The taxi driver totally ripped me off but I made it to Las Lajas. I found a hotel, called the Popayan hostel to delay my reservation and went on a walk to find this church (Santuario de Las Lajas). 

And I'm glad I did, I was pleasantly surprised to see how pretty this last-minute stop ended up being :)

I woke up early the next morning and got on a bus to Popayan. 

Popayan is nicknamed 'the white city' because of all the beautiful white colonial architecture there. I arrived at my cool hostel in the evening. The hostel had the best location in the middle of Parque Caldas in the old town (literally sharing a wall with the cathedral, one of the main touristic attractions!)

After a good nights sleep, I went exploring. This little town had a lot of beauty to offer. Lots of streets to walk down and see great architecture, street markets, plazas and churches to marvel at. I also found some viewpoints to walk to (where I got ambushed by a dozen school kids), and awesome creative spaces like an arts college and a chilled-out gallery/bar/cafe ran by some Scottish guys. Successful day overall!

And in the evening, I chilled and had a movie night with Maurice and Roxanna who I met at the hostel. Overall, Popayan was a great first place to do on my own and a good introduction to Colombia and the very lively, welcoming and friendly Colombians! After a couple of nights I was excited to move on and investigate more of this country. My next stop, a bus ride to Zona Cafetera (the coffee triangle region), and specifically the colourful cowboy town of Salento.