Popayan, Colombia

Our first stop in Colombia was city called Popayan but to get there from the Ecuadorian border we had to go through one of maybe not most dangerous, but rather dodgy areas in Colombia. A stretch of road between Pasto and Popayan that travellers are advised to travel during the day only as at night in this area buses are known to be attacked by armed bandits. We planned to make it during the day but ended up travelling when it was already dark. Anyway in situations like this all the buses travelling in the same direction tend to wait for each other and together with armed police go in the convoy of 3 or 4 buses through this dodgy part. I spent most of the trip thinking where to hide my hard drive with precious photos. It was actually a little bit scary esp. when suddenly road workers blocked the road and I was thinking yep…this is it they will come with guns now. But Thank God we arrived safe and sound in Popayan around 1am after 11 or maybe more hours on the bus. I forgot to add that the road was also freaking scary because our lunatic driver was driving like a mad man. Through one of the steepest roads so far with the most vertical mountain drops that I could see from my window. 

Anyway, Popayan itself is really pretty and famous for its white architecture. Unfortunately my main memory from that place is my terrible wisdom tooth infection. I spent most of the time lying on the bed eating antibiotics and freaking out about going to the dentist and pulling my tooth out.Therefore I don’t have many photos from here and the only nice memory is a wee excursion to nearby thermal pools when I took strong pain killers and could “enjoy” rotten egg like smells and warm waters.