Hola Colombia... no thanks, I dont feel like a Coke

Most travellers are warned about Quito´s reputation well before arriving. I imagine some tavellers would feel that tourist brochures should read "Quito; Its colonial beauty will knock your socks off, as for your shirt and wallet... those were just stolen." Luckily we had a pleasant time in Quito and did not experience any loss of goods.

We only spent enough time in Quito to see some of the highlights such as the Old City (very nice colonial buildings and streets), the teleferico (gondola which climbs from Quitos 2,800 m altitude to a dizzying 4,100m for a very pictureque view of the city), and take a hairy steep climb up the basilica.

Just before take-off a military helicopter circled the airport a few times before following our small plane out of the airport air space.

Otavalo was a town only a short distance away from Quito and is known for its massive Saturday market. This market did not dissapoint (even Matt enjoyed it thoroughly) with an amazing array of local items many of which now have a new home in our jam-packed backpacks.

Getting to the Colombian border from Otavalo was very smooth, and it was here that we met some new travel-mates (A very friendly guy from Indiana named Alex, who yes... self-admitedly does resemble Woody from Cheers, and an interesting Belguim girl named Sangita (possibly the second coming of Sue from earlier in our travels - ask us in person). Enough said, without her exit papers, in addition to over staying her Ecuadorian visa, Sangita had to enter Colombia without officially exiting Ecuador. This allowed for some stress at the border crossing but everything went well and that major issue slipped under the radar.

We travelled together to a town called Pasto before calling it a night. Pasto was clearly not in Ecuador. The music changed (more Cuban sounding) and there was a different vibe throughout the peoples interactions with each other and us. That night we ate dinner in a restaurant that had no lights except for two large projected images of Colombian music videos which were accompanied by the loudest dinner music we have ever experienced. The waiter needed a flashlight to show us the menu. A great start to a Colombian experience and probably better than the strip-club we nearly "accidently" ate at 20 minutes earlier.

Spending a couple days in Popayan and Silvia was relaxing. A very friendly South African couple joined the 4 of us as well as a conversationalist from Pennsylvania and a few other people to make quite a pack of tourists in such small towns. Anyways, Popayan lived up to its billing as being a quiet and pretty colonial city (all its buildings in the core are white and look similar making it awefully easy to get lost), while Silvia´s market was less than impressive but the indigenous peoples in their clothing were great.

Colombia in general seems safe for tourists. That being said the government is still in a struggle with guerrilla groups, which is only noticeable to tourists by the number of military milling around unless you choose to go into stronghold areas. We did not venture into these areas but an example of the military presence was when we chose to take a short flight to Bogota from Popayan. Just before take-off a military helicopter circled the airport a few times before following our small plane out of the airport air space.

We really enjoyed Bogota. Maybe it was the group of VERY eccentric people in our hostal or the beauty of the city´s touristic neighbourhoods but we had no trouble staying for a handful of days. During this time we cultured ourselves by visiting two art museums (an Andy Warhol exhibit and a Fernando Botera - google image his work), the police museum, which includes the details of the hunt for Pablo Escobar, and the gold museum. We are WAY smarter now.

We also enjoyed our attempts at Salsa dancing in a well-known Bogota Salsa club. Unfortunately two girls whom we arrived with were subsequently kicked out for wrestling over their shared purse. Did we mention the group from our hostal was interesting!?!? Before leaving Bogota we met up with Jen and Trin for one last time before they left to travel around South East Asia. As always a good time.

North bound... only a few weeks until we return home.