Colombia rages and I move onto Ecuador

So after Salento, I’d felt like I had just about enough of the coffee triangle, which I guess is what they call the area – even though it’s actually too high in elevation to produce to commercial coffee! It’s a nice area, but some of these little towns are all pretty similar. Being that I’d already spent a little bit more time in Colombia than I had planned I decided to start heading down to the border. What I didn’t realize was that things were getting pretty heated politically in Colombia. There was a protest against the president/government planned on November 22nd that was originally designed to be a student protest, but it eventually evolved into a nationwide movement with people from all economic sectors getting involved. Even the air traffic controllers would strike for a few hours. Uh oh.

So being that the whole country would basically be shut down on the 22nd I decided that it would be more interesting to be in a big city to witness what was going on. So Cali it is! (It’s the 3rd largest city I believe). I booked two nights at a popular hostel with a pool, that also specializes in salsa lessons – as that’s what Cali is known for. And it’s not known for much else! It’s a bit of grimy town with not a whole lot of interesting things for tourists. It was a bit of a strange first night because a lot of places were shutting down early in anticipation of the protests the next day.

Originally I was going to check out the protests for myself, which were focused in the downtown, probably about 20 minutes walking, but the hostel staff talked me out of it. So it was a pool day. It was definitely a ghost town walking around outside the hostel with almost all the businesses shuttered up for the day, but nothing really going on apart from the odd helicopter flying overhead. In the late afternoon I guess some of the protests got violent and Cali decided to put in place a 7pm curfew until 6am. Around dusk (6pm) you could see groups of protesters walking the streets in our neighborhood and shortly after that some armored vehicles and military in riot gear came down the main road and were tear gassing anyone that decided to stay on it. Then it calmed down for a bit and people in the hostel hung around outside entrance.

pockets of protestors on the side streets

Up on the overpass about a block away there was a whole bunch of policemen gathered, so I walked in that general direction to see what was going on. There were about 20 twenty protestors yelling at the policemen, and then the policemen started throwing rocks at the protestors, who ran down in my direction. Then blocking the exit some more policemen appeared, trapped the protestors and started beating them with their clubs. One policeman I saw was running towards the scene with his knife drawn, yikes. I was able to slide by with my hands in the air playing the gringo card! And that was enough excitement for me, back to the hostel! It still wasn’t even 7pm yet! The hostel would be on lockdown for the rest of the night. Fortunately everyone was prepared with plenty of booze.

The next morning everything seemed relatively normal, businesses were open, lots of traffic on the streets, the buses were running like usual. I was able to book a 9:30am bus to the border, which was supposed to take 12 hours and ended up taking almost 15! Ugh. Normally buses that long I’d opt for a night bus, but I was worried the night buses might be a little more dangerous than usual given the recent unrest. So I got dumped off at the bus station a the border town, Ipiales, just after midnight and stayed at the closest hotel.

Normally border towns have absolutely nothing going for them, and this town was no exception, but 15 minutes outside of town they have a beautiful church built straddling a river in the middle of a canyon, called Las Lajas Sanctuary. So that’s the one thing everyone does before crossing the border, seeing this church. It’s quite the sight! It seems like such an off the beaten path location for such a grand structure.

After spending an hour looking around I checked out of the hotel and took a taxi to the border, got stamped out of Colombia and stamped into Ecuador. No lines on either side, no questions asked! Definitely one of the easiest border crossings I’ve done! You take a 10 minute taxi on the Ecuador side to nearest town and then they ship you off on a big bus going south, either to Otavalo, or the capital Quito. Since it was Saturday I went to Otavalo as they are famous for their Saturday market, so I’d have enough time to get there for the end of it!

The northern part of Ecuador is mostly indigenous, so the way people look and dress was quite the stark contrast compared to most of Colombia. I always love places where they don’t dress in the usual western style! For me the market itself wasn’t that interesting, as most stalls seem to sell the exact same stuff as everybody else, but it was more of people that caught my eye. The women would usually wear a white blouse with a black skirt and flats, the fringes of the skirts and blouses normally embroidered with some brightly colored lace. The men wore a bit more modern garb, but with lots of ponchos and cowboy hats. It was getting cold towards the end so I picked up a sweater that I don’t have much room for!

In my hostel I met a Dutch and German guy who I’d travel with for the next few days as well as a midwife from Chile, learning midwife techniques from midwives in the Ecuadorian countryside – not your usual hostel tourist! So we had fun drinking and playing cards as Otavalo isn’t the most exciting place, and then me and the Dutch guy did a nice hike the next morning, a mountain called Fuya Fuya which overlooks a really pretty lagoon. And it was a good idea to start to acclimatize to the higher elevations in the Ecuadorian Andes. The first hour I was really huffing, but then it got slowly easier. We made it up to 4,300m or 13,000ft, not bad! Our timing was perfect because as soon as we finished the rains came. Next up, the capital, Quito!