Colombia - Popayan

After our stop over we braved the winding road and 8hr bus journey to Popayan. We chose to travel during the day as the road is dangerous at night due to guerilla presence. Our bus was searched by police several times during out trip. My favourite being when a policeman jumped onto the bus to check ID´s and balanced the barrel of his giant shotgun perfectly on Paul´s knee!

Popayan was lovely, a clean city centre, with whitewashed colonial buildings, and at our hostel (Park Life) we had a room overlooking the buzzing central plaza. Paul and Pete (a fellow Aussie) had the AFL Grand Final up on the hostel TV, and with a supply of cold 'Poker' (Colombian beer) began to teach a group of Europeans, Americans and anyone else who would listen, about a 'real' sport...

The three boys Paul, Pete and Stefan, went on a daytrip to the Purace National Park, where they encountered gurgling sulphur hot springs, kilometres of walking through rainforest and paramo landscapes at 4000m altitude, and eventually thumbed ride back to town... managing to persuade the driver he could fit another 3 men into the back of his already overflowing pickup truck (11 in total).

We also experienced our first earthquake in Popayan. Whilst sitting in the hostel mid-morning enjoying a nice cup of coffee, everything started to rock. It lasted for about a minute with wall and light hangings just holding on! Paul, just out of the shower, was faced with the dilemma of whether it was worse to run outside into the plaza in his towel or stay inside and get dressed.. Luckily there was no damage caused, but a reminder they can happen at any time! Loving the warmer weather and the constant availability of tasty coffee in Colombia!