Santuario De Las Lajas

A few KM´s from the Colombia/Ecuador border lies the Santuario De Las Lajas. An outrageous construction wedged int a deep gorge a short distance outside the border town of Ipiales.

It is said that the Church was built on the site of where a mother and daughter who where sheltering from a storm saw the Virgin Mary... I believe. So, the community rallied around (amd the Catholic Church saw an opportunity to invest) and they began the constructin of this subtle temple of God...

Putting my anti-religous sentiments aside, the building and setting are fantastic and it was a great spectacle not to be missed.

Next stop, Ecuador.

Zona Cafetera, Salento.

South West of Bogota is the Coffee Region, where most of the fine Colombian Coffe is produced funnily enough. Set in epic rolling hills of green grass, waterfalls, rivers, forsests and palm trees, we decided to hole up in the quaint little town of Salento to explore the region.

Arriving in Salento was like stepping back 100 years. It´s a small working town focused around a beautiful central square. Well off the busy backpacker trail, this was a great place to relax, drink coffee and eat some amazing Trout from the local rivers.

Bogota

Following Villa De Leyva I made my way to the capital of Colombia, Bogota. Myself, Will & James conveniently arrived on a Saturday night, got ourselves a Hostel in the La Candelaria district and headed to the closest busy bar.

As with the rest of Colombia, Bogota felt surprisingly safe and we had a great time here. We met some fellow long time travel buddies on Monday. The Swiss duo, Kris & Sabrina, and fellow Brit, Ernie. All of whom were in town to catch flights home. We spent the day seeing the sights and exploring, taking a cable car up to the top of a surrounding mountain and looking out across Bogota was a highlight. And surprisingly enough for the highly religous Latin American countries, there was a Church at the top too...

Kite Festival, Villa De Leyva

Every year in Villa De Layva, the town celebrates the windy month of August with a Kite Festival. This famous event attracts visitors from across Colombia and the globe who descend on this sleepy town for the weekend and transform it into a buzzing festival for all ages.

I was lucky enough to be in town for the event, where I was joined by 6 friends from the Panama - Colombia boat trip (and before) who are also in Colombia, travelling around. The celebrations kicked off on Friday night with some music and drinks in the town square, and the town didn`t stop until the following Monday. Saturday was a big day of course, and a fairly boozy night spent in the square with the many other revellers.

We spent Sunday in the nearby Village of Santa Sofia for their annual Festival. Our host, Luis and his family are from Santa Sofia, although Luis spent his teens and twenties in London. So, as the only gringos at the festival, we got amongst it and checked out the Car Stereo Competion... the tons of food stalls and epic BBQ`s, and variety of other things to do, including watching a car drive into the back of a bus.

All in all a great Colombian style weekend.

Study Time... Again

Time to calm down on the rapid travels and excess of activities of recent months and take a breath, study some more Spanish, and hopefully enter September with a greater ability in the language.

Courtesy of my old pal Leon, who linked me up with his Colombian friends & family, i`m currently in the midst of 2 weeks of classes in the beautiful town of Villa De Leyva in the Boyaca province of Colombia. A beautiful, picturesque old Colonial town set at around 2,200 metres high in the Andes Mountains.

Home to apparently the biggest Central Square in South America, this place is comfortably off the Gringo trail and a great place to work on my Spanish.

Bed 50

So, whilst sat in a hammock on a secluded paradise beach, I went through my trip so far and counted how many beds I had slept in this year since leaving the UK.

It turns out that the circular hut full of Hammocks on this tiny tropical peninsula pictured above was Bed number 50. Not a bad spot to reach this landmark. 50 doesn`t seem too many, but when you consider i`ve only been on the road for around 150 days, then I guess i`ve been moving around quite regularly.

Bed 50 was in a stunning location on the northern Carribean coast of Colombia in the Tayrona National Park. This hidden away spot is only accesible by boat or a 2 hour hike through the jungle. I opted for the hike, because taking the boat is lazy (Will).

South America

After four and a half months in Central America which was a great introduction to this part of the world, it was time to move onwards and Southwards, to South America.

First stop Colombia.

It feels like a great stage in my journey through Latin America and it came at just the right time as i was a little centralamerica`d-out. From hearing so many good things about South from other travellers i`m excited to be here and am looking forward to the countries to come. Which I think will include, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina, ending in Buenos Aires - for now.

The best thing I have heard and discovered so far, is that English isn`t as widely spoken down here, which is great as i`m ready to get back on the path of taking my Spanish to the next level.