Last week in Colombia & the journey to Ecuador

Even though we were sad to be leaving Salento, Lisa, Tim, and I were excited to be moving on to new places together. We took 4 buses heading south and ended up in the small town of Silvia just before dark. The reason we went there was for their big Tuesday market day, which was the next day. One of Colombia's 68 indigenous groups, the Guambino, have survived colonialism, repression, and modernization with their language, dress, and customs intact, and they descend every Tuesday from their reserve to buy and sell goods. Their outfits were really colorful, and both the men and women wear skirts. I was pretty sure we were the only tourists there, and at first I was shy about getting out my camera, but eventually I did. Even better than the market itself was the central square, where the people all gathered to chat. Since the market is literally the only reason to go to Silvia, we left that afternoon for Popayán, where we found an awesome little hostel. Most of our two days there were spent relaxing, cooking, and watching movies. We did walk around a bit, and went up to a mirador, or lookout point. Our next destination was about 5 hours and a very bumpy bus ride away. The tiny peublos of Tierradentro (population 600) and San Andrés are home to one of the continent's most important archeological sites. Our guesthouse owner was one of the first archeologists to work on the newly (within the last 80 years roughly) discovered burial sites. It is believed that the disappeared indigenous tribe who left them behind lived around the 7th and 9th centuries. The elaborate circular tombs once contained the ashes and remains, as well as the personal belongings, of the people. The tomb's walls also contain mysterious etchings and paintings in red, black, and white. We walked up (and up and up) some hills one morning and found many abandoned tombs along the ridge, which was pretty cool. When we visited the two museums, which were part of the two-day admission fee, they had to unlock the doors just for us. We stayed down in Tierradentro, and had to walk 20 minutes up the dirt road - which had no street lights - to San Andrés to try to find food the first night. After we passed the multiple military men with guns (this was at dusk, and thankfully we did not encounter them again on our pitch black walk back down), we got up there only to find out that the only restaurant closed early - it wasn't even 7 p.m. yet! Side note - later on during my travels, I met a girl who told me that when she and another girl did the same walk up along the ridge that we did, they had a strange encounter with two "military" men with huge guns up on the ridge. When they got down near the town, they heard a lot of automatic gunfire, and were told by some locals that there was a fight going on between guerrillas and the military, so not to go that way! I am glad nothing of the sort happened while we were there! On our second night there, we made sure that the restaurant would be open before we walked back up to town - it was, but the owners weren't there. Another lady who seemed to be her friend, and who had been working there earlier in the day, started making our dinners, and then the owner arrived, so we had two ladies cooking dinner for just us, their only patrons. It was a nice, small-town experience.
Our final Colombian destination was the town of San Agustín, which is also famous for archeological reasons. There are supposedly many statues carved from volcanic rock that are many centuries old, and that were made to honor the dead. We didn't end up going to see any of them, except the few that were displayed around the town square. It took us 4 more bus rides to get there, and the driver of the last bus managed to convince Lisa that we should go to his friend's guesthouse to see it. We ended up liking it and the owner, whose name was Diego, and to me he really did look like a grown-up version of the cartoon kid Diego! He gave us a nice introduction to his town for about 20 minutes, and afterwards, as we were walking back to our room, he whispered that he had one more thing to tell us. He then proceeded to tell us that he used to work for Pablo Escobar, and that if we wanted to, we could go tour a still-working coca factory, as long as we kept it on the DL, of course! Interesting, but we politely declined - not sure what kind of trouble a few foreigners might get in when found in or near a cocaine factory! Again, much of our time in San Agustín was spent relaxing and cooking.
At 6 a.m. on our final morning there, Lisa and I, along with our new friend Dave from Australia, said goodbye to Tim and started what would be a really long journey to Ecuador. In total, it took us almost 17 hours and 8 modes of transport to finally make it to our destination - Otavalo, Ecuador. The first couple of pickup truck rides were fine, and then we took what was definitely the MOST BUMPY ride of my year so far. It was to the town of Pasto, and I think it lasted about 4 or 5 hours, although it felt like many more. All three of us were in the back seat of a pickup truck, and the journey took us up through the mountains on a rocky dirt road full of potholes. The scenery was absolutely beautiful, but I never got my camera out because even if I had, I would not have been able to take a picture due to the bumps. In hindsight, I realized that this very road had been the subject of a conversation I had with an Australian woman in Medellin. We had been talking about a place called Death Road in Bolivia (yes, I plan to go there and bike down it!), and she said that she had not done it there, but that she had done her own personal "death road" years earlier, in Colombia. She said that all she remembered was seeing a lot of waterfalls, and a lot of crosses along the side of the road. It has to have been the same road - there were so many beautiful waterfalls, some of which we actually had to drive over as they flowed across the road, and many crosses. I am not surprised, as every time we got inches from the edge of the road (with no guardrails, of course), I said a small silent prayer that our crazy driver wouldn't lose control and send us all plummeting to our deaths! I would really have hated to be the little old lady who rode the entire way in the back of the truck with a motorcycle - no, I'm not kidding! Once we actually arrived at the border town, we had to take a taxi to the border crossing and get our exit stamps from Colombia, and then walk across the bridge to get our stamps for Ecuador. Just as we crossed the bridge, it was dusk, so we met our goal of making it to the border by dark. Then we took another taxi to the bus station, and got on our bus to Otavalo. Not long after we set out, we got stopped by the police, and all of us with bags had to get off the bus, collect out bags, take them to a tent, and open them for the "officers." It was dark, and this would have been pretty scary for me had I not been with Lisa and Dave. It all went fine, but I felt bad for the old guy who was having every bag of coffee that he had bought opened and searched. Not long after we were back on the road, we got stopped again, but this time the officers just came onto the bus and checked our passports. Again, I was really glad not to be the only gringa on the bus! We finally made it to a guesthouse around 10:30 p.m. and were really happy to get into bed in our new country.