The overnight bus arrived and after sharing a taxi with my 3 new bus buddies we checked into El Viajero which thankfully had place for me too. My first night there I had an entire dorm room to myself which was a consolation after a 24 hour journey and now back to travelling on me own. Cali is the Salsa capital of Latin America/the world I´d say, well definitely of Columbia anyway. The friends I made on the bus left the following day to go up north and I decided...

Boarder crossing from Ecuador to Columbia was rather scary as I'd read so many reviews on hijackings and robberies happening on buses. After walking from great hostel at 3 in the morning to get my 4am bus in Banos to the Ipiales boarder was rather scary. I was assured that it was perfectly safe to walk. The bus journey started off really empty and by the end of it there were more people than seats. I met a Columbian guy John who did the crossing with me which ma...

Banos was really pretty surrounded by a mountain range with an active volcano which last irrupted in 2005. Leanne and I had a great time exploring all of the best that Banos had to offer. We hiked up the mountain to get to the well known tree house which was built to observe the volcano. Was rather entertaining as it also had a swing that goes"off" into the open almost creating the illusion that one would fly over the cliff. We did not have enough time to hike ba...

We went to the Secret Garden hostel which is number 1 rated in South America by Hosteworld. The view we had from the terrace was unexpected and totally breathtaking. The lights were exposing the surroundding hills and the Basilica was shining brightly to the right side. We got a taxi to Mosiac Restaurant which had similarly spectacular views but also impressively one of the best live saxophone players i've heard. We tried to go to La Ronda thereafter, but was cl...

We arried at 7pm and headed straight to the airport where we enquired about flights to the Galapagos. The response was not quite what we wanted...they were fully booked for another week. We found a guesthouse for the night and knew standby was our only option now. 4:45 up and by the airport at 5:30. First flight was at 8:40, no one on standby got onto this flight. Only hope were 2 more flights at 11. Rona and Leanne were at Tame airline and did not get on. The ...