We take a bus from Quito to Tulcan, a border town in the North of Ecuador, and catch a taxi to the border. I get my exit stamp and then Helena hands over her passport. Like most passport control officials he's a bit nosey and takes a look through the passport. Checking the visas from China et al and then finally checks out the Ecuadorian stamp. Something is wrong. He gesticulates at the stamp and fires off some rapid Spanish which we don't catch. We take a close look and it turns out Helena only got a 1 day visa upon entry to Ecuador. This means she has obviously overstayed her welcome.

Then that's it for 2 hours. We get no information about what is happening and just have to sit there and watch the 2nd leg of Real Madrid-Barcelona along with some of the immigration staff.

Eventually after many phone calls and everyone in the office having a look Helena gets stamped out of the country and the immigration man finally looks friendly as he breaks into a smile at the end of our debarkle. We cross the border with much relief and catch a taxi to Ipiales.

The bus from Ipiales to Pasto is pretty uneventful, except for the faith based overtaking and the billboards we pass advertising Colombia's most wanted.

The next day we catch (we catch a lot of buses in this blog I'm afraid to say) an overnight bus to Bogota via Popayan. The first 6 hours of this 20 hour bus journey it is incouraged that you do it during the day as armed bandits are known to rob vehicles at night. Another great reason to do it during the day is that the stretch of road between Pasto and Popayan snakes through some of the most amazing scenery of any road in the world. The sort of road Top Gear should use for a special episode. The sheer drops seem far higher when you are looking down from slightly elevated bus seat. The mountains of green shrub land are spectacular and the most amazing part for me was this land was farmed. Unfathomably steep ground for farming on especially when it doesn't appear to have been terraced. Some of the fields just stop and then there is a huge drop into a tiny river. The road has to be negotiated slowly in places as the bus has to squeeze past land slide rubble, pot holes and subsidence.

The scenery doesn't stop being amazing but the road does drop down into a wide valley much to the appreciation of our nerves. We watch films in Spanish and sleep the rest of the way to Bogota.

We take a taxi to the La Candaleria area of Bogota and book in one night. The hostel comes complete with wolf and stone bath tub. With not much time we just try to relax and rest as the next day we have a bus to Santa Marta on Colombia's Caribbean coast.