Today was a long travelling day and our last day in Colombia. Woke up at 6am to get to the bus station and catch the 7am bus to Ipiales, on the Ecuardorian border. We even managed to have time for a bus station coffee and make friends with a dog.

We sat at the front behind the driver, which not only aided prevention of travel sickness, but also gave us a clear perspective of the quality of driving through the very windy roads, as well as the antics of the driver and his accomplice. On the 6 hour journey to Pasto they stopped the bus on several separate occasions solely to buy satsumas, yoghurt, wheels of cheese and a slushy. At one point I was dozing off and heard a bang which I was sure was us hitting somebody on a motorbike. Luckily it turned out to be the lorry in front blowing a tyre!

We enjoyed our breakfast snacks of a huge, flakey, chicken pastry and a coconut cake ball with icing in the middle... thus commencing a day of food like none yet seen. At Pasto we transferred into another bus and were given 5 minutes to buy the greesiest (and tastiest) empanadas for lunch, followed by two almojabanas. Two more hours on the bus to Ipiales, where we checked our bags in the left luggage and caught a taxi out to the Sanutario de Las Lajas, which is a neo-gothic church built in a gorge that looks a bit like something from Lord of the Rings. Apparently it was built because somebody saw a vision of the Virgin Mary there. Opposite the church it seems some prayer candles must have got a bit out of control, as a hut had been entirely razed to the ground! We spent the rest of our small change on totally useless tat at the giftshops and then met Omar (our taxi driver) who took us back to the terminal. Then a collectivo to the frontier, where we changed our final 50 pesos note for US dollars with a very unofficial looking man in a puffa jacket. At the Ecuadorian side of the border we had to wait in line for ages as they struggled with a seemingly completely inadequate computer system. A really massive guy behind us in the queue - who we named Patrick because that´s what it said on his coat - took it upon himself to direct people to the kiosks once they became free. He was very annoying.

With the border stuff out the way we waited for a collectivo to fill up and take us to the nearest town of Tulcan. But after some waiting we had to switch to a taxi to save on time, which was actually cheaper. At Tulcan we were very swiftly transferred from the taxi to the next bus to Quito... quite lavishly lit up by customised LEDs, neon and stickers of near-naked women. The journey to Otavalo should take 3 hours, but we got stuck in roadworks for an hour. We deemed it essential to buy a sandwich from one of the vendors that boarded at each stop; cold burger, ham, cheese and half a slice of lettuce - our only vegetable of the day. At 10:30pm we were dropped at the side of the Pan-American highway next to what we were told was Otavalo. We walked over to a petrol station where there was a taxi outside sans driver. It took far too long to ascertain who the driver was and whether he´d take us in his taxi.

We´d booked a hotel, and luckily Roberto had waited up for our arrival. He was so lovely and showed us our room - fully pebble-dashed on the inside and complete with DVD player. I managed to find the Crocodile Dundee trilogy and we had a lovely time watching the first one in spanish.

Day 66 - Roberto recommended a place for breakfast and had quite a desayuno spread of fruit salad, granola and yoghurt, vegetable omelette and cheese baguettes! We spent an hour wandering around the town, amazed at how contrasting it is - pretty decent shops crowded by Andeans dressed in their traditional clothing, long hair in plaits. At the Plaza de Los Ponchos we looked around the crafts market (shame we´re not at the end of our trip). On Saturdays the market swells to fill the town, but we´ll just have to imagine that!

2.5 hours on the bus to Quito with amazing views of volcanoes; the landscape is surprisingly different to Colombia. They also played a religious film with english subtitles that I really enjoyed. Unfortunately we arrived in Quito before I could see the end!