We arrived at the bus stop at 6am, as we had been told the day prior there was a bus at 6.30. Unfortunately there was not, the first one was at 10! There was a share taxi though, and we jumped on that having been told it would take 7 hours to Ipiales, the town closest to the border with Ecuador.

The drive was beautiful, past some amazing green scenery, with patchwork fields, high mountains and gullies. We only stopped briefly a couple of times for bathrooms and food, but the drive still took us nearly 9 hours, much longer than expected.

We had initially planned to visit the Santuario de Las Lajas Church in Ipiales, which is built spanning a gorge, at the site where an Amerindian woman and her daughter saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary in the 1700's. Unfortunately as the bus took longer than we hoped, we weren't left with a comfortable amount of time to make it there and back, then get across the border before dark (we heard reports it's safest to cross in the day).

So, we headed for the border, which was another 2km past Ipiales in a share taxi. As usual there was a bit of commotion at the border crossing as the locals don't need an exit stamp, so we had to make sure they let us out at the Colombian border. From there we just had to cross the bridge to the Ecuadorian Customs, then take a taxi to the nearest border town of Tulcán.

We were sadly now out of Colombia. So far Colombia has been our absolute favourite country to visit. It surprised us in more ways than we can count. The people were amazingly friendly, helpful, and genuinely as interested in us as we were in them. We ate some delicious food, and were amazed by how modern and clean everything was.

Going into Colombia, knowing more about its past than its present, we were a little hesitant and reluctant to explore too far away from the Gringo Trail, but we didn't come across anywhere, anything or anyone that made us feel unsafe the whole time we were there. Though we did take advice on areas to avoid and places to avoid travelling at night.

The people of Colombia couldn't be prouder of the country they live in, and the country they have rebuilt since its tumultuous past. Of course there is still a long way for them to go, given the high levels of corruption and drug trade that still takes place. The locals are very well aware of what goes on but for the most part as a tourist you can remain delightfully oblivious to what takes place behind closed doors. That could of course be considered a good thing or a bad thing.

LAPFWT

P.S. We only took one photo on our way out of Colombia at a lunch stop. This guy was walking his enormous pig