We took a van from San Agustin to Popayán. We had read horror stories of a bumpy 8 hour journey, but the road is improving, some of it even tarred, so the journey took us about 4 hours. That was great as we only had one night in Popayán giving us the afternoon to explore.

Our hostel was right on the main square, which was really nicely maintained, busy with locals, and surrounded by whitewash colonial style buildings. We set out to find some lunch, and stopped in at a little eatery that served nothing much more than some really yummy little local specialty empanadas.

From there we just walked the streets, stopping at a church to take some photos until we realised there was a funeral taking place inside. We found ourselves at a nice park area, which an old stone bridge leading across the river. Next to it was an even older, but much smaller stone bridge, which was apparently used by the local priest to reach the less affluent communities on the other side of the river.

Popayán is a quaint little town, and is quite clean and well preserved. Other than a nearby volcano to hike however, there didn't seem to be a huge amount to do there, so it was probably fortunate we didn't stay too long.

We found a yummy Italian restaurant to satisfy our pasta craving and turned in early, as we would have to be up at 5am to catch our bus in the morning.

LAPFWT