Our one and a half hour flight was much better than the other option of a 36 hour, very bad, twisty and turney bus ride!!! Avianca are actually very impressive for an airline, offering more leg space than we have seen on any other airline!!!

So we arrived into Cali, late in the evening, went straight to the hostel and bed! We were up early the next morning to get a bus to Popayan. We managed to find the bus terminal without having to ask too many people!! and then got our 11.30 bus....by which we mean we were on the bus at 11.30, left the station by maybe 12.10, and actually got on the road towards our destination by about 1!!!! Nothing like the express service!!! Our bus driver can only be described as a lunatic! Not only was he intent on making eye contact with the person in the passenger seat, but he also could not tell a story without massive hand gestures, all while over taking, under taking, and anything else he could do!!! It was not a huge surprise when a belt broke in the engine, which they had to fix, adding about 30mins onto the journey. Somehow we made it in one piece to Popayan.

We found a hostel, part owned by a Waterford fella, right on the main square. So we headed out for a wander, and took in the atmosphere of the Student Games that were taking place. We set off the next morning with our bags to get our ticket to Ipiales, the border town. However due to the Games, there were no buses heading in that direction until much later! Which is no good to us as we had been told it is dodgy to travel at night on the buses in that area, and additionally we had no booking when we got there...so back to the hostel we went and watched more of the cycling competition, including hand cycling and tandem racing! We found out the bus was going at 6am the next morning so that was the one for us!

So as the sun was rising we were walking to the bus station! We managed to get onto a nice bus that left at 7.30am for our 10 hour journey. The Colombian roads through this part of the country are incredibly hilly and twisty, with steep drops. About halfway through the journey we stopped for what we assume is a standard security check by the police. They were searching the bus inside and out....and next thing we knew an officer was walking off with 2 large, shoe box sized black packages...i wonder what they could have been???!!! Judging by the amount of chatter amongst the other locals, this was not an ordinary occurrence and was what we suspected it to be!! So we set off one passenger light! We made it to Ipiales, literally a border town and nothing else!!...except for Santurio de Nuestra Senora de las Lajas, or in laymen terms a class crazy religious building somehow built over a canyon!! See pictures for details...it really is amazing in the middle of nowhere...

That was about it for our Colombia adventure.