Otavalo

Day 96 - Saturday 5th June

I left earlydoors for Otavalo. Caught a wrong bus initially but 3 buses later I had made it to the biggest Saturday Market town in South America. Only minus both cameras :-( some culyado had managed to get into my rucksack, through food and clothes and taken them both before closing it up again leaving me none the wiser. Still don't know when it happened as I had it carefully with me the whole time but I guess near 100 days without incident isn't too bad!! It just meant that sadly I didn't see much of the Market and much more of Otavalo's Estacion de Policia than I would've liked to. I was meant to meet up with Emily from uni here but couldn't contact her in time sadly. Bumped into a couple I'd met in Cordoba and later in Cusco and spent the evening with pizza and finishing both Sun Tzu's The Art of War and Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles...

Day 97 - Sunday 6th June

An unwelcome but useful 6.30 wakeup call from the owner of San Luis hostel got me up and out for border crossing day. I caught a bus swiftly enough to the nearest big town of Ibarra but given that the 8.30 bus didn't show up, I had to wait 2 hours and could've had longer in bed!!

Eventually got on a bus (with chariot-esque spikes?!) on the wheels and headed for the border with a Kiwi and Argentinian couple. Across the border, yet another bus and we were on our 7 hour journey to the night stopover at Popayan. I have been in the country for approximately 4 hours and I think it's probably the most beautiful country I've ever seen. Incredible rolling hills, huge valleys and HD colours everywhere. I may be here for more than 2 weeks...