Popayan turns out to be a lovely city bit rough around the edges at first. Not helped with the monsoon rain last night. Like all cities devoid of road signs fortunately, not far to travel as we are only on the outskirts and have decided this morning to move to the Historic centre. 
Locally known as the "white city". it has beautiful colonial houses painted white it has played a major role in Colombia's history dating back to the early days of the Spanish conquest.

The central square is called the Parque de Caldas named after one of Popayan's most famous citizens: Francisco Jose de Caldas. On one side of the square is called the Torre del Reloj the 'Clock Tower.' which is original. This was constructed in Croydon, England before being shipped to Colombia and like most of the clocks we have seen does not work. It is amazing to think that most of this area was badly damaged in an earthquake in 1983 The cathedral being the worst hit. The city took around 20 years to recover but now the majority of the buildings in the colonial centre have now been restored to their former glory.
 
Our hotel once was a monastery it still has the kept the serene quietness that Im sure the monks once experienced.  

 We are having to dry out again so everything out of the panniers spread all over our room.  

 Whilst hopefully this happens we venture into town. Tom by far the most adventurous of us all with the food he has been happy to risk haggled over the price of some fresh pineapple.