After our almost seamless journey to Ipiales, we should have known that the trip to Popayan would not go so smoothly. Having rolled into the bus station expecting lots of buses we were surprised to be told that there was no bus until tomorrow. In a bit of a panic we tried other companies and were told that there was a bus but it was going right now. We handed over what seemed to be a high price and were ushered onto the bus. But of course there was no sign of it going in the near future and it was about ¾ hour before it set off.




As we snaked our way through more of the stunning highland countryside we had seen yesterday, it became clear that this was going to take longer than we had been told to expect.
An unexpected hour's stop in Pasto to change drivers, a police road block where we all had to get out while they searched the bus (and some passengers) and a further half hour for the drivers to have dinner in a cafe in the wilds of nowhere added to the delay. By the time we arrived in Popayan, our five hour journey had stretched out to nine hours!

We had arrived in the dark and found our little hostel, quite close to the centre. The next day as we went out it was clear that this is a very attractive little town. Many of the buildings are old and the city has avoided large scale modernisation but a major earthquake in 1983 caused havoc. As a result, almost all of the main buildings have had to be renovated and a few buildings, like the late 19th century cathederal, have had to be rebuilt from the ground up. The work has been very costly and has taken 20 years to complete but the results are extremely good. Throughout the historical centre almost all of the buildings are whitewashed and have black ironwork grills on the doors and windows.

There is so much harmony in construction that streets all look the same and it is often difficult to place exactly where you are. Using a map is therefore essential but even then you need to take care. Although many streets have names, most are referred to by their number. Those going north/south are called carreras and those going east/west are calles, so it is very easy to get confused.

The Rio Molino flows close to our hostel and it is spanned by two bridges built right next to each other. The first small bridge was constructed in 1713 to allow priests to cross the river and administer to the sick in the poor northern suburbs. However, the land around the bridge remained marshy and in 1870 a considerably longer 12 arch bridge was built alongside it. The area at the southern end of the newer bridge now acts as a park, meeting place, market place and gathering spot for the local people. The northern suburbs still look decidedly poorer than the old town 'our’ side of the river.

The town has a few museums and we visited the Museo de Historio Natural, on the edge of the old town. On three floors, this is full of rather old-fashioned displays with small wordy labels. The ground floor concentrates primary on geology and has lots and lots of examples of rocks but has few attempts at answering basic questions about how the rocks are formed. The upper floors have displays of insects as well as hige numbers of stuffed fish, reptiles, mammals etc. Most are examples of creatures that inhabit parts of Colombia (and neighbouring mainland Ecuador, Brasil and Peru). However, we were surprised to come across some more diverse specimens such as the zebra, polar bear and moose!

Sadly, the museum’s collection of Pre-Colombian pottery was closed for a refit so we were not able to get any more than a peek through a door. We were very surprised to find that the museum also has (unlabelled) a few of the anthropomorphic statues from the San Agustín burial sites (6th-14th century AD). We were hoping to get to this archeological site on this journey but currently Foreign Office advice is a bit restrictive, so this may be closest we manage to get to these intriguing artefacts.

Our final evening in the town we made it to El Soltereno, a bar that we had heard about. When we had tried earlier it seemed as though it was not really open because the shutters were half down but we realised that it always looks like that. A dark and atmospheric place, it serves simple drinks and has no desire to be a restaurant, cafe or trendy bar. Instead it is notable because, at the same time as serving the customers, the barman has an old turntable behind the bar on which he plays an eclectic mixture of old tango, ranchero and salsa music from a huge collection of vinyl records. The music is really good and, even though it was a fairly quiet night in the bar, it still prompted some young people to get up and dance on the tiny dance floor in the corner. When we told the barman how much we had enjoyed the music he was so pleased that we had to have a long round of hand shaking before we had to leave and get ready for an early start to Medellin.