Run For the Border
Sunday, March 9th, 2008Day 124
The hostel here in Popayan had a pub crawl last night. A great idea and something Jordana and I would have been up for if it was not for our 5:30am bus to the Ecudorian border. A border that we hoped would be open when we arrived later in the morning.
We didn’t sleep much as drunken people noisily returned to the hostel. When the alarm rang at 4:30am I somehow managed to stumble out of bed and throw on some clothes. Jordana had a better sleep and was in the shower. We walked in the darkness to the bus station which was surprisingly not empty at 5am. The bus company we were taking had buses leaving every 30 minutes so when we arrived the 5am bus was still there and the driver told us to get on. The bus was full of sleeping passengers and had the pleasant smell of a toilet that was overflowing. It had started in Cali north of here earlier in the night. We found the only two seats available and were soon off.
As the sun rose and we travelled further south the scenery became incredible. The road followed the edge of a spectacular gorge, deep valleys and green mountains towered above us. It was absolutely incredible scenery, I know I’ve said it often but this was hands down the most stunning place we’ve seen on the trip.
The scenery was beautiful until we reached the border town, Ipiales. As with almost all border towns it was a dirty and scruffy place. At an altitude of 3000 meters it was also cold and grey even at midday. We caught a taxi from the bus terminal to the Rumichara bridge that spans the Rio Carchi which separates Colombia from Ecuador. There was nobody at the border, save for 2 other backpackers. It was however open to tourists and that’s all we cared about.
As we approached the Colombian immigration I noticed a sign with a most wanted list of FARC terrorists. Raul Reyes the FARC member who was just killed had a big X across his face. 1 down I guess. We were stamped out of Colombia and walked over to some black market money changers to exchange our Colombian pesos for $ U.S. Ecuador has used the dollar as its currency since 2002. Just as we were about to walk over the bridge to Ecuador the skies opened up and it began to pour. Out with the rain jackets with made a quick dash across the border and into immigration. Without a question we were stamped into Ecuador and in to another taxi off to the bus station. Everything was moving so well, especially since we weren’t even sure we would be able to cross.
“Quito?!?” Several touts screamed out as we exited the taxi at the bus station. “Which bus is best?” I asked our driver in Spanish. He pointed to a bus that was about to leave, so we rushed over. We climbed aboard, it was a comfortable bus and left 2 minutes later. Besides the cold rain it was a good start in Ecuador.
6 hours later we arrived in darkness in Quito. Still pouring rain and cold outside we tried to hail a taxi at the busy bus station. Soon enough we were deposited at Casa Kanela in the “New Town” of Quito. It definitely looked like the up scale area of the city. Casa Kanela was a beautiful old house and we had a great room on the top floor. After a long day of travel we just wanted a meal and to get back to our room for some sleep. Arriving in Quito feels as if we have really travelled a long way now. I know we already have but getting into the Andean countries of South America feels a bit further away from Toronto than central America and a bit more exotic than Colombia.
Michael Coroneos