The Vagrant Gypsy Life

Day 247 Thu 5/5 – 249 Sat 7/5

Popayan is a lovely colonial town with a beautiful plaza and some lovely churches! The buildings are mostly white and some of them quite ornate. I walked for ages around the town and was content at having stopped here. My first day was spent wandering the streets aimlessly, visiting quite a few churches and colonial buildings. I was in a church while folks carried a coffin in: I sat around for a bit since I thought it might be rude to leave so soon. The music was haunting; I cant remember ever having taken part in a funeral service before in my life. Popayan has one of the most famous Colombian universities and this adds to the liveliness of the town as well. They had a free concert at the university (Faculdad de Humanidades) at night and I quite enjoyed some of the performances by the students of music.

Friday, I headed early to the Parque Nacional Purace to climb the Volcan Purace. The bus time tables are not the most convenient and I wake up really early to get the bus at 06:30 am. The bus ride takes 2 hours and after registering , it is about 09:30 when I start the hike. I hiked for about 3 hours and made it close to the crater, but rain and extremely strong wind made me turn back before I could get all the way down to the crater. I was quite disappointed I didnt make it all the way to the crater, but at least I made it past 4850 m above sea level, making it my new high. By the time I got back to the bus stop, it was about 15:30 and I had to wait about 30 minutes. To add to the mode of transportation in South America, I ended up being on a jeep headed to Popayan. The driver seemed to be quite oblivious of the fact that he had folks in the jeep as it was probably the most uncomfortable ride I have had in this trip. I was almost worried that my teeth would fall off and my bones re-arrange themselves!

Saturday was a day for walking around doing nothing and watchign a couple of movies to help me recover from a strenuos Friday! Popayan is a lovely place to wander around and I have a nice day and am ready to head out to Tierrandentro/ San Andres de Pisimbala early Sunday.

Tags: Travel

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