Into COLOMBIA.. at last!

6 Jan 2007

We start the day early, and are at he South American Exploers club just as they open to see if the Colombia guidebook is still there. The othe two travellers bookstores we visited yesterday arvo told us that Colombia guidebooks are in hot demand over here, so we're not hopeful.

Yet sure enough there it is. We manage to convince the boy to swap our Peru Lonelyplanet for it. Its a good deal for them, its a LP, which are more po. The manager we spoke to the other day said she'd do the swap AND $5... so i guess we got off lightly this morning..
pular, and its almost brand new. The Footprints we pick up is fromm 2000ad, and is pretty shabby

Straight onto a bus to the North we bypass Ovantalo, with its famour markets (we've seen plently alread) and other sights which are evidently very popular for travellers in the north. We have heard so many great things about Colombia, and have been really looking forward to this moment for ages. The bus ride is long, and we get to the border town around 4pm.

The one attraction here according to the guidebooks is the cemetry... and its cool shaped trees. This might sound a bit lame, but we wander there to check, and are actualy bloody impressed. Its huge and the upkeep must take forever. Shapes of animals, geometric patterns etc. The locals call it a cemetry so beautiful it makes you want to die there. Not too sure about that.. but its certainly pretty cool.

A short mini van to the border itself where we have to que for half an hour to exit. Getting in to Colombia takes all of 30 seconds though, and all the issues of absolutely requiring an onward ticket (which we dont have) seem to have been forgotten.

Its dark by now and we mini van thru to Ipliales, find a hostel and crash alsmost immediately.

Finaly we are here...