Some more impressions of Cali. We really did like the capital city of Valle de Cauca and the caleños a lot

From Cali we went to the Fallarones de Cali, a town that’s called Pance. It’s high up, it’s cold. It’s always raining and everything is damp. The place has its rough fertil green magic, but we were happy to leave after a few nights. The bed seemed to want to eat us alive and there was only cold showering. It’s a very isolated and beautiful place. But only for a few days, thank you very much.

If I have to pay for the suitcases in the bus, then they also gonna use a seat! We cut down heavy on the weight. Just send another package back to Bogotá. Initially we had like 30kg in my bag, and 37kg in Laus bag. That is definitely too much! We had to cut down hard on luxury 🙁

From one isolated place to the next: The pacific coast of Colombia, departamento Chocó, where I wanted to go since a long time ago. From Buenaventura we took a boat and then another one because I couldn’t really visualize it: being with the suitcases on motos. It was a lot more expensive but also a lot more adventurous!

In hostal casa azul we had our reservation in a cute little cabaña. Lau was first a little shocked not to have doors and zero security, but eased in within a few days. And finally enjoyed it very much. We prolonged the stay to a week, and really we could still be there, if we haven’t had some planes to catch… It’s another place which still has all it’s rough natural beauty. Now that is really a paradise I could imagine to live! Wowschtens, perfect temperature, not to many mosquitos and this beach with the cliff just behind it!!! Then inside the jungle you have these mangrove forest with natural pools. It really can’t get much better. Hope this place stays a secret for quite some more time.

That’s how a beach looks, if you don’t clean it up daily or weekly…

The shrimp empanadas from Mely are the best

 

From Casa Azul we headed back to Ladrilleros by mototaxi, there we took the boat back to Buenaventura, there a three hour bus ride back to Cali and from there another four hour bus ride to Popayan.

In Popayan we made a little day trip to Silvia where the local indiginas Juambianos meet every Tuesday for shopping and some social interaction. With their Charly Chaplin huts they reminded me a lot of the indiginas from Bolivia.

Popayan is also called the white city, has a lot of churches and is generally very pretty, almost everything is painted in white.

 

Lau has a lot of work, but as long as we have internet, that is not really a problem

Tomorrow we take another bus, which will take us to Pasto, department Nariño, only two hours away from the border of Ecuador. Last stop will be Ipiales with there famous Santuario de las lachas, where it is supposed to be even colder than Bogota, so there we will only stay the night and then try to get as early as possible to the border to cross into Ecuador. Due to a lot of refugees from Venezuela and also the latest tensions of the governments of Colombia and Ecuador (Colombia wants to spray again the forrest with poison to kill off the illegal coca plantations) we heard now many times that it is quite a hassle to pass over. Not the first and definitely not the last time, especially with a Colombian citizen…