Getting to Ecuador

Hi! How is everyone doing? Bob and I are doing fine. Sorry to be out of touch for so long but we've been busy. Travelling is hard work and so tiring. Ha-Ha!

We've actually been in Quito Ecuador for the past week and taking in so many sites. But, I've been under the weather for the past week w/some kind of bronchitis. We're out all day seeing and doing as much as possible that by the time we get back to our hotel room; I'm pooped. I am feeling somewhat better now thanks to some antibiotics and cough syrup. Just having a tough time breathing. We're 9500 ft above sea level and it's cold here in the evenings; so I'm guessing that's not helping my situation but I'm not letting me slow me down much.

Last time we wrote we were still in Colombia. The last week while in Colombia we moved around quite a bit. Popayan was truly a White City and beautiful. Guess what? We finally got some really good food too. We were there for 3 nights taking in some sites.

Do you see why they called it la cuidad blanca? All the building were stark white but it was a clean city.

The town square was beautiful. Flowers and trees lined the squared.

From Popayan we took a bus to another city called Pasto. Nothing impressive about this large city. We did a lot of walking around the downtown area but I'm not even sure we took pictures. We only stayed 2 nights and that was more than enough. From Pasto we started making our way to the Ecuador border. But before crossing we made a stop at a small city called Ipailes. After Bob's research we definitely needed to spend some time touring the Las Lajas Sanctuary.

This Basilica Catholic church was built over the Guaitara River and in the side of a mountain.

We had to do a lot of walking to get down to this church; Bob did a lot more exploring the property than I did. But this Gothic Architechure was breathtaking and well worth the stop. The inside was just as beautiful.

We didn't intend to stay as long as we did (4 hours) but we had a fabulous lunch and enjoyed the scenery.

After our uphill hike back to the main road we caught a taxi to the bus terminal. From there we took a Collectivo "mini van" to another city called Tulcan. Tulcan is the border between Colombia and Ecuador. We stamped out of Colombia (by the way there are no fees for leaving their country) and then walked across the bridge to Ecuador soil. We checked in with immigrations and got our 90 days stamp for tourism.

From here we had to take another collectivo to the bus terminal to catch a larger bus to Quito. It was a 5 hour ride from the border into Quito.

It was a long day but we made it safely and without problems.

We hope everyone is doing well back home.

Love to all,

Bonnie & Bob.

PS - Steve, we hope you have a wonderful time in Santa Marta. Hope you stay in touch and would love to see some of your pics. Safe travels!