We spent our last night in Colombia with this view.
This is the Santuario de Las Lajas, just on the border of Ecuador and Colombia, near Ipiales. It’s not a new church (built between 1916 and 1949) but it is a pretty amazing sight. We parked the van in the parking lot and walked down, then swept up over the bridge and up the footpath to the town across the river, Potosí, for this view. Juan loved it so much that he vowed we would camp right there–and we did.
It was a mellow last night of street camping, after a rainy and freezing cold night camping at Laguna de la Cocha. It was a bad day for us to run out of propane, but we are managing…
We have sort of stopped planning for border crossings, and now just cross them as they arise. This is how we ended up crossing into Ecuador late Saturday morning, prepared for the worst. Everyone had told us the border was awful…maybe not so on weekends? It ended up being the easiest border crossing since San Diego-Tijuana. There was hardly a line anywhere and we were in Ecuador in time for lunch. I love crossing borders just because my senses go on high alert for anything different. The familiar thing in Ecuador is that again, we have converted back to the US Dollar (just as in El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama).
Gas is really cheap in Ecuador, so cheap that Juan decided it was time to upgrade to Super ($2 a gallon). We also encountered a high-end camping store, which helped to ease our propane-less state.
We spent one night in the town of Otavalo, enjoying its marketplace, and then two nights up at the beautiful Rose Cottage in the surrounding hills.
The highlands of Ecuador feel a lot like the highland of Mexico, with Otavalo reminding me of San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico. Here, too, we see a good mix of people in traditional clothing, and the white florally-embroidered blouses and heavy skirts are very similar to the ones you would see in Mexico. I am always intrigued by the fact that women more commonly wear traditional clothing than men. The big difference so far is that in South America you see more locally-produced shoes.
In Mexico, you would see women head to ankle in traditional clothes, and plastic shoes made in China. Here, they wear open-sided cloth shoes that you can buy in many corner sundry stores. I can’t imagine these being warm enough for the chilly nights
More photos at limpire.
jbuhler