Having had our fill of giant stone statues, we set out on a tortuous, three changes bus ride to the Colombian/Ecuadorian border. The highlight was a five hour minibus ride over the highest mountain range in Colombia (we passed over 4,000m), on a small bumpy stoney road cut into the side of the mountain, marked every mile or so by white crosses showing where previous drivers had lost concentration. Needless to say, I did not lose concentration while focusing on Colombian pop music played at full blast rather than the large drops.
We were rewarded for this intrepid journey, however, by the delightful border town of Ipiales, remarkable for its cathedral built in a vast gorge, with a nearby beautiful waterfall surrounded by prayers, and which was packed, even on a random Wednesday morning...
On the way to Ipiales' cathedral, we found some llamas in ceremonial dress. Chris couldn't resist hopping on - the llama, used to small children, was less than impressed and wanted to run away with him.
When we'd seen the cathedral, we took a taxi to the border, queued for a remarkably long time at both Colombian emigration and Ecuadorian immigration, and then crossed into Ecuador!!! We took a bus to Quito, arriving in the evening, by that point thoroughly fed up of buses!
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