Travelling through the Most Dangerous Area of Colombia

Monday, Sept. 18, 2017--Popayan to Pasto

Every reference I have read said NOT to take a night bus between Popayan and the Ecuadorean border because it is dangerous.  It's about a 10-hour trip, and I didn't want to make it all in one day, so I booked a night here in Pasto and made the 6 1/2 hour trip to here today during daylight.

Actually, it was dark when I left the apartment in Popayan at 5:30.  I wanted to take the 6:30 bus so that I would have the afternoon to explore the town some.  The streets were mostly empty, but I saw 1-2 persons on each block as I made my way to the bus station.  About halfway there, someone called my name.  I looked over, and it was Gustavo on his electric motor bike.  (He owns two of them--a true environmentalist in Colombia!)  He had heard me leave the apartment and said he was worried that it might not be safe for me to be on the quiet streets at that hour of the morning.  He made me get on the bike with him and took me the rest of the way to the bus station.

The trip was long, but the scenery was among the most beautiful I have seen so far.  Almost the entire way was through an area of the mountains called the Colombian Massif--where three difference ranges begin to separate from the Andes.  About half of the trip was in green mountains with dramatic drop-offs.  These were very tall mountains with narrow canyons below.  There were areas that looked like a jungle, areas that were coffee plantations, and mainly just rich, green mountains dotted frequently by small shacks.  This is the poorest area I have seen of Colombia.  Most people seem to be peasants barely getting by.  They ride horses, have carts pulled by mules, they walk, etc.  Their physical characteristics seem to indicate a higher percentage of genes from original indigenous people.

Then there was a dramatic change to dry desert mountains with tall cacti, scraggly bushes, barren brown ground, and hot air.  The types of homes and people remained the same except that there were fewer of them.  But the high, steep drop-offs continued.

Then, right before we got to Pasto, everything turned green again and it became cold.  I had been told it was at a high altitude and would be cold, so I had a pullover with me to put on before getting off the bus.

Pasto is a medium-sized city.  Like other Colombian cities, it winds its way through a valley including up the sides of the mountains.  It's not a tourist town, but it is a pleasant city.  As I wrote before, for me it is a stop to break up a long trip to get to the border.  My room is just down the street behind the church that can be seen in the second row of photos at the link above.  It is a semi-apartment.  There is an apartment that has two rooms that are rented out separately.  The bath and the kitchen are shared.  A woman is staying in the other room.  Since I was to be here only one night, and since Pasto doesn't have lots of choices of apartments, I figured this would work (especially since it cost only $12!  It's new, modern, and very clean.

As soon as I checked in, I went out to eat.  It was already 14:30, so I stopped at the first place I found.  I ordered fish as my main course within the usual combination of soup and sides.  It was interesting.  The sea is not far from here, so it probably came from the fishing village that is there or maybe from a river in the mountains.  It was a medium-sized fish that was split open and deep fried (head still attached).  The meat was light pink like salmon.  It was soft, flaky and delicious.  From what I have read, it must have been trout.

As I walked around the city exploring, I came across something I missed in Popayan.  In this part of Colombia, it is common to make ice cream in copper bowls that are resting in a bed of ice while being twirled.  As the mixture in the bowl begins to freeze to the sides of the bowl, they scrape it away slowly piling the frozen ice cream in the middle of the bowl.  They serve it in small plastic cups with a wafer cookie and a small plastic spoon.  The flavor I got was vanilla, but in a shop in Popayan they make it this way and have a variety of choices of flavors.  The shop was closed yesterday, and I didn't make it there on Saturday, so I was glad to have the experience here in Pasto today of getting ice cream made in a spinning copper bowl.

I hope to sleep well tonight.  My room is in the back of the building away from street traffic.  It is very quiet right now, but I heard a rooster this afternoon.  I will put out my earplugs to use when he starts making noise tomorrow morning.