Sanctuary of Las Lajas from the viewpoint

Sanctuary of Las Lajas from the viewpoint

The pathway to the church

The pathway to the church

Inside the church

Stained glass inside the church

The church from the front The church from the front

From one side

The river below Las Lajas

Looking up at Las Lajas from the river

And from the other side

Waterfall on the cliff

Strange figurines of mutated animals

Stained glass inside the church

The church crypt

Tasty looking guinea pig

Ipiales, Colombia

Ipiales and on to Ecuador

January 9, 2008

When you pass through the fire

You pass through humble

- Lou Reed

Ipiales is definitely a mountain town. At about 9,100 feet of elevation it gets cold in the evening but the sun is quite strong during the day. In the morning I went to see the Sanctuary of Las Lajas, a large stone church built across a river gorge in the mountains just outside of town. After bargaining with the cab driver I was on the way, it was only 7 km so a pretty short ride and the cab driver stopped at the viewpoint overlooking the valley for a nice view of the church, which looked much smaller nestled between the giant mountains. The little village next to the church was really touristy, but being early in the morning on a weekday it was empty and some of the little stores were closed. This was a good thing since there was already enough repetition between the stores that were open.

A few places were selling cuy or guinea pig but unfortunately I had just eaten and they were expensive, costing about $12, so I decided to save that culinary treat for Ecuador. The church itself was quite nice, it had heavy gothic decoration and there were trails leading to the river below and up to the surrounding mountains. Walking up and down was tiring due to the altitude but the views of the church were worth it. After walking around the church area for a while I went back to Ipiales to pack up and get ready to cross the border.

With two other travelers I hailed a taxi for the border and negotiated a fair price. Much to our dismay as we passed the Colombian immigration complex and continued toward the large sign that read Bienvenido a Ecuador we kept going. I told the taxi driver to let us off there but he continued into Ecuador where the road looped around and there was a big parking lot where many other taxis were waiting.

He let us off there, in Ecuador. We had to walk back across the bridge and back into Colombia to get our exit stamp from the immigration office. It was about 1:30pm and two large lines had formed because apparently the office closes for 90 minutes at lunch time, too bad if wanted to leave or enter the country. We waited in line for about two hours and they promptly stamped our passports with no questions asked and we walked back across the bridge into Ecuador for the second time. There is a big sign at this border that urges people not to traffic drugs. Seeing how secure the border was I was not surprised that this was a problem. No one searched our bags, nor anyone else´s that I saw; we could have easily been carrying virtually anything and gone through undetected. And if the official border crossing is that secure, I can only imagine what it is like off in the mountains and valleys further from civilization.

The immigration office on the Ecuador side of the border was an even bigger mess. There was a serpentine line about a hundred yards long that wrapped around the interior of the office, outside along the edge of the building and was beginning to curl around the corner of the building towards the highway. We waited as this line crawled along, in full exposure of the hot mountain sun until finally making it into the office where we had to fill out arrival cards. The office was truly a site of great efficiency, two people processing passports, one man cleaning his nails, two people doing something not helpful on another computer, and four workers talking to each other in the lobby next door.

After a total time of three hours waiting we were on our way. A taxi to the bus terminal was quick, as was getting a ticket to Otavalo, about three hours away. We went to get something to eat and the service was so slow that we almost missed the bus that already had our luggage on it.The bus was kindly waiting for us outside the restaurant next to the bus terminal and because we were late they had given away some of our seats but at least we made it. It was not a comfortable bus ride as the heat and humidity caused the windows to fog up. The Ecuadorean police and military stopped the bus at least three times to check everyone´s documents and search some bags. The bus didn´t so much go to Otavalo as it passed by it on the route to Quito, despite what they had said. The bus suddenly stopped on the side of the road and the attendant came back to let us know that we had reached Otavalo. Getting off the bus we realized there weren´t any road signs or other indications so we had to ask for directions towards the center of town. It turned out to be about a kilometer walk to find a hotel but at least we were there with our luggage.