Erin & Regan's South American Adventure

Hola,

Near to Ipiales is a church famous for it´s gothic design and the fact that it literally spans a valley including the river at the bottom.

To get there we walked and took a colectivo (a car this time, usually it´s a bus).  It dropped us off at the top of the valley where we could just make out the church.

We walked down into the valley to he church.  My still weak body was not going to like walking back out of here!  The church itself had some interesting windows.

The waterfall was kinda cool too.

The bridgelike part which spans the valley is nifty.

The church is too.

Looking back across the valley.  Notice the valley wall is covered in plaques, more on these later.

 

The interior of the church, the altar is itself carved into the valley wall.

The plaques.  We figure they are prayers or blessings of some sort.

We took the same colectivo back to Ipiales, returned to our hostal and then had to ask around for the colectivo to the border.  Once there we got our exit stamps in customs then walked to Ecuador.  In Ecuador we changed our money (Ecuador uses US currency!) and got our entry stamps.  From here it was a short colectivo ride to a small town with busses south.

We jumped on a buss to Ibarra but the bus didn´t stop to let us off and before we knew it we were on the other side and heading for Quito.  We figured what the hell, paid for the longer trip and went all the way to Quito.

In Quito we took a taxi to the cheap hostal in the book.  Unfortunately it seemed to have closed down, luckily (or so we thought) there was one right next door. 

We checked in and discovered the sheets hadn´t been changed since the previous ocupants.  Erin was in no mood to sleep in dirty sheets so I went and requested new ones.  There was some grumbling but eventually they complied.

The next morning we got up at 8 and had showers, unfortunately the shower flooded the entire room!  Looking at the walls it was obvious this had happened before.  We packed up, paid the bill and hurried out the door.

We went straight to a slightly more expensive place "El Cafecito" which had been recommended by Ian.  It is a cafe, bar, restraunt, and hostal.  We checked into a lovely little room and then went downstairs for breakfast, pancakes and juice!

Erin, for some reason, loved the downstairs bathroom.  Something about the large double windows, who knows, she´s a bit crazy after all.

The next day we spent in bed, Erin came down with a flu and I was still recovering from my fever and associated stomach (and other) problems..  We did little more than eat and sleep all day, except perhaps a little internet.

The only problem with "El Cafecito" is that the bar is open until midnight and sleeping before then is difficult.