Colombia, SA, 2014

Our trip to Colombia in 2014 started in Cali, Colombia, a really vibrant city.





After a couple of days in Cali we headed to Popayan, the White City.












Here I am on the Humilladero bridge which was built in 1873 and was formerly the main entrance into the city.




Robert and I met up with Ellie from Melbourne, Australia for a bike ride to some Hot Springs on the road to San Augustin, fun time, beautiful views.














Back in Popayan and we went to see this statue on a hill (Morro del Tulcán) sacred to the indigenous peoples. Since we were there, "Indigenous protesters in Colombia have toppled a statue of Spanish conquistador Sebastián de Belalcázar in the south-western city of Popayán," I consider this a step forward for the Indigenous people.








In the small village of Silvia they have a great Market day so Robert and I plus a friend Marc Lippman went to check it out, great spot and market, fun day.
Really enjoyed meeting Marc a world traveller with lots of great information.






At our hostel in Popayan we were pleasantly surprised to run into Rob Landauer who had cycled from the Artic circle and was headed to the tip of South America.






We left Popayan, sadly, and headed to Armenia via Cali. We found Armenia to be a really neat city with a lot of life. The cities appearance is not the best since they had a major earthquake in 1999 that did a lot of damage.




After a couple of days in Armenia we decided to take a side trip to Filandia, my favorite small city in Colombia, really laid back, friendly folks, good eats, it has it all, and of course good views.














We returned to Armenia and had a lot of fun watching the street performers, the guy in the photo below was really good, he would mimic the people who were walking by, and he was good.




On our way back to Cali from Armenia I met this little lady on the bus, what a cutie.
Back in Cali we went to the Gold Museum, quite impressive.






This "Band Machine" which we saw on the street near the Gold Museum was really impressive, you have to look close to see all the parts of the Sound Machine.






We had a great trip and I would highly recommend a trip to Colombia, on of my favorite Countries. It's a real shame that the past violence has scared away so many people, it is a safe place to visit and a beautiful Country with some really nice folks.