Columbia

After spending a few extra days in a city called Ibarra in Ecuador due to "stomach issues," I finally made it to Columbia last Thursday. I stayed in a town a couple hours from the border called Pasto the first night and then bussed it 7 hours to Popayan, where I've been since. Popayan is a beautiful colonial city up in the mountains at about 6000 feet. I´ve been hanging out, trying lots of local food and walking all over town. Tomorrow I'm going to head to a place called San Augustine to see a bunch of crazy sculptures in the desert made by a bunch of shrooming Indians way back in the day. Should be interesting.

The border crossing from Ecuador to Colombia was strangely easy. I had expected security to be tight due to the fact that guerrillas are still active in the area and there are tensions between the countries over a raid Colombia made on a FARC camp in Ecuadorian territory a few years ago. Instead it was the easiest I have ever made. If I wanted to be an illegal immigrant I could have just walked across without getting any of the stamps as no guards or anything stopped me on either side. After a hair-raising mini-bus ride to Pasto on the Panamerican I crashed out early. (Dear Colombian Drivers, Maybe if you didn't drive like maniacs, there wouldn't be crosses on the side of the road every few feet. Just a thought. Love, Nate).

The next day I got to Popayan in the evening and checked into a pretty sweet hostel. I discovered that Popayan was recognized by UNESCO as a world culinary city or some such thing, so I was excited to try the local specialties. Ive had some tasty tamales de pipan (chicken with this spicy peanut sauce) but overall the food has been a little disappointing. My favorite thing Ive eaten was the chorizo and white bean soup I made the other night. I got the chorizo from this little meat market down the street and it was fantastic. There was a Mexican restaurant in town that was supposed to be really good, but turned out to be pretty crappy. Today while watching The Battle of the Ghosts of Sovereign Debt Default Past and Future Mundial match, I had my first patacone - a mashed, fried plantain that can be topped with different things. I picked one at random without knowing what it had on it and ended up with a patacone heaped with sausage and shredded chicken smothered with melted cheese. It was so massive I couldn't finish it. I know, I know...

Also of note was the Colombian election. Juan Manuel Santos smoked Antanas Mockus in the runoff round to get elected president. There was a nationwide ban on selling booze from Friday through Monday morning (the election was on Sunday) as apparently political parties used to hand out free booze to get people to vote for them. A nice bottle of bourbon might get me to rethink my no voting stance. Maybe.

Tomorrow I'm getting up early to watch the US play Algeria if I can figure out what channel the game is on as the regular one that televises the games is showing England/Slovenia and then hopping on the bus as soon as it is over for San Augustine. Its a 7 hour ride on dirt roads to the town, which just sounds like a great time.

I forgot my USB cable, so pictures will have to wait until the next post. Until then stay classy.