ibarra – Packing It All In

My home for a week in Ibarra was “La Finca Sommerwind”, a camping and cabins set up next to the Laguna de Yahuarcocha a couple of miles outside town. It is beautiful and largely peaceful, except for when there are motorbikes racing around the racetrack that is directly opposite.

View of the lake and Finca Sommerkind on the left — View of Lake Yahuarcocha, with Finca Sommerkind on the left and the racetrack in between

Still, this was really only for a few hours at the weekend. During the week the busiest it gets is with people walking, jogging and cycling around it. Also, the view from the cabin of the volcanoes across the lake more than made up for this slight annoyance. Continue reading Ibarra: a finca, monster trucks and ice cream helmets

I officially finished work on 25th November and my visa ran out on 30th November. This did not give me an enormous amount of time to leave the country, especially as I was going by bus rather than flying out.

There were long distance buses available but these involved travelling overnight, which I am not a fan of and are also more risky in Colombia as they can be held up and robbed, and so I chose to stretch the journey from Palmira to Ibarra over three days.

Day One – Palmira to Popayan

On Sunday morning I was picked up by Libia Estella and her husband Raul. Libia Estella teaches at the school I was placed at, Institucion Educativa del Valle, and she had been especially welcoming, having me round to lunch soon after I started.

The couple drove me from Palmira to the bus terminal in Cali. Not only did they refuse to accept any money to cover petrol or the toll on the road, but they also gave me a little packed lunch for my journey. Continue reading Adios Colombia, Hola Ecuador