Southern Colombia

One lesson you learn very quickly when travelling Latin America is to stop listening to all the fear freaks out there, otherwise you will believe every border crossing is mugging alley, every adventure is  death trap and miss out on some amazing experiences. The exaggerated misconception about a 'dangerous Colombia' stems back to its violent past under the Pablo Escobar regime, these days the violence has subsided and the country is regarded as a right of passage for backpackers, many who regard this as their top destination in Latin America.

First stop across the border was the famous postcard worthy Chapel at Las Lajas. The beautiful structure is 100m high from the bottom of the canyon and is connected by a 50m bridge to the other side of the canyon. This place of worship looks more like it belongs in a fairy tale, well worth taking the couple of extra hours from your stop at the border crossing to see (you can get a short taxi followed by a collectivo from the Colombia - Ecuador border). This is a great area to try a regional speciality Coy, or Guinea Pig.

Venturing up from Quito got me as far as Pasto for my first night, opting for a hotel rather than push on(it is advisable to avoid night travel if possible). The town itself had very little to offer apart from a rather persistent local chasing me for a few dollars outside the bus terminal and an opportunist taxi driver that over charged me for what ended up being a 3 street drive to the hotel.

The mornings journey was made simple after finding a shuttle service (crammed in a mini van full of locals) that would take me all the way through to the highway near San Augustine. Not to be put off by the interesting name; "Trampoline of Death", the road provided some magnificent views of the countryside via its short dusty cliff side passage. There appears to be a lot of construction work going on at the moment along with quite a few newish looking railings at parts. We did not witness any cars topple off the side.

After a great drive along the edge of Colombia's Amazon region (along with a few military checkpoints), I made it to the quiet little town of San Augustine. My hostel was dead, only one other archaeological nut kiwi bird and myself staying there. This town attracts visitors due to its location next to a very important archaeological discoveries including numerous burial sites and many small statues, some of which have been moved to the museum in Bogota.