I spent yesterday (Day 16) on buses - through huge, awesome valley and gorge scenery - getting from Popayan to Ipiales, a border town consisting largely of unlit, scary back streets. The reward this morning was a dawn trip to the remarkable Santuario de Las Lajas (pic), a church built out over the gorge, and a magnet for pilgrims.
On that bridge-forecourt thing are statues of musical angels, and I was particularly taken with the cool chick evidently playing a jazzy alto-sax solo (pic).
Then it was goodbye to Colombia and hello to Ecuador. Somehow, as I looked out the bus window, it was less like the Andes, and more like Keswick, than I expected (pic).
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I got off the bus at Otavalo, a town famous for its Saturday market, when indigenous people come from miles around to sell high-quality handicrafts (pic), many made from alpaca wool. It overflows with gorgeously-coloured blankets, bags, hats, socks, sweaters, football scarves for all major European teams, and anything to do with Bob Marley.
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It's a chance to see local people in their traditional dress (pic). And a huge number of bargain-hunting gringos, toting their Frommer's or Lonely Planet guides, in theirs (no pic).
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Several stores sell so-called 'Panama hats' (pic). As you know, they actually come from Ecuador. As opposed to the 'Panama hats' you get in the UK, which come from China.
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Quite a few stallholders seem to have trikes for shifting stuff to and from, like this chap (pic), and he could teach even me a thing or two about how to stack a bike trailer.
There's plenty of cheap and tasty street food here too (pic). But no, I didn't see any guinea pig.
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