Popayan – Peaceful And Relaxing (Except For The Road)

Since this is all meant to be relevant, up-to-date information, let me mention that Popayan is building a new road.  Or, more specifically, they’re building a new bridge for the Pan American Highway, and in the meantime the traffic is all being diverted through one of the smaller streets, and by God it’s loud.

But it’s so incongruous with the rest of the town.  Having just come from Cali and Bogota, Popayan is an absolute haven of peace and quiet.  It’s a beautiful town with uniformly white-walls-with-red-tiles buildings, all of which in the old town are clean and well-maintained, and there is an aura of tranquility here that is such a relief after the more hectic Colombian cities.  It’s a lovely place for regrouping after some hardcore overnight buses and windy, bumpy roads.

While the town itself is beautiful, the draw of Popayan is the surrounding countryside in all its glory.  It’s very close to numerous hot springs (where the locals flock at the weekends) and also Purace National Park, which is home to about a billion animals that you don’t tend to see much of elsewhere and the intimidating Volcan Purace.  Popayan is a nice place to either take a day trip out here from, or else psyche yourself up for several days of hiking and climbing through the park.

I’d like to say it’s also a good journey break on the way to San Agustin, home to the mysterious statues, but I’m told it’s actually an easier road there straight from Bogota.  Still, it does give you a chance to relax a bit before getting on that hideous nine-hour bumpy road.  Looking forward to it already.

Sophie Carville