Adjusting to life in South America

It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster of a few days. Some of us came down with pretty bad sickness bugs, which have seemed to spread throughout the group. 

While in bed on our final night in Salento, three of us spent most of the night being sick and having diarrhoea. We assumed it was most likely food poisoning given our symptoms. This is the reality of travelling in this part of the world. 

The next day, still feeling like crap and with little sleep, a couple us decided we couldn’t continue with the tour group and stayed in Salento, trying to sleep off this terrible illness. 

We then had to catch the group up the next day, who were now in Popayán. This involved using public transport, which wasn’t too hard to figure out, but not something I’d like to be doing all of the time. 

We arrived in Popayan that evening, had a little walk around, and then retired for the night. 

We were back on the truck the next day, heading to a campsite just north of the Ecuador border. 

Our journey was interrupted by a group of road workers protesting on a bridge. We got stuck there for three hours. 

Things then took another turn as the clutch in the truck broke, stranding us on a mountain pass with nothing but a dirty looking hotel to sleep in, an outdoor urinal, and lots of chickens. We all had to cram into four rooms, most of us sleeping on the floor. Many of the group were now also coming down with various illnesses. 

With the truck out of action, we took transport to the Ecuador border the next day, ready to continue our adventure in the next country. 

This was my first overland border of the trip, which is a lot easier than flying, given they didn’t check any of our luggage. 

After we were stamped out of Columbia, we crossed the bridge over to Ecuador. To be continued…