Me and Mr. London said our goodbyes yesterday, he was heading back up to Popayán while I was making my way down to Ipiales and Ecuador.  I arrived here in the early afternoon and went out to see the town a bit.  Nothing really to see.  Pretty ugly town, and a damn cold one too.  So I went to the internet and updated Pasto and Cochas pages.

This morning I got up and caught a bus a little ways out of town to see the Cathedral of Las Lajas.  Quite a spectacular cathedral (architectural and setting wise).  They claim that an image of the Virgin Mary apeared on the cliff that it is built onto, and inside there is a picture of her painted directly onto the rocks, supposedly where she appeared.  (I didn't take any pictures inside because lots of people were praying, there were a few visibly crippled and otherwise sick people there presumably praying for miracles).  On the way down to the cathedral there are tons of plaques with thank yous on them to the Virgin, the oldes I found dating back to 1946 from a minister of education.  I tried to find one on my birthday, but couldn`t.  Though I found two from the same month and year.

Anyways, after I went up to the little village above the cathedral and had some lunch.  I met three vacationing Ecuadorians who came to say prayers at the church (one of whom lives and works in Budapest, and is only back visiting family and friends).  They offered me a ride into Ecuador tomorrow morning.  They live in Ibarra.  I think I will just hop strait on a bus from Ibarra to Quito, I need to buy a plane ticket and get down to Chile.  Not to mention, after spending so much time in Colombia, any country in the world I will now visit will suck ass in comparison.  So I might as well head strait down to Chile, and reacustom myself with what a first world country feels like before I head to New Zealand.

Thus terminates my last post from this beautiful country.  I`m gonna miss it.  Tomorrow...Ecuador.