Cali

At first glance, Cali seemed like a big ugly city but once we explored a little it got better! We walked all around the first day and saw all the churches and old buildings. We also went to a giant mall to people watch. Supposedly the most beautiful women and the plastic surgery capital are in Cali but we saw neither. We did eat some yummy vegetarian food (there were a ton of vegetarian restaurants which made Shannon happy) and went to a zoo. The Cali zoo is supposedly the largest zoo in South America and it was cool. We saw a lot of different animals including a bird that kept landing on Kevin´s head and bit Shannon when she tried to get it off! We also took some salsa classes at our hotel. The first day was a little hard but the second day was definitely better and we learned a bit and had fun! We were sad that we didn´t get to meet up with our friend from Cali but she was busy with a project so next time. After Cali, we went to Pasto, a town near the Ecuador border. It was a lot larger and more modern than we had thought it would be. We walked around and saw the really cool churches and the next day headed to Túquerres to hike to Laguna Verde, a green lagoon in the crater of a volcano. Everyone in Pasto told us it was very easy to get to but those were lies, and we ended up hiring a very expensive taxi (even after Shannon´s mad bargaining skills) to take us up the mountain to the trail. The hike was a bit hard mainly because of the altitude. The highest point was about 4,000 meters (the highest Shannon had ever been). The walk back up from the laguna involved about a million stairs and a steep climb that nearly killed Shannon! The laguna was really pretty though, super green with lots of bubbles. We originally thought the volcano was extinct but it turned out to be active. It smelled strongly of sulfer and some of the bubbles going into the lake heated the water to a nice temperature. On our way down after walking forever, we finally caught a ride with a SUV going down. We stood on the back bumper and held on to the luggage racks...quite a ride! We then headed to Las Lajas to see the Santuario de Las Lajas. It is a church built into the side of a gorge with a river running under it. It is an amazing sight, just for the location alone and the church is impressive as well. We are pretty sure that we were the only ones staying in the entire town and finding dinner was hard since everything was closed! The next day we headed into Ecuador and had the easiest border crossing ever! We went to Otavalo, a small town about three hours from the border known for its Saturday market. We happened to arrive on a Saturday and we treated to the best/most impressive market we have ever seen! There were beautiful fruits and vegetables including real blackberries which we haven´t seen for two years! They also had tons of crafts and of course clothes and scarves made from Alpaca. It was really a sight especially with all the local people dressed in their traditional outfits! We are now in Quito and have been all over admiring the buildings and churches in the old town. Quito is a huge city and the highest capital in the western hemisphere with an elevation of 2,850 meters. Right now they are having a three day holiday so the city is rather dead. Tomorrow we head to Galápagos to see amazing animals!