Days 111 to 115: Popayan, COL

As it's been the drill for most towns that we stayed in, we drove into Popayan's center, and started looking for a hotel. We parked the bikes on the side of a street, with the intention of walking a couple of blocks and getting pricing from a few different places. Just as we turned off the engines, a door in front of us opens, and a very pretty lady peeks out from the door right in front of us, asking us in good English where we are from. We tell her a little about our trip, and she mentions that her brother had ridden a bicycle from Popayan to Argentina some time ago.

Ximena (that is her name) is a psychologist, and her office happens to right where we parked the bikes. She offered us to come in for water and coffee, but since we were looking to find accommodation asap to get out of our stinky moto gear, we politely declined, but told her that we would pass by the next day to say hi and get some suggestions as what to do in the city.

That same night, we met up again with Peter and Willem, who rolled into Popayan the day before. Dinner and a few games of pool, and we're off to bed.

The next morning, we passed by Ximena's office. Once again, she was extremely nice to us, gave us information about places to check out in Popayan, and even offered that we could do our laundry at her parent's house right next door (which we declined ;). This is the Colombian hospitality that we have heard about. We agreed to have lunch together, therefore we had the opportunity to chit chat some more over a traditional Colombian meal. It turned out Ximena also shared our passion for travel, as she has been to many parts of the world. 

The following days in Popayan went by quickly, between sightseeing around the town, relaxing,   having chocolate cake and coffee, and chores such as getting haircuts, finding a few missing items and catching up on the blog. We met up again with Pete and Willem before they left town. Ximena also introduced us to some of her friends, so we had a lot of fun hanging out with them over two evenings, and experiencing the town's nightlife. I was also happy to practice my Spanish, as the opportunity doesn't come every day. Travelling with two other gringos, being constantly on the move, and repeating a lot of the same phrases every day (ordering food, buying gas, asking how much is a hotel room) does not give much opportunities for improvement. My Spanish still sucks, unfortunately .   

Popayan has been a good surprise, and is definitely among our favorite places so far on this trip. A big thank you to Ximena and her family, as well as her friends Zuly and Ana. Gracias para su hospitalidad!

Lunch with Ximena. Mihai's missing; he was the one that snapped the photo.

View from a hill overlooking Popayan

Cool street art.

Main square.

Planning our moves for the upcoming weeks.

This is what Mihai does, while Josh and I are hard at work updating our respective blogs...lol.

Third haircut of the trip. First one in Mexico came out great, second one in Nicaragua was a disaster, and this one worked out just ok.

I enjoyed Colombia so much, that for the first time on this trip I picked up a souvenir.

Partying in Popayan!!

Josh and the host/entertainer at the club. He (the midget) ended up getting pretty tipsy and dancing on our table..lol

On the last night in Popayan, we went to check out an amusement park with Ximena and her niece Isabel.

On the roller coaster: Ximena and Josh

On the roller coaster: Ximena's niece, Isabel, and myself.

Shooting for a teddy bear. I lost :(

Not my night, Lost again, this time in mini-basketball against Josh.