I love rollercoasters, but imagine being on one for eighteen hours straight. The roads leading out of Medellin were so windy and bumpy that it felt just like a fairground ride, only we weren't strapped in. There's really only so much head banging and stomach lurching your body can take, especially when it's the middle of the night and you're supposed to be sleeping.
We'd already spent as many nights on a bus as in a bed this week so decided to break up our journey slightly by stopping off in Pasto, a town in the very South of Colombia. From there, we caught a bus to Ipiales on the border but before hopping over and beginning our next adventure in Ecuador, we had one more place we needed to tick off.
Las Lajas Cathedral is a basilica church built deep between the valleys in the beautiful Colombian hills. Surrounded by natural waterfalls and white figure angels, it appears almost ethereal and not too dissimilar from something you'd find in Rivendell (though I had just watched Lord of the Rings for the zillionth time.) We were pleased to find this beauty replicated inside, with intricate stained glass windows and crystal chandeliers. The high ceilings are painted white with gold finishings, giving the grand church a unique and natural light.
It was a stunning stop off and the perfect end to an amazing ten days in Colombia. The onward journey to Quito was nothing short of epic but at least in the daylight we had the gorgeous scenery to distract us and from what we've seen of Ecuador so far, it was definitely worth the effort.
It was a stunning stop off and the perfect end to an amazing ten days in Colombia. The onward journey to Quito was nothing short of epic but at least in the daylight we had the gorgeous scenery to distract us and from what we've seen of Ecuador so far, it was definitely worth the effort.
No comments:
Post a Comment