Ipiales

Our last stop in Colombia. Ipiales itself is not particularly nice and a bit a bit dodgy at night, but it is right next to the border with Ecuador and also El Santuario de las Lajas, a huge church built across a gorge for some reason. The original little church was built after a local man saw the image of the Virgin Mary on a rock, since then thousands of miracles have been reported and a much bigger church was built.
While visiting the church we met a man from the Isle of Mann who joined us for the border crossing in the afternoon, lucky for us as he was prepared with US dollars (used in Ecuador) and could help us out.
The border crossing was fairly easy, a stamp in the passport on either side and then we were in Ecuador! A new country and then a few hours later a new hemisphere as we headed down to Quito across the equator.En savoir plus