Into Colombia
First taste of traveling during COVID
We (3 from the hostel and I) took a cab from the hostel to the bus station to catch the 12PM bus to Tulcan, a small town on the border of Ecuador and Colombia. We arrived at Tuclan at 5PM and then we took a short cab ride to the border.
On the Ecuadorian side, there were already preliminary COVID procedures: we had to fill out a form and a nurse did a temperature check. I remember thinking this was an overreaction... Boy was I wrong!
After that, crossing into Colombia was pretty straightforward. From the border, we took a cab to the bus station in Ipiales.
We had a couple of hours to kill before taking the bus scheduled at 8PM to Popayan. So we took a cab to go visit the Santuario de Nuestra Señora del Rosario de Las Lajas.
After the visit, we took a cab back to the bus station to catch the bus to Popayan. It was a long drive to Popayan and we reached around 3AM. We had called a hostel in advance letting them know that we will be arriving late.
It was in Popayan that I had to accept the COVID reality!