Somehow slept on a mattress that felt like wood. I even checked to see there was a mattress there and was amazed to see there was. A few of us went to see a monastery that is quite unique, Santuario de las Lajas, built on a bridge in a gorge, said to have been built in that location due to a sighting of a 40foot virgin Mary on the mountainside. The alter was built against this and you can see where the walls and stained glass touches the mountain. A striking bit of architecture and well worth getting up at 6am for, so we could see it before we all set off for the border. But before we left, we hit the supermarket to use up the last of our Colombian pennies......and with a party planned (3 birthdays and Angela and Duncan's leaving do) we cleared them out of vodka (2 quid for about half a litre) which smells suspiciously like nail varnish remover. I'm sure it'll taste ok after the first couple. ;-)
Wow! Our first view of the Monastery
The alter, built on the bit of mountainside on which Mary appeared
Jeanne checks out the thankyou's for miracles
Building onto a mountainside looks tricky
Painting of the monastery in our hotel
Miracle thank you plaques
The border crossing was fast and straight forward for most of us......except for a couple of our group who had each been to Ecuador before. According to Ecuador's computer records, they never left, despite one of them entering 8 years ago! Hmmmmm. We ended up having to leave them at the border and with Kirsten, they went off to see the Embassy. The only way to get in in the end was to show a scan of the passport stamp showing their exit 8 years before, which involved getting a friend in England getting into their house and following instructions to find that passport. If they hadn't still had that passport, they wouldn't have got into the country! Craziness. Note to self, always keep my passports and if I'm revisiting countries in future, take the relevant previous one with me!
Seriously unimpressed by chicken foot soup
No comments:
Post a Comment