Popping in to Popayan

Once at the bus station in Pasto we booked our onward journey to Popayan for the next day. Pasto’s a relatively big place but there’s not actually a lot to see so it was more of a stopover to break up the journey. We got a taxi from the bus station and the driver guessed where we were heading – the Koala Inn. It’s pretty much the only hostel in town so we weren’t expecting much. But the welcome was very warm and the hostel building was gorgeous, colonial style with a huge, airy, sky-lit central courtyard. Our room was enormous, with two extra beds, just in case we got into a fight! We’d arrived at about 5 and only had the evening to explore the town – which turned out to be sufficient! After getting a quick dinner at Mister Pollo, a Colombian fast food chain, we wandered around the main square and admired some of the attractive buildings. And then it started to rain! So we dashed back to the hostel and stayed in for the rest of the night. Despite the limited time we had in Pasto it seemed a nice enough place. Click here to read more…