Popayán is a pretty little city with cobblestone streets, whitewashed buildings and a lush river side. I stayed in Casa Familiar El Descanso hotel (15000cop; 6,5€) and met three cool Dutch travellers there. We talked, debated, played cards and drank Piña Colada, and I had to admire their positiveness and patience when meeting curious locals stopping us everywhere we went. They never got tired of explaining where they are from, how long they are here for and how they like Colombia, playing English teachers to complete strangers or being polite to persistant beggers.
I had to stop to think of what I've become as a traveller; a rude, unfriendly, inpatient and suspicious gringa. Not exactly the person I'd like to be. As much as I enjoy travelling alone at times, I've become very much aware of how having to be on your guard at all times changes you. But is this just an excuse?
I'll always believed that getting hurt by one person is worth it if you've given the benefit of the doubt to hundred others, who've proved to be worth your trust. Here, the percentages have turned around and the few times of putting myself in extremely unconformable or even threatening situations, because of believing in the goodness of people around me, have made me more careful to play a game I don't know the rules to.
I want to believe the best in people, trust them, so desperately, but don't want to loose something more precious to me than my wallet. At the same time I still haven't learned to accept the cultural differences where not telling the truth is not considered a lie or invading you personal space not an insult. How to learn to be more patient, more open-minded and more understanding?
At least Minna's birthday cake made me feel a bit better, even though it looked nicer that it tasted. Now that I've started blaming others on what my failings, could I put that one on the bday girl only a few hundred thousand kilometres away? ;)
I left the Dutch to suffer from a massive, non-cake-related hangover in Popayán, took a bus through Cali to Armenia and picked to random hotel next to the bus terminal for the night.
The next day I went to visit the botanical garden (read: jungle) and butterfly farm, Jardín Botánico y Mariposario del Quindío, in Calarcá an hour bus ride from Armenia, even though finding my way there took asking advice from about fifty people. I got to know some Colombian prison culture on the way though walking past a local low security prison that would be considered something else on Finnish standards and talking to a lady selling fruit cocktails in front of it.
The garden entrance (14000cop; 6€) included a 2,5h guided tour which I took with a big group of senior citizens who had dificulties understanding that I'm not from the near-by village of Filandia but from a North European country no-one's ever heard of.
We walked across bridges, through labyrinths and did some easy-access bird watching from a little hut with glass walls surrounded with tables of fresh fruit for our feathery friends. For an hour or so I forgot I was in a city and not in the tropical jungle.
A climb, or in my case a race against a 12-year-old, up to an observation tower offered nice views and much needed exercise.
That's it for today, but still some pics left for all you buttefly enthusiasts out there:
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