Day 898
Hola Ecuador
So long folks! After one last climb from our hotel just above the church at Las Lajas and unbelievably a few flat and downhill miles, we reached the border between Colombia and Ecuador. With the aid of the quite frankly super-friendly money changers, we headed into the Colombian customs office to get our exit stamp. A few minutes queuing and we were off. Unfortunately not into Ecuador, but to an office on the first floor, then an interview room on the second floor. We weren’t getting an exit stamp just yet! The customs officer had spotted that we had originally entered Columbia in February but had not noticed we had left in April and re-entered late September. Despite us pointing this out, the customs officer wasn’t backing down. A woman officer, who managed not to look at us, never mind listen to us, printed out what we assumed was a fine for overstaying and after being ignored for a bit longer we were sent upstairs again. After lots more hanging about and us harassing various customs officers, finally someone went to chase it up. A few minutes later Mrs Miserable eventually handed us our stamped passports and in answer to our question what had gone wrong and taken so long (2 hours at least) with a grimace she finally spoke, “Nothing” and waved us away!
In contrast, on the other side of the border bridge we were through Ecuador customs in barely 5 minutes and so into country number 14 of the trip! Naturally it greeted us with a hill, no doubt the first of many. We didn’t care, we were in. We had planned a very short day, and just a few miles later we arrived in Tulcan. We could easily have ridden for a few hours more but we had a cemetery to see.
Back in 1932, the director of Tulcan Municipal Park, one Jose Franco had a very bright and far-sighted idea. He realised that the soil in the then new cemetery had a high chalk content, which made it ideal to grow cypress trees. Planting started in 1936 and this awesome garden was born. He laid out an area called God’s Altar, as the trees grew they were carved into animals, religious figures and Incan statues. A further section was created in 1987 with a more modern design and layout. Wandering around I felt as if I had fallen into Wonderland and fully expected to meet Alice, the Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts etc. I’m fully convinced I heard the white rabbit running by at one point. Reading about the garden online I realised I’m not the only visitor who has read Lewis Carroll’s book!
Finally, we tore ourselves away to our Airbnb. Recommended by @suziemccracken, who as she is several months ahead of us, I have been stalking and pestering for tips. She suggested this spot and rather wonderful it is too, thanks Suzie. Tom is beside himself, it has a desk, a garden to dry our clothes in, cook in, and store our bikes, fast WiFi, a very hot shower, supermarket over the road, a supersized comfortable bed, basically the wish-list of cycle tourers everywhere. It also has the icing on the cake, it’s quiet. Bliss! Good job, as tomorrow we are heading into an ecological park which has suffered damage from several earthquakes. Apparently, we will get to push the bikes a lot through muddy uphill sections, ride on miles of rocky uphill terrain, and get very cold as we will reach the highest point of our trip so far. Ah well, you can’t win them all!
