A Very Hard Trip Back Over the Mountains

We complained a bit about our slow trip to the east side of the mountains and we knew we had to go back to the west side and reports were that this trip of 120 km was not going to be easy. And it wasn´t. That 120 km took 6.5 hours, mostly on a bone jarring but not dangerous road. There are at least 15 busses a day (by 3 different companies) each way that traverse this route. The first 15km were pavement and the last 15 km were as well but the 90 km in between were a solid path of huge potholes and boulders and washes. It reminded us a lot of riding the horses and we had to hang on often, just as tightly. We could have gone by air, but the price difference was between $28 for the bus and $700 to fly, and we would have had to backtrack 4 hours to get to an airport so we definately had choices. But here we are, by bus, on the side of the mountain we need to be on to continue our journey into Ecuador. The city is called Popayan and there are quite a number of travellers here and it is sort of nice. They have been far and few between on this journey.

The beginning of our journey after we left the pavement as seen through the front window of the bus. I doesn't look too rough but it was.
Just a vista on our way to the top of the mountain. We were lucky not to have pouring rain this day as other travellers talked of having that and then no scenery for the passengers to enjoy.
There is so much rain here, that the fence is growing moss.
Some different vegetation as we neared the top. It was very flat for a number of kms and very different than the rest of the trip. It reminded us of the high plains of Ecuador.
We just like the clouds in this picture as we are nearing the top.

We needed to stop midway for a bathroom break and a stretch and some relief from the jarring. They also changed drivers. ´This picture shows a bit more what the road was really like.
Just a good closeup of the always present military. Actually there was a permant military base here.
Besides a bathroom, the place we stopped served meals and guess what was on the menu.
Not only to wash your hands after a bathroom break but probably used to bath in, and to wash dishes. It was very cold this high up and the water was not heated.

This picture was taken right after a rain shower so the reason for the raindrops on the window of the bus. We are starting our decline.
The lower we get the more beautiful it becomes. And oh how we loved the green grass. So different than Southern Alberta.
Even my grass at home that I water constantly and fertilize 3 times a year is not this green and I don't have a cow to keep it mowed.
Just wow.
There was a waterfall that contributed to this stream, and it was this stream that we followed down the mountain.

We have a bit of a dilemma in our travels. We are heading for Ecuador for the final two weeks of our journey, as our return is from Guayaquill, on the south west coast of Ecuador. There are two areas of Ecuador we want to visit, one is the coast and the other is a small town called Baños. We have learned in the past week that a volcano near Baños is acting up big time and a couple of weeks ago they evacuated the town for a short time. And that makes us a bit nervous about going there. And then just the past couple of days we have heard of flooding on the west coast of Ecuador so once again we are unsure of travel in this part of Ecuador. Not sure what we are going to do but internet research is high on our list of obtaining information as well as talking to other travellers coming from Ecuador.