Ipiales is the last Colombian town I will be in before I head to Ecuador. It’s only a few kms from the border. I had prebooked a room in the Hotel Royal Class which was very central and a bargain price of only $15. The room was small be sufficient. The shower hot but no shower rose. And safe parking for the bike. And a really efficient, nice guy running the show.

I was going to catchup with the Canadian couple that I had met previously as they were also crossing the border next morning. They were staying about a 20 minute walk away and said they would text me when they were back from dinner. I thought I’d start wandering over their way and stop off somewhere for a beer until I got their text. Well, that plan didn’t work as I had thought. There were no bars along the route. Fortunately, there was a little shop on the main road to Ecuador that sold beer so I asked the guy if I could buy one and drink it out the front of the shop. He was fine with that and even joined me between customers.

We had a lovely chat in spanish and when I still hadn’t heard from my friends I had a second beer. By the time I finished that one it was starting to get dark so the shop keeper and I agreed I should go there anyway because the area I needed to walk through was a bit dodgy in the dark. I found the Airbnb they were staying at and the neighbours came out and told me it was dangerous to be standing out in the street by myself. Fortunately my friends turned up as we were having the discussion. There was an older german couple on big bikes with them that were also crossing the border the next day. We had a nice evening around a small fire in their accommodation and then I took an uber back to my hotel.

Next morning I was packed early and decided to double check that I had everything in order for my first motorbike border crossing. There is a popular app called iOverlander which has all the up to date information about anything to do with overland travel. It’s continually updated by travellers with fresh information about all different types of relative travel stuff. Some guy had crossed the same border last week and so I read his post. He said it was a simple crossing. All he needed to do was show his passport and his yellow fever vaccination certificate. I had a wave of nausea.

I knew that not having my YF certificate was going to be a problem but not so soon. I had all sorts of things running around in my head. I had been thinking of a place in my shed in Broome where I might have put my certificate, so I made a late night call to my tenant to ask her to check for me. If she could find it and send me a photo, then I might be able to bluff my way through. No luck. It wasn’t there. It was a low moment. Despite my brain being in overdrive I thought that I need to go to church.

Not any church but the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Rosary of Las Lajas which is a well known church about 15 minutes away. The site had been a pilgrimage destination since the 16^th century. At some stage some young deaf mute child saw an image of the Virgin of Rosa on a rockface and then suddenly she was able to speak. Over the centuries a church and then a series of renovations created quite an impressive piece of architecture in a difficult location in a canyon. It was very popular and even in the early morning there were lots of people walking down the long path of steps to visit the church.

I had taken my own advice and did the ATTGATT thing when I rode there and so had to walk down the long path and steps in my motorbike boots. I’m sure pilgrims did it tougher. I admired the building and its rugged location and then my mind returned to my current YF certificate problem. I headed back to the hotel, packed my bag, fuelled up and headed to the border. Getting out of Colombia was pretty easy. I just needed to make sure that I had a 530 Form so that I could bring the bike back into the country when I return. You need to check yourself out first and then your bike.

The border was swarming with money changers happy to exchange your excess pesos for $US which is the currency of Ecuador. The Ecuador border is very close to the Colombian one and you could have easily have driven through but that would just cause problems latter on. But I did consider it. And it wasn’t off the cards. I stole a photo of the border off the Canadians.

I had to queue up for about an hour before I got to the immigration window. I was busy studying each of the three immigration officers and wondering which one I would get. I also thought if I got rejected then I could go away for a few hours and try again with a different person. I got the guy. And he seemed friendly. He didn’t ask about my YF certificate and I didn’t mention it. In fact the whole thing only took a few minutes and I was out of there with a 90 day visa stamped into my passport.  The feeling of relief was overwhelming. I was so happy.

I then had to go to the window to get the Temporary Import Permit (TIP) for my bike. It took a little while and I signed a few things and she took photos of my bike etc and sent me an email with a code or something which she copied down and gave my bike 90 days as well. And we were free to go.

The other guys had passed through the border earlier and were staying at a place called Finca Sommerwind which was run buy a german expat called Hans. I had goggled it and the accommodation was well above my budget but there was camping. I didn’t feel like camping but the place had a nice feel to it. Hans offered me a night in one of the tiny houses for $45AUD which was a great discount and I was happy to accept and stay the night with the others and have a couple of beers and some german food and wind down from my stressful day.

Next morning I was up early and took advantage of the nice german bread and had some eggs on toast. I’d finished breakfast and was ready to leave when the others rocked up. I said my goodbyes and we agreed to catch up in Quito. The capital of Ecuador. It was only 126kms and a couple of hours away.  The scenery was great. The roads wider and smother than in Colombia and the thing I noticed most was the lack of motorbikes. This caused a bit of a problem as I needed to be able to follow local bikes so I could learn which rules were fine to break and which ones weren’t. There were still the strong winds that I’d hoped to leave behind in Colombia. And also the deep gutters on the sides of the roads which make it difficult to pull over to take photos and scary when you have to move to the edge. especially when it’s windy.

I stopped off at a nice lookout to get some pictures of the rugged gorges. There was a lady and her son there selling drinks, so I bought one and as we were chatting a huge gust of wind came up the gully and blew my bike over. It embedded a few little stones into my handgrip and flipped one side of my visor lens off, but it was easily fixed. I was just grateful that it didn’t break a mirror or brake lever. Or my helmet.

I rode the last bit of the trip on mainly city roads and ended up at the Hotel Atlantis. I’d booked in for one night at $17AUD and thought I’d check around the next day for a better option as I planned to spend a few days in Quito. First impressions are important, and I thought Quito seemed really nice.