Columbia was not what I expected. It was beautiful green rolling hills with country style houses. The drive up to Pasto (the city we were going to stay at) was on the edge of a large canyon with a beautiful river running through it. The city of Pasto has several beautiful colonial buildings. We stayed in a old building with wood floors and nice beds.
Next we headed to Laguna de la Cocha which featured a small town on the shore of a large lake. The town had a black water stream running through it and several taxi boats you could hire to take you out to a small island in the middle of the lake. The island is also a miniature cloud forest. The whole town was colorful, tiny, and beautiful. The place reminded me of Fantasyland at Disneyland.
We hired a taxi boat and took it out to the cloud forest island. We hiked around and saw the densest concentration of bromeliads I have ever seen. The trail was short but ended at a beautiful view of the lake.
Our next stop in Columbia was at the Santuario de las Lajas. At this sight in the late 1800's a giant rock stood up from the river bed 120 feet with the Virgin Mary's appearance on it. To celebrate the miracle, the Catholic Church built a beautiful church on bridge over the river as well. The back wall of the church is composed of the natural rock cliff and the miracle boulder, which now has the Virgin Mary painted on it. This was a fascinating site to see and the first time in my life I saw pigeons in a natural habitat, dwelling on cliff sides.
