La Laguna de la Cocha is located about 25 kilometers from the southern town of Pasto, near the border with Ecuador.

To get there can take a collective taxi, I honestly do not remember the name of the company, but I will say it in your when you fill-together with your fellow travelers for about 17,000 pesos round trip. Never pay both legs at first because the return will do probably with a different driver that you will have to pay the amount to get back to grass.

The way to achieve it through as goats and takes about 40 minutes to go, but the sights, when you start down the slope and currency and the lagoon, are worthwhile.

The group will leave you very close to the pier, where you will see the colorful and attractive houses that populate the area. There are many and almost 100% has a dual role: family home or small hotel and restaurant. Almost all the inhabitants of this small living place of business with tourists and fishing. The restaurants offer menus based on fish, pasta and salads for a little more inflated prices in Pasto but remain very affordable, approximately 5 euros.

In the dock waiting for the men who lead the narrow and long motor boats that serve as taxis for visitors. The price is set at 20,000 pesos (about 7 euros in May 2009) and all will offer the service at the same rate to avoid unfair competition between them, so I chose depending on which I liked better at first glance: a abuelete named Miguel.

It was a cloudy day and soon began to drizzle mounted, taking refuge in the small awning of the boat but poking his head to see the landscape around me. The stillness was complete. When turned off the engine on the dock of the island botanical garden is in the middle of the lagoon, there was only the quack-quack of some ducks that were chasing ten meters from our boat.

A few meters from the wharf is the entrance to the botanical compound. You have to pay a nominal fee of 1,000 pesos and sign in the guestbook. It was nearly 2 pm and was the first-and perhaps the last-day visitor. I walked to my ball entirely on the path of timber they have created. The vegetation gives a nice color to the scene and at various points in the branches of the trees lining both sides of the road interlock to form arches that smother part of sunlight.

At the end of the promenade there is a viewpoint from which you can watch part of the lake and surrounding valley.

Making the roundtrip journey took me an hour going very smoothly and stopping to take several photos.

There is little else to do out there on a rainy day during the week but Miguel told me that the place became very lively during the weekends, when entire families of Colombians decided to spend the whole day there.

Located in southwestern Colombia, St. Augustine is famous for being one of the bases used to visit the large number of pre-Columbian sculptures that are in the valleys of the area.

It is a quite tiny, as little as 30,000 inhabitants, with a temperature quite pleasant throughout the year, around 20 degrees and half-lives, especially in tourism revenues and the ecological and archaeological culture and the work of their land green.

The people are exceptionally friendly, as usual throughout the country “and you find many tips on San Agustin Archaeological Park and other tourist options in talks with the premises without having to go head to travel agencies that populate the streets adjacent to the town square. Once you have done you a general idea of the area and what options you want to do, and will be ready to grope prices for agencies.

As for lodging, but I think there is a small area in the hotel, I stayed in a family house. Not that I would see any guide or go with references to another person, but got out of the rickety van that brought us from Popayan bounced by more than 7 hours, the man who picked us up at the cross roads to take us to St. Augustine said the option. I went with an English couple who also were eager to go stumbling around looking for accommodation for the people-well-so I accept it rained and we ended up in the house of Louis.

Luis is a family man and lives at home with his wife, daughter and grandmother. The rooms are very new and well cared for and the price-flexible, so I could see later-is very acceptable for mid-season, 14,000 pesos a night. Although he had paid less in some places here have private bathroom and television and the truth is that the family is good people, so I decided to spend the two nights I stayed there.

The income of this type are important to many families in the area, so I would advise you that I will stay this way rather than do more established hotels. Remember that then you can help these people and it will wear you an exquisite and good conversations about the places and people you meet.

To visit around the village you can choose to do so on foot, horseback or by jeep. For the latter two will inform you of prices and so on-as I said-in the tourist offices, but usually families that host tourists usually work with specific guidelines and you will comment on the possibility of doing with them.

Many people go to St. Augustine to relax because not only is the archaeological theme but is located in a beautiful area that allows taking it and enjoying tranquility of nature and peopling.

I stayed there a couple of nights and during the third bus trip to Bogota. I discuss in the next on the lively capital city.