The amazing Santuario Las Lajas near Ipiales. Apparently someone a few years back was walking home from the pub and saw an image of Mary on the wall of this deep gorge. So naturally they built a cathedral inside the gorge, with the rock face where Mary was seen forming the back wall.
Rural public transport in Colombia, the chiva. These brightly painted, wooden buses can negotirate the steepest, muddiest, roughest roads you'll ever see. Quite handy if you're trying to ride up a steep, muddy road in the rain.
There was a recent referendum in Ecuador over changes to the constitution that will make for a fairer society. It was overwhelmingly supported, though rich landowners opposed it so much that they turned the walls of their haciendas into political billboards. 
While indigenous farmers were in favour.
Australia has giant fruits along its highways. Ecuador has prehistoric animals.
El Angel's Millenium Monument.
Climbing up to El Angel Ecological Reserve, at this point I was starting to struggle for breath and still had another 100m to climb.
The extraordinary frailejones of the El Angel páramo (grassland). They have soft furry leaves (the locals call them rabbit ears) and flowers like small sunflowers. The whole area is a haven for wildlife, I saw wild rabbits, hummingbirds, owls and eagles. And the amazing thing was I had the whole place to myself (apart from the policeman in the ranger hut).
Glacial lake, the water was crystal clear but at 3,800m proably a bit cold for a swim.
In the clear dawn air you could see for miles in every direction, I think this is Volcán Chile, about 30km away.
Walking along the lakefront at dawn, I was startled to see this huge búho (prob. a Great Horned Owl) staring at me from its perch about 8m away and making a noise that sounded like a mix between a hoot and a gargle. It must have measured 0.5m head to tail.
Balmer - El Angel's maths teacher, taxista, bakery owner, photographer, and all-round nice guy - tries my bike out for size.
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