Where are we...


13th July 2007 - Popayan, Colombia
A great deal of time has passed since our last report - and a great deal has happened too. Arriving in Popayan, we immediately fell in love with the colonial buildings and warm welcome. Combined with this, both Kim and myself felt that there was a gaping hole in the backpacker market and certainly room for a new hostel. Not wanting to make any quick decisions, we continued with our original itinerary by visiting the archeological sight of San Agustin - containing mysterious stone sculptures which people can only make assumptions as to their origins. During this time, we were warmly received at both El Maco and El Jardin hostels.

Returning back to Popayan with the knowledge that San Agustin has what's required to pull in backpackers, we were confident enough to make steps to secure a building in the centre of Popayan which would hopefully function as both a base for the hosteltrail project as well as a backpacker guesthouse. Over the following six weeks, we also made several trips back to Ecuador which gave us the time required to fully plan both the hostel and the future of the hosteltrail project. We have now signed up new writers for the project who are on the road as we speak and our Central America section is growing every week with a view to going live in a fortnight or so.

I also made a trip down to Peru recently to visit some friends from back home and we enjoyed a four day jungle trip from Iquitos out to Nauta. Despite the outrageous mosquito activity and over-excited piranhas not to mention a total of 104 hours on buses to get there - a good time was enjoyed by all.

Another stroke of bad luck reared it's ugly head in June however and this resulted in the theft of all our camera equipment. Luckily our insurance was quick to act and replaced our loss although it is now on the other side of the ocean in the UK which is something of an inconvenience to say the least.

Now after weeks of buying beds, fridges, TV's, computers, linen, electric showers, internet routers etc. - we are now happy to announce that HostelTrail Guesthouse is officially open and ready to receive. With a selection of rooms available from singles, doubles, twins and dorm beds we hope that we have a firm footing in Colombia and a base which will allow us to continue expanding the hosteltrail project.